From Newsgroup: uk.tech.broadcast

I have been watching the Antiques Roadshow repeats on BBC2 in the
afternoon. Interesting how sometimes I can remember an item from many
years ago but other times no memory at all!

I have noticed that in the indoor scenes, there seems a lot more
background than in recent programmes. Is this an improvement in
microphone design?




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From Newsgroup: uk.tech.broadcast

On 26/03/2026 15:33, JMB99 wrote:

I have been watching the Antiques Roadshow repeats
on BBC2 in the afternoon.a Interesting how
sometimes I can remember an item from many years
ago but other times no memory at all!

I have noticed that in the indoor scenes, there
seems a lot more background than in recent
programmes.a Is this an improvement in microphone
design?

No.

How old were the episodes you watched?
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From Newsgroup: uk.tech.broadcast

On 01/04/2026 07:41, I wrote:

No.

How old were the episodes you watched?

Mics haven't changed. post production processes
have, dramatically.

I worked on the Roadshow when it first started,
both on the OB and the post production stage (I
mixed/dubbed a fair few of them).

Back in the early 1980s Bristol had nothing
similar to a Sifer(sp?) suite. We used sepmag, 10
o'clock timecode and a low-band U-matic to sweeten
the VT edit.

VT couldn't realistically track-lay for us, all we
got was prog sound on the sepmag centre track, and
timecode on the edge track. 10 o'clock was our
sync point, as you can hear the transition very
easily, so you just need a marker pen, not a film
leader.

The timecode drove the U-matic with the picture on
it. Levels were well controlled, first by the
Sound Supervisor at the OB, and then in VT - we
had to tidy the junctions between items and
occasionally necessary edits that had something
nasty on the soundtrack.

Everybody knew that wildtrack was necessary.
Usually it originated in VT and arrived on 1/4".
Just occasionally it would be hand-delivered by
the SS from the OB, who had anticipated a
post-production issue.

We originally only hsd two record-capable sepmag
transports, but it was possible to dump w/t to
sepmag and lock it, so at least you could do an
audio drop in on it if necessary.

Layback to VT also tied up a TK channel (needed
the sound follower).

I remember recording over the original layoff to
get the sound back to VT, but I can't remember
exactly why - pre-striped timecode was usually
used on the recorder in any case.

The system was gloriously named "SEDUCT"
("Synchronizing Equipment for Dubbing to U-matic
Cassette Tape"). My old friend Peter Copeland ran
a competition to name it and Moira Mann won it,
hands down.

It wasn't just used on the Roadshow, but it was
pretty limited. Drama was usually shot on film,
but if electronic, it would still go to a proper
Sifer suite at TC. And once digits arrived it
became far easier for VT, and then digital editing
software to tracklay it properly, but that's after
my time in the Beeb.
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From Newsgroup: uk.tech.broadcast

On 02/04/2026 10:52, SimonM wrote:

On 01/04/2026 07:41, I wrote:

No.

How old were the episodes you watched?

Mics haven't changed. post production processes have, dramatically.

I worked on the Roadshow when it first started, both on the OB and the
post production stage (I mixed/dubbed a fair few of them).

Back in the early 1980s Bristol had nothing similar to a Sifer(sp?)
suite. We used sepmag, 10 o'clock timecode and a low-band U-matic to
sweeten the VT edit.

I'm surprised that mikes haven't changed. I'd have thought that during
the lifetime of Antiques Roadshow, camera and mike technology would have changed quite a few times - both the mike heads and the comms to the
scanner (wired, then later on wireless).

Was the need for sepmag or similar technology needed because the sound
mix between presenter's/owner's mikes and ambient bystanders' "gasps of amazement" was not done live during recording in the scanner and was
instead deferred until final programme editing? Was it essentially
providing the equivalent of a multi-audio-track VT?

When did stereo VT formats start being used? Was the crosstalk between L
and R good enough to use them for completely separate mike channels, to
allow for post-recording sound mixing (albeit a maximum of two mikes),
as opposed the more normal usage of L and R of the same mike or sound mix?

Has Antiques Roadshow always used personal mikes for the presenters and antiques owners (as opposed to general bystanders' ambient sound)? Or
did they ever use boom mikes in earlier programmes? I can remember ages
ago going to an episode in Aylesbury when Angela Rippon was presenting
the programme, and somewhere I have a photo that I took of my parents
and me standing in the background, photographed off the TV screen from a paused VHS recording - back in the days before stills or short video
clips could be grabbed from a computer recording and kept for posterity.


I've always wondered what technology was used for other "recorded as
live" programmes such as Treasure Hunt. In that case you've got radio
comms (for sound only) from skyrunner to comms helicopter to receiving
truck to studio, and then you've got the problem of mixing studio sound
and location sound so neither drowns out the other. I've always wondered whether someone (eg the cameraman or video recordist) provided a private verbal report of what the skyrunner was doing and where the helicopter
was: there were times when Wincey in the studio seemed to know what was
going on before Anneka said so. In those days, GPS wouldn't have been possible. On a related note, when the programme was rebooted with Suzi
Perry, the cameraman (who by then had an all-in-one camcorder, so no
second person with a U-Matic was needed) was accompanied by a sound
recordist with a hairy Dougal on a pole. Was that sound actually used to provide extra ambience and for the voices of bystanders when Suzi asked
their help?


Are radio mike always analogue (to avoid latency) or are there any mikes
that use low-latency links to a location sound recordist, to provide a
more rugged link that isn't so prone to interference from badly designed
taxi radios etc? I remember going to watch some scenes of (Inspector)
Lewis being filmed and there were occasions when the sound recordist had
to get a scene cut and restarted when he picked up "another f-ing taxi"
on one of the actor's personal mikes. ;-) One thing I noticed was that
there was an absence of clapperboards: presumably the sound recording equipment and the film camera had radio links for timecodes. Is there
any TV drama which is still shot on film rather than using video
cameras, as Lewis was?
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From Newsgroup: uk.tech.broadcast

On 02/04/2026 15:26, NY wrote:

low-latency links

Sorry, I missed out the word "digital" :-(
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From Newsgroup: uk.tech.broadcast

On 02/04/2026 15:26, NY wrote:

On 02/04/2026 10:52, SimonM wrote:

On 01/04/2026 07:41, I wrote:

No.

How old were the episodes you watched?

Mics haven't changed. post production processes
have, dramatically.

I worked on the Roadshow when it first started,
both on the OB and the post production stage (I
mixed/dubbed a fair few of them).

Back in the early 1980s Bristol had nothing
similar to a Sifer(sp?) suite. We used sepmag,
10 o'clock timecode and a low-band U-matic to
sweeten the VT edit.

I'm surprised that mikes haven't changed. I'd have
thought that during the lifetime of Antiques
Roadshow, camera and mike technology would have
changed quite a few times - both the mike heads
and the comms to the scanner (wired, then later on
wireless).

Was the need for sepmag or similar technology
needed because the sound mix between
presenter's/owner's mikes and ambient bystanders'
"gasps of amazement" was not done live during
recording in the scanner and was instead deferred
until final programme editing? Was it essentially
providing the equivalent of a multi-audio-track VT?

When did stereo VT formats start being used?

There's no such thing. Even 2" quad machines had
two audio tracks, and 1" VPR C-format had three.
IIRC Digibeta had four.

Only one of the Quad tracks was usable for audio,
and two of the 1" ones. The other was audio
(longitudinal) timecode, LTC.

IIRC, vertical interval code (VITC) first appeared
with hi-band U-mstic or Betacam recorders,
possibly 1". That got rid of the crosstalk
problem, anyway.

In the early 1980s we were transitioning to 1" and
later to digital, but we sent mono sound to the
transmitters. So it wasn't really a big deal.

You might split the mixer output to different
tracks, but it's hard to imagine why when you
could just mix it there and then. OK, I could see
some value in having a sync background atmosphere
track, but then there's the issue of where you'd
put that mic. You could boom the item, I suppose
(we didn't), but that's an extra person and
everything taking a bit longer for each item.

Incidentally, 2" quad machines also produced a
horrible buzz when insert editing, because the
video heads swept across the audio tracks. We
often had to patch or minimise that.

Was

the crosstalk between L and R good enough to use
them for completely separate mike channels, to
allow for post-recording sound mixing (albeit a
maximum of two mikes), as opposed the more normal
usage of L and R of the same mike or sound mix?

As I said, VT couldn't meaningfully tracklay for
Dubbing. That's what Syfer used to be for, albeit
to multitrack rather than sepmag. Dubbing's job
was to smooth over edits when VT couldn't.

On rare occasions things like musical boxes and
chiming clocks might be recorded separately
(because they were quiet).

Has Antiques Roadshow always used personal mikes
for the presenters and antiques owners

As far as I know, yes. I suspect they may use
fishing rods nowadays too for the 'audience': the
whole thing has grown in complexity since my day.

I can remember ages ago going to an episode in Aylesbury
when Angela Rippon was presenting the programme,

I was on that OB. By that time, circa 1981, we
were using special radio mic multipacks (nine
channels I think), which were rented from
Bettersound pre-tuned so they didn't interfere
with each other.

The sound assistant would get the people for the
next item rigged, while another one was being
recorded. Then the cameras would move. Rinse and
repeat. We had some excellent and kind stage
managers, who would rescue the mics from
presenters/experts and object owners.

I think there were probably only three or at most
four cameras at that Aylesbury gig: Link 120s and
possibly one Ikegami HL79D. You could do an item
with just two cameras, but three was preferred.
But you also needed a wide shot (in that case of
the hall, which I think was a school gym or similar).

Point being it was only one table/item being
recorded at a time, and vision mixed in the scanner.

I think it's far more complex these days - lots of
people working on it and multiple recordings
happening simultaneously.

I've always wondered what technology was used for
other "recorded as live" programmes such as
Treasure Hunt. In that case you've got radio comms
(for sound only) from skyrunner to comms
helicopter to receiving truck to studio, and then
you've got the problem of mixing studio sound and
location sound so neither drowns out the other.

It was an ITV show (Thames?) and the comms etc
were pretty complex I believe.

Are radio mike always analogue (to avoid latency)

They're digital these days, which must be a great
blessing for those using them. It would have
happened anyway, but one reason is that analogue
takes up too much radio spectrum, which can be a
revenue stream for governments. The three
licence-exempt channels around 174.1 MHz are still
available for analogue use I _think_, but there's
a lot of interference (and only three channels).

One

thing I noticed was that there was an absence of
clapperboards: presumably the sound recording
equipment and the film camera had radio links for
timecode.

You don't need a link for time code - that's the
whole point of it. It's ubiquitous now - I can
even jam-sync my Canon mirrorless camera, simply
by feeding LTC (i.e. audio timecode) into one of
its audio inputs. That done, it will stay within a
frame or so of the original source for several hours.

By the way, one reason I remember Aylesbury is
that, very unusually, we had a 2kW bulb blow in a
TV lamp. It was quite loud and spectacular as it
smashed the Fresnel lens on the front. I think it
was in the afternoon as the hall was quieter.
Glass fell from the lamp, but I don't think anyone
was hurt.
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From Newsgroup: uk.tech.broadcast

On 02/04/2026 22:25, SimonM wrote:

On 02/04/2026 15:26, NY wrote:

I can remember ages ago going to an episode in Aylesbury when Angela
Rippon was presenting the programme,

I was on that OB. By that time, circa 1981, we were using special radio
mic multipacks (nine channels I think), which were rented from
Bettersound pre-tuned so they didn't interfere with each other.
By the way, one reason I remember Aylesbury is that, very unusually, we
had a 2kW bulb blow in a TV lamp. It was quite loud and spectacular as
it smashed the Fresnel lens on the front. I think it was in the
afternoon as the hall was quieter. Glass fell from the lamp, but I don't think anyone was hurt.

I think it was in the Civic Centre, a concert hall in the centre of town
which has since been demolished (not sure what's there now) and a new
theatre has been built nearby. I remember seeing Gervase Phinn (the
school inspector) giving a hilarious talk there once. 1981 for the
Antiques Roadshow sounds about right. I think it was around the time I
took my A levels, which was in 81.

An exploding lamp sounds pretty spectacular, especially if it took out
the Fresnel, because those are thick lumps of glass. There's a clip on
Youtube of Jan Leeming reading the news when a lamp blew: she jumped a
bit but carried on without any hesitation. When I helped with the
lighting of school plays, we had a lamp explode during a performance
with a hell of a bang (during a tender love scene IIRC!) and we had to
hastily rewrite the lighting script to use other lamps to cover for the
dead one.

I suppose the hardest halls to light are those where daylight is coming
in, so you have to put gels over the lamps and white-balance the cameras
for daylight. The old "Pebble Mill at One" problem: the amount of light
that they'd have needed so the inside was as bright as the outside seen through the windows must have been phenomenal.
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From Newsgroup: uk.tech.broadcast

SimonM <somewhere@large.in.the.world> wrote:

[...]

They're digital these days, which must be a great
blessing for those using them. It would have
happened anyway, but one reason is that analogue
takes up too much radio spectrum, which can be a
revenue stream for governments. The three
licence-exempt channels around 174.1 MHz are still
available for analogue use I _think_, but there's
a lot of interference (and only three channels).

There are actually five analogue channels:

173.800 Mc/s
174.100 Mc/s
174.500 Mc/s
174.800 Mc/s
175.000 Mc/s

Because so few people use them nowadays, they are pretty clear most of
the time.
--
~ Liz Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk
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From Newsgroup: uk.tech.broadcast

On 03/04/2026 10:40, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

SimonM <somewhere@large.in.the.world> wrote:

[...]

They're digital these days, which must be a great
blessing for those using them. It would have
happened anyway, but one reason is that analogue
takes up too much radio spectrum, which can be a
revenue stream for governments. The three
licence-exempt channels around 174.1 MHz are still
available for analogue use I _think_, but there's
a lot of interference (and only three channels).

There are actually five analogue channels:

173.800 Mc/s
174.100 Mc/s
174.500 Mc/s
174.800 Mc/s
175.000 Mc/s

Because so few people use them nowadays, they are pretty clear most of
the time.

What frequencies are used for analogue wireless headphones? Is it the
same channels? The Sony headphones that I have can be set to one of
three different frequencies. Once when the base unit was turned off (so
it was not transmitting on any of those frequencies), the AGC in the headphones wound up the gain and picked up sporadic transmissions from a
local fairground which must have been using a radio mike. It was weird
to hear the sound through the headphones a couple of seconds before the distant sound through the air.
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From Newsgroup: uk.tech.broadcast

NY <me@privacy.net> wrote:

On 03/04/2026 10:40, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

SimonM <somewhere@large.in.the.world> wrote:

[...]

They're digital these days, which must be a great
blessing for those using them. It would have
happened anyway, but one reason is that analogue
takes up too much radio spectrum, which can be a
revenue stream for governments. The three
licence-exempt channels around 174.1 MHz are still
available for analogue use I _think_, but there's
a lot of interference (and only three channels).

There are actually five analogue channels:

173.800 Mc/s
174.100 Mc/s
174.500 Mc/s
174.800 Mc/s
175.000 Mc/s

Because so few people use them nowadays, they are pretty clear most of
the time.

What frequencies are used for analogue wireless headphones? Is it the
same channels?

I don't know but I would imagine they were under the same restrictions
as wireless microphones.
--
~ Liz Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk
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