BBC News Audio Quality

I've noticed in recent days the BBC News Channel has had very distorted audio, very obvious this morning when I watched between 00:15 and 01:00. Also right now two reports on the main BBC 1 bulletin have had distorted audio.
Have the Beeb done away with PPM meters, or does someone think they're only there to stick 'Post-Its' to !!

Probably something to do with the fact that they're not in the usual studio - both N6 and TC7 are out of action for maintenance and the News Channel and the national bulletins are coming from N9, the old World studio.

It has to be that. However I find it very shoddy that nothing has been done about it.

I've mentioned this already in the News Channel thread. The audio problem has been there since the move to N9. The sound quality is absolutely dreadful - particularly on the title sequence. They're clearly not bothered about it.

That's a bit of an assumption to make - unless you know what the fault is and how easy it would be to fix. It may be that they have no means of sorting the problem prior to returning to their normal studios.

Well noggin, like most people on here, all I can do is guess. For what it's worth, I don't think it's a terribly unfair assumption.

The fact of the matter is, that sound quality on the News Channel and BBC One bulletins has been poor for over a week. I listened to a BBC One news programme last night and during many of the reports, it sounded as if the speaker on my TV was knackered.

I would like to think that some sort of testing was carried out prior to the move to N9? Assuming that such testing was performed, then I can only surmise that someone decided that the sound quality was of an acceptable broadcast standard OR that it wasn't worth the money to fix it and they could probably get away with it, as this setup would only be in place for a short period.

As a viewer, I frankly don't give a toss about "what the fault is" or "how easy it is to fix". That's for the engineers. The fact of the matter is, the sound quality is unacceptable. When people I know who are not interested in such things start to complain about the dodgy sound quality, then I think we have a problem worth sorting.

I remember when BBC World used that studio, particularly one christmas in 2001, when you could barely the headline vamp in the background and that went on a few days, its not just the sound, even the cameras in there lack the sharpness which the usual studios has, its like they were never upgraded since 1997!

What if the problem would take over 12 hours to fix? Do you know for sure that it doesn't?

My problem with your statement is that you are making the assumption that :

Haven't rectified issue = Can't be bothered.


The studio that they are currently in is nearly 13 years old (and still running with much of its original kit), now used mainly as a back-up. It is currently being used as a back-up whilst the two main studios used by BBC One and the BBC News channel are out of action.

As Christmas/New Year is the only time of the year that studio/gallery maintenance that takes more than a weekend can be sensibly accommodated, there is probably a "least worst" decision being taken - a fortnight of less-than-ideal shows (many of which are shorter than normal) vs a year of less than ideal shows (if the maintenance in the main studios is not completed).

I have no idea what the current sound issues are - whether it is a fault in the sound desk, a configuration issue, or something more complicated (or much more simple - like a poorly set-up compressor/limiter), but without this knowledge I certainly wouldn't claim that I knew that they "Can't be bothered"...

The cameras almost certainly are of the same type (Philips LDK100s or similar) first used when the studio opened in 1997... (They are the same type used by ITN in their news studios, that were used in two other BBC studios until Barco walls were introduced, by EastEnders, and until recently by BBC London)

They may not have had much of a line-up though...

What's interesting is the 'key leakage' that I've seen for weeks on the Headline sequences, has still been there this last week on the N9 broadcasts. If you look carefully you can see a faint outline of the BBC News 'globe' graphic between each effect. That would imply they've not moved gallery, only studio ?

That "key leakage" has been there since the relaunch in the other studio as well... (Think the snapshots must have been copied over?) I think the clip and gain aren't quite right - so you see the first frame of the key (or the last) sequence when they cut to the ME bank.