Studio Chain in a Typical AIR Station

STUDIO CHAIN IN A TYPICAL AIR STATION

Introduction
The broadcast of a programme from source to listener involves use of studios, microphones, announcer console, switching console, telephone lines / STL and Transmitter. Normally the programmes originate from a studio centre located inside the city/town for the convenience of artists. The programme could be either live or recorded. In some cases, the programme can be from OB spot, such as commentary of cricket match etc. Programmes that are to be relayed from other Radio Stations are received in a receiving centre and then sent to the studio centre or directly received at the studio centre through RN terminal/telephone line. All these programmes are then selected and routed from studio to transmitting centre through broadcast quality telephone lines or studio transmitter microwave/VHF links. A simplified block schematic showing the different stages is given in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1 Simplified block schmatic of broadcasting chain Ref. Drg.No:-STI(T)433,(DC185)

Studio Centre
The Studio Centre comprises of one or more studios, recording and dubbing room, a control room and other ancilliary rooms like battery room, a.c. rooms, switch gear room, DG room, R/C room, service room, waiting room, tape library, etc. The size of such a centre and the number of studios provided depend on the programme activities of the station. The studio centres in AIR are categorised as Type I, II, III and IV. The number of studios and facilities provided in each type are different. For example a type I studio has a transmission studio, music studio with announcer booth, a talks studio with announcer booth, one recording/dubbing room and a Read Over Room. Type II has one additional drama studio. The other types have more studios progressively.

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Broadcast Studio
A broadcast studio is an acoustically treated room. It is necessary that the place where a programme for broadcast purposes is being produced should be free of extraneous noise. This is possible only if the area of room is insulated from outside sound. Further, the microphone which is the first equipment that picks up the sound, is not able to distinguish between wanted and unwanted signals and will pick up the sound not only from the artists and the instruments but also reflections from the walls marring the quality and clarity of the programme. So the studios are to be specially treated to give an optimum reverberation time and minimum noise level. The entry to the studios is generally through sound isolating lobby called sound lock. Outside of every studio entrance, there is a warning lamp, which glows Red when the studio is ON-AIR. The studios have separate announcers booths attached to them where first level fading, mixing and cueing facilities are provided.

Studio Operational Requirements

Many technical requirements of studios like minimum noise level, optimum reverberation time etc. are normally met at the time of installation of studio. However for operational purposes, certain basic minimum technical facilities are required for smooth transmission of programmes and for proper control. These are as follows: Programme in a studio may originate from a microphone or a tape deck, or a turntable or a compact disc or a R-DAT. So a facility for selection of output of any of these equipments at any moment is necessary. Announcer console does this function. Facility to fade in/fade out the programme smoothly and control the programme level within prescribed limits. Facility for aural monitoring to check the quality of sound production and sound meters to indicate the intensity (VU meters). For routing of programmes from various studios/OB spots to a central control room, we require a facility to further mix/select the programmes. The Control Console in the control room performs this function. It is also called switching console. Before feeding the programmes to the transmitter, the response of the programme should be made flat by compensating HF and LF losses using equalised line amplifiers.(This is applicable in case of telephone lines only) Visual signalling facility between studio announcer booth and control room should also be provided. If the programmes from various studios are to be fed to more than one transmitter, a master switching facility is also required.

Mixing
As already mentioned, various equipments are available in a studio to generate programme as given below: Microphone, which normally provides a level of 70 dBm. Turntable which provides an output of 0 dBm. Tape decks which may provide a level of 0 dBm. CD and R-DAT will also provide a level of 0 dBm.

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The first and foremost requirement is that we should be able to select the output of any of these equipments at any moment and at the same time should be able to mix output of two or more equipments. However, as we see, the level from microphone is quite low and need to be amplified, so as to bring it to the levels of tape recorder/ tape decks. Audio mixing is done in following two ways: i) Required equipments are selected and then outputs are mixed before feeding to an amplifier. This is called low level mixing (Fig. 2). This is not commonly used now days.

Fig. 2 Low level mixing Ref. Drg.No:-STI(T)434,(DC186)

ii)

Low-level output of each equipment is pre-amplified and then mixed. This is called high level mixing. (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3 High level mixing Ref. Drg.No:-STI(T)434,(DC186) Low level mixing system may look economical since it requires one single pre-amplifier for all low level inputs, but quality of sound suffers in this system as far as S/N ratio is concerned.

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Noise level at the input of best designed pre-amplifier is of the order of 120 dBm and the output levels from low level equipment 70 dBm. In low level mixing, there is signal loss of about 10 to 15 dB in mixing circuits. Therefore, the S/N ratio achieved in low level mixing is 35 to 40 dB only. High level mixing system requires one pre-amplifier in each of the low level channels but ensures a S/N of better than 50 dB. All India Radio employs High level mixing.

Control Room
For two or more studios set up, there would be a provision for further mixing which is provided by a control console manned by engineers. Such control console is known as switching console. Broad functions of switching console in control room are as follows: Switching of different sources for transmission like News, O.Bs. other satellite based relays, live broadcast from recording studio. Level equalisation and level control. Quality monitoring. Signalling to the source location. Communication link between control room and different studios.

Audio block schematic of control room is shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5 Block Schematic of Control Room Ref. Drg.No:-STI(T)437,(DC189)

Master Switching Facility

If a single transmitter is to be supplied with a programme, facility for master switching is not required, however when many transmitters are simultaneously being supplied with different programmes or the programmes to be fed to a single transmitter is periodically changing, a switching facility becomes necessary and is provided by Master Switching Console. To understand the requirements of a Master Switching console, an example of feeding of two transmitters from any one of six sources is shown in the Fig. 10.

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Fig. 10 Master Switching Ref. Drg.No:-STI(T)436,(DC188)

Audio Amplifiers Used In All India Radio

The following are some of the audio amplifiers used in AIR. All these amplifiers are designed to have a frequency response within 1 dB from about 30 Hz to 10 KHz with respect to 1 KHz and a total harmonic distortion (THD) of less than 1% at maximum rated output power. Pre-Amplifier Pre-amplifier is the first amplifier in the broadcast chain. The output from a microphone or a pick up which is at very low level (-70 dBm) is fed to its input. The amplified signals obtained from this amplifier are given to the programme amplifier through a fader box or through a mixing console. The normal gain of this amplifier is about 50 dB. In some pre -amplifiers a variable gain between 40 to 50 dB is provided. A special feature of this amplifier is that the noise contributed by this is very low. Usually, an input transformer is provided at the input of the pre-amplifier. This input transformer has the tappings for 50,200 and 500 ohms input impedances. The tapping is selected so as to match with the output impedance of the microphone or pick up. It may be noted that in the Keltron Announcer Consoles, input impedance of the pre-amplifier is of a higher value (more than 1.5 K ohm). Programme Amplifier Programme amplifier provides second stage of amplification. The output obtained from the fader box or mixing console is fed to the input of this amplifier. The normal input level to this amplifier varies from -45to 20 dBm. This amplifier gives a maximum output of +27 dBm. It has a gain of 70 dB which is variable from 0 to 70 dB. The input and output impedance are usually 600 ohm. The output obtained from the programme amplifier is of a sufficiently high level and can be handled without the risk of picking up electrical noise. Monitoring Amplifier The output available from the programme amplifier is however, not enough to drive loudspeaker. Therefore, monitoring amplifiers are provided to boost these signals further. A part of the output signal from the programme amplifier is given to the monitoring amplifier. The output of the monitoring amplifier is usually fed to a monitoring bus for further feeding to the loudspeakers. A separate monitoring amplifier is used for a group of loudspeakers which are located in studios, control room, duty room and other selected places. Monitoring amplifiers of different wattage ratings are used in AIR. But 8 watt monitoring amplifier is very common.

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Normal input level to the monitoring amplifier is about -12 dBm in matching condition and 0 dBm in bridging condition. Matching input impedance is 600 ohms and bridging input impedance is 10 k ohms. Load impedance values of 8, 50 and 150 ohms are usually provided. Equalised Line Amplifiers The programmes are fed from the studios to the transmitter on special telephone lines. Underground cable is laid for these lines. At time, these lines can be ten to twenty kilometers long. The lines have resistance which causes some losses, reducing the strength of the signal. These also have some distributed capacitance and distributed inductance which cause greater losses at high and low frequencies. Thus, when a signal is transmitted over long lines, there is greater attenuation at high and low frequencies resulting in poor quality. For correcting this, equalised line amplifier is used. Equalised line amplifiers are amplifiers with adjustable gain and adjustable high and low frequency boost. These are used at the feeding end or at the receiving end or at both ends to provide the required gain and to give the required boost at high or low frequencies, thus providing flat response. This amplifier gives two outputs, one with low and high frequency equalisation for outgoing programme on telephone lines and a second unequalised output for monitoring. The normal input level is -20 dBm and the output level for both channels is +27dBm. The equalised output is capable of giving about 10 dB boost at 40 Hz with respect to 300 Hz and 20 dB boost at 10 KHz with respect to 1 KHz or about 25 dB with respect to 300 Hz. However equalised line amplifiers are not used when microwave system (STL) is used for feeding the programme to transmitter.

FACILITIES IN STUDIO CENTRE

Introduction
In addition to control room and studios, dubbing/recording rooms are also provided in a studio complex. Following equipments are generally provided in a recording/dubbing room : i) ii) iii) Console tape recorders Console tape decks Recording/dubbing panel having switches, jacks and keys etc.

The above equipments can be used for the following purpose For recording of programmes originating from any studio. For recording of programmes available in the switching consoles in control room. For dubbing of programmes available on cassette tape. For editing of programmes For mixing and recording of programmes

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