Broadcast Sound at This Year's Proms

[Petrushka]

After the many brickbats on here and elsewhere following the sound as broadcast on R3 from last year's Proms it is only fair that there should be praise for the engineers at Proms 2012.

All of the Proms I've heard so far (via Freeview on radio and TV) have been of the highest quality and it was fitting for Jonathan Swain to offer up his own praise after tonight's Prom (Philharmonia/Malkki). I haven't tried the HD stream yet as this was plagued by drop-outs etc last time I ventured so I gave up on it.

Are the enguneers the same as last year who have learnt how to cope with the RAH or did the BBC take steps after the adverse criticism? Does anyone know? Whatever the reason I'm very glad of it.

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, excellent sound this year, on HD as well... if you have trouble with that AAC/320 kbps stream, try accessing it through iTunes, where it is usually very stable, and consistently (much) more reliable than the R3 homepage feed. And it does give the best sound of any R3 platform, as even HiFiNews magazine has recently recognised, despite the age-old audiophile devotion to FM.

[johnb]

Since the 2009 Proms which had hugely bloated bass and a muddy sound in general I've always been apprehensive as the subsequent Proms (not have approached (not knowing what to expect) but the sound engineering this year is pretty good.

[OldTechie]

Like Petrushka, I thought Jonathan Swain's praise of the sound quality was fitting. It came over as a personal comment of appreciation, and not one of those over-the-top extreme and embarrassing plaudits that we have been receiving form certain commentators at the hall. He did mention the name of the person responsible as being "our own". I wonder whether the BBC has brought the staffing back in house?

Getting the best quality feed from the multiple options now offered is something I find tricky. Every route I have seems to have some problem! I think it's time to start a Receiving Radio 3 thread in the tech forum.

[BBMmk2]

I have noticed this to, re sound quality. Also on iplayer as well.Well done BBC! (did'nt think I would say that!!)

[harris_nr]

I'm curious about mic's last night - I saw a couple on tall poles not usually evident at the front Arena 'corners' facing the audience (proms 64 - Brahms/Lutoslowski-BPO/Rattle, and 65 - Django-Barker, Taylor).

Anyone know how these are used - in-house sound for the late night prom? (which was amp'd).

If they were in use for transmitted sound during either performance could anyone hear artifacts from the poles boinging backwards and forwards when prommers leaned or collided with them?! :-)

N.

[jayne lee wilson]

Like Petrushka, I thought Jonathan Swain's praise of the sound quality was fitting. It came over as a personal comment of appreciation, and not one of those over-the-top extreme and embarrassing plaudits that we have been receiving form certain commentators at the hall. He did mention the name of the person responsible as being "our own". I wonder whether the BBC has brought the staffing back in house?

Getting the best quality feed from the multiple options now offered is something I find tricky. Every route I have seems to have some problem! I think it's time to start a Receiving Radio 3 thread in the tech forum.

Quick tip if you have dropouts on the "HD Hi" feed from R3 website... I usually use the iTunes connection, always very stable till a couple of weeks ago it went over a cliff - dropouts all over the place. After some poking about in software/settings etc., no joy so I replaced the 3-year old adsl filter (the thing that separates your phone/internet wires at the main input) and - all is fine again.

So do check/replace that if you have trouble - and the slightly more expensive Pro High-Speed filters (ADSL nation etc.) seem to be a genuine improvement too.