Proms TV coverage for 2019

[french frank]

Put out to tender, and won by "Livewire Pictures":

The contract covers TV coverage of the Proms in 2019 and 2020 and includes:

A minimum of 24 BBC Proms concerts including;
- 22 concerts on BBC Four
- First Night of the Proms on BBC Two
- Last Night of the Proms on BBC Two and BBC One including the performance capture of Proms in the Park but does not include the capture for the BBC Proms events in the Nations
Full capture of Proms in the Park and the Radio 2 Festival in a Day for the BBC’s digital and online platforms (via BBC Red Button, the BBC iPlayer and the Radio 2 website)
Seven weekly critical review shows, currently known as Proms Extra on BBC Two

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2019/proms-tender

[edashtav]

I had not heard of Livewire Pictures.
I've found this:
Livewire Pictures

Livewire Pictures was launched in Spring 2018, as a co-venture between Hat Trick Productions, talent agent Anita Land and MD Guy Freeman. The team specialises in creating and producing entertainment formats, music programming, live events and everything in between.

ex- BBC employee, Guy Freeman, seems to be at the heart of the new organisation.

[Pulcinella]

I had not heard of Livewire Pictures.
I've found this:
Livewire Pictures

Livewire Pictures was launched in Spring 2018, as a co-venture between Hat Trick Productions, talent agent Anita Land and MD Guy Freeman. The team specialises in creating and producing entertainment formats, music programming, live events and everything in between.

ex- BBC employee, Guy Freeman, seems to be at the heart of the new organisation.

Let's hope that they've got a bit more experience than a certain recently engaged (by HMG) ferry company, who seemed to specialize in delivering food, if I recall correctly!

[Bryn]

Put out to tender, and won by "Livewire Pictures":

The contract covers TV coverage of the Proms in 2019 and 2020 and includes:

A minimum of 24 BBC Proms concerts including;
- 22 concerts on BBC Four
- First Night of the Proms on BBC Two
- Last Night of the Proms on BBC Two and BBC One including the performance capture of Proms in the Park but does not include the capture for the BBC Proms events in the Nations
Full capture of Proms in the Park and the Radio 2 Festival in a Day for the BBC’s digital and online platforms (via BBC Red Button, the BBC iPlayer and the Radio 2 website)
Seven weekly critical review shows, currently known as Proms Extra on BBC Two

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/la...9/proms-tender

ANy idea who will be handling the audio for Radio 3 broadcasts from the Proms? Whoever it is, I hope it is made clear to them that Radio 3 audio engineering should not incorporate dynamic compression or require dynamic limiter intervention. We do not want a repetition of the mess made of the early Proms of 2011 in this regard.

[edashtav]

ANy idea who will be handling the audio for Radio 3 broadcasts from the Proms? Whoever it is, I hope it is made clear to them that Radio 3 audio engineering should not incorporate dynamic compression or require dynamic limiter intervention. We do not want a repetition of the mess made of the early Proms of 2011 in this regard.

Hear, hear

[french frank]

Livewire Pictures was launched in Spring 2018, as a co-venture between Hat Trick Productions, talent agent Anita Land and MD Guy Freeman. The team specialises in creating and producing entertainment formats, music programming, live events and everything in between.

ex- BBC employee, Guy Freeman, seems to be at the heart of the new organisation.

That seems like par for the course. Ex-BBC employees are often behind the indy companies subsequently employed by the BBC.

Bryn - The press release says 'The Proms coverage on Radio 3 is not impacted by this tender.' But I suppose it could be impacted by a different tender about which we know nothing …

[jayne lee wilson]

ANy idea who will be handling the audio for Radio 3 broadcasts from the Proms? Whoever it is, I hope it is made clear to them that Radio 3 audio engineering should not incorporate dynamic compression or require dynamic limiter intervention. We do not want a repetition of the mess made of the early Proms of 2011 in this regard.

The 2018 season went pretty well at 320 kbps aac technically - wasn't that in-house? Not sure.
But I guess the return of lossless is too much to hope for.....a poignantly-recalled one-off in 2017.... keep dreaming, and keep mentioning....

[oddoneout]

Let's hope that they've got a bit more experience than a certain recently engaged (by HMG) ferry company, who seemed to specialize in delivering food, if I recall correctly!

There is experience of putting on TV shows. Whether that experience is appropriate for staging the Proms is another matter.....

https://www.hattrick.co.uk/

Let's hope the other part of the 'co-venture' is a bit more relevant.

[french frank]

Let's hope the other part of the 'co-venture' is a bit more relevant.

I doubt any production company has 'relevant experience' unless they've already televised the Proms. Here's the man behind Livewire:

http://www.musicweek.com/media/read/guy-freeman-exits-bbc-to-launch-livewire-pictures/071077

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

a proven creative leader with an unrivalled track record in big entertainment shows

... oh, well, no worries.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

ANy idea who will be handling the audio for Radio 3 broadcasts from the Proms? Whoever it is, I hope it is made clear to them that Radio 3 audio engineering should not incorporate dynamic compression or require dynamic limiter intervention. We do not want a repetition of the mess made of the early Proms of 2011 in this regard.

Quite so. Only yesterday, I switched on CFM for research purposes. Listeners were treated to a movement of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet with extreme pumping, brought about by excessive dynamic compression. I can see no justification whatsoever for sound compression in a chamber work of this kind.

[LMcD]

a proven creative leader with an unrivalled track record in big entertainment shows

... oh, well, no worries.

A careful choice of words! Fort William have an unrivalled record in the Highland League.

[jayne lee wilson]

Quite so. Only yesterday, I switched on CFM for research purposes. Listeners were treated to a movement of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet with extreme pumping, brought about by excessive dynamic compression. I can see no justification whatsoever for sound compression in a chamber work of this kind.

It is simply to make it louder, more easily audible/tuneable (no pps or ffs) in cars and on portable or table-top radios (which latter is how I always take CFM); as always; not really designed for hifi/separates listening at any volume. .... Radio 3FM tends toward the same-only-less-so. Back in the day, Radio 3 evening relays (after Optimod was switched off) could even sound a little distant or hissy, on a "transistor radio". You had to go the whole hog with a sizeable roof aerial feeding a dedicated tuner, and (despite much BBC advice available) many people weren't prepared to do that, so....

I would love to hear relatively-uncompressed FM on R3 again, but it isn't going to happen... just keep praying for lossless webcasting to return. DRC on webcast/digital seems unjustifiable, yes... unfortunately it can still make portable/in-car/smallscale etc listening easier or at least more audible. There was some implementation of user-adjustable DRC in some DAB designs (including my long-abandoned Arcam Alpha 10) but I don't think this was offered in many later on.

DAB+ could bring about the resurrection of the "hifi tuner" as a standalone component, but poor old GB lags behind there...

[oddoneout]

Radio 3FM tends toward the same-only-less-so

Very very much less so in my experience! Much of the time I can't listen in the car as the contrasts are too great, and sometimes at home, depending on what's playing I need to be prepared to act - more so now I've replaced the worn out kit. Mind you I sometimes wonder why I bother to be so considerate of my neighbours when their child is screaming blue murder, or an early morning callout is accompanied by much internal banging and external door slamming.......I doubt my radio bothers them as it's only momentary but force of habit I suppose.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Quite so. Only yesterday, I switched on CFM for research purposes. Listeners were treated to a movement of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet with extreme pumping, brought about by excessive dynamic compression. I can see no justification whatsoever for sound compression in a chamber work of this kind.

One of the reasons CFM is so compressed is , or so Ive been told , that the compression is introduced at the transmission stage as a means of covering a wider area with a smaller range of transmitters.

In response to Bryn's post all FM broadcasts are both controlled and compressed . At the recording (or in the case of a CD show balancing ) stage lower levels will be manually raised and peak levels lowered by using faders . There may also be (hopefully ) subtle compression to stop excessive peak levels. Finally at the stage before transmission cruder limiters will be used to stop excessive peaks. It's to stop those cutting in- you can often hear them do so in a live relay - that so much effort is put into the original balance. If memory serves the dynamic range of a symphony orchestra is about 60- to 70 dB . That has to fit into a 40-50 dB FM broadcast range - might even be less these days.

As Jayne points out compression is also heavily used in broadcasts likely to listened to in car to prevent drivers doing too much volume adjustment. It's also very heavily used in movies and TV soundtracks . It is very wearing on the ear and is the scourge of contemporary broadcasting.