Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Recently STAGETEC Asia has collaborated with Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) to equipped engineers with a professional training program – “All Sound Aspects to a TV Live Entertainment Show” which exclusively focused on Live Sound Production. The training was held on the 9th – 11th of March for three consecutive days at RTM, to discuss more in depth about live sound production possibilities and its capabilities.
Earlier, the training is planned by STAGETEC Senior Technical Director, Mr. Leong Tong Sing and Program Trainer or known as STAGETEC International Consultant, Mr Jean-Paul Moerman in developing and providing maximum beneficial inputs and eventually addressing the common problems or weaknesses in the live sound production environment.
Puan Faraza Mahmood, Deputy Director of RTM Studio Program were hoping for STAGETEC Asia to highlight and share the latest technology involving live sound production. By having the training, RTM were able to follow the current technology standards in producing contents for the TV shows.
The course began with a basic introduction theory in mixing techniques such as mastering microphone and speaker and understanding the type of mixing consoles according to its purposes; FOH, MON and Recording. Additionally, students are given out a chance to test out sound system equipment to indicate a quick and best maintenance solution for all sound engineers.
The training sessions continued to discuss on audio levelling and loudness control management where they were exposed to audio loudness technology standards; ITU/RSB-1170 and EBU/ R128. Subsequently, RTM were able to imply those audio formats in accordance to standard set by the Broadcasters.
Other than that, crucial topics were discussed on the AOIP technology and broadcast IP Standards. Heading off with Dante and Ravenna formats, passing over AES67, SMPTE 2110 was discussed. Specifically the audio formats SMPTE 2110-30/31 as the actual broadcast formats for audio transport.
The highlights of the training, participants were able to test out the versatility and flexibility of the ‘STAGETEC Crescendo with 40 faders’ mixer which located at the grand ‘Auditorium Perdana’ in RTM. The demonstrations and hands-on activity given them more opportunity to discover further on mixing applications techniques such as equalizer, filter compression, gate/expander and sound effects. Using of an SPL meter to evaluate level settings, proper playback and evaluation of the PA-system. By using the SPL meter as a constant indicator as not exceed safety standards. Keeping the audience comfortable and as a result keeping excessive spill out of the broadcast mix. The results from the hands-on activity, participants were able to evaluate and fathom that STAGETEC system are endless and fully functioning across AOIP format and this would give them more advantages to apply on the live sound productions in the future.
As an overall, the 3-days training has succeeded brushing up the necessary technical and practical skills among the participants. However, executing a live broadcast program requires more than just equipment skills and knowledge. It requires creativity and wise judgement among TV crews and engineers which could only obtain by extensive working experiences. Therefore, by implementing a robust training like this, it could improve engineer’s performance and increase their work productivity in the long run.
