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‘Heath & Safety’ as a regulatory notion impacts in a comedic manner on everyday life and serves as a light-hearted wrap-up for a news bulletin or as the mainstay of any series based on disgruntled citizens. Of course, Healthy & Safety regulations exist to protect us from dangerous situations that may develop if they are not adhered to and they’re also aimed at discouraging us from taking unnecessary or unreasonable risks. There is a subclause that says it exists to protect us all from idiots and to state the blindingly obvious as an institutional substitute for common sense.
Jesting aside, it is good to have a framework of sensible operational methods to dissuade those inclined to force a trainee up the scaffolding to ‘just twist that mic around a bit’ or indeed to dampen the earth spike with a call of nature. In truth, much of production sound is hazardous yet most of this falls outside the realm of Health & Safety rulings and that’s because so much of it is general public facing.
Now, I’m not talking about the sort of news coverage that is likely to find you shot at or where the coverage of an event exposes you to the extremes of climate. I’m talking about more mundane circumstances. You could imagine that the vuvuzela swarm might have stirred some to reach twitchingly for their ear protectors but there was no protection for the cameraman who found himself too close to the goal celebratory kissin’ and a-huggin’ fest of the Uruguayan players and got a right uppercut straight to the lens for his trouble. Neither does it prepare for the relatively rare but still painful taking-out of a running sideline microphone operator at a rugby match.
However, increasingly it is the spectators at events that are emerging as the hazard and so much of that is to do with the fact that they want to get into the frame. This petty sub-5 second claim to fame has become the bane of a lot of live events and takes all the skill of the cameramen and soundmen to ensure that viewing Maiden Aunts don’t splutter on their tea. As live sporting events go, the Tour de France coverage is about as difficult in this respect as it gets as it is, in effect. an endless stream of inane individuals clamouring for attention at the roadside. And it has got worse. What puzzles me is why a group of middle aged male so-called cycling fanatics would wait on a cold mountain side for the two race contenders for most of the day only to run alongside them dressed in bright green mankinis. Apart from making the sport look ridiculous, they, along with every other idiot who does the same, put the riders and the camera/soundmen in jeopardy of bringing them down. And it does happen.
My observation is that with the increase in reality and live type programming -- made to keep costs down and probably on a skeleton staff –- there’s going to be more of this unwelcome direct contact with the public. They are organised and determined. Broadcasting is getting more dangerous.
Zenon Schoepe
Editorial Director
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Dennis Baxter
He's an active and outspoken member of the audio for broadcast community and has played his part in making audio a better part of broadcast. He's also a columnist in Resolution magazine. ZENON SCHOEPE puts him through his paces. ...Change here for the next station...
Analogue to Digital conversion and a new regulatory framework means it's all change for UK commercial radio. NIGEL JOPSON explores the challenges ahead....Penteo upmixing for broadcast explained
The requirement for seamless and convincing upmixing of stereo to 5.1 has been thrown into sharp focus with HD. Penteo processing,claims to offer a simple and elegant solution. JOHN WHEELER and PATRICK GOODWIN of PenteoSurround give an explanatory overview of the technology....Soundfield UPM-1
The wider implementation of 5.1 in broadcast with HD brings with it the problem of how you integrate all that legacy stereo playback material. The answer, says ROB JAMES, is this stereo to 5.1 convertor....Allen & Heath XB-14
Compact and cost-effective can be a beautiful combination -- especially when built by Allen & Heath. HUGH ROBJOHNS tunes in to the XB-14 radio broadcast mixer....
