M2 - LO4 Investigating technologies for multiplatform radio broadcasting

 

Explain the processes and technologies involved in producing a radio broadcast

In this picture of the right, I can see a workstation and a mixing desk in the sound room. This is the BBC Radio 4 studio where you can see a radio show is going on in the background in the other room, behind the glass. The workstation is mainly used for the playout system but is also very useful for monitoring, audio logging, file sharing and other things as well. A mixing desk is useful because it controls the various programme sources and puts their audios together. In the other room there is more equipment such as headphones and microphones. The microphones are used to record the audio for the radio programme while the people wear the headphones so that they can hear themselves or their colleagues while recording.

A digital cartwall is a jingle player that’s easy to use that provides multiple pages of instant audio buttons ready for quick playback or loading in a jingle. A digital cartwell is software that is used to put different sound effects or jingles into the radio show or radio stream. For example in a radio show the digital cartwell can be used to implement the main theme song or a quick chime. Many different people in the radio show, for example people behind the glass mirror like the producers or people can use a digital cartwell like the hosts or presenters can use them, as they will know the timing more accurately for different jingles. The digital cartwell is used on the computer so the sound engineers can add all the jingles that are needed and can play them throughout or the producers can play them whenever needed.

A playlist is a list of songs chosen for the day’s programme where they will have to fit those certain amount of songs within a limited time - the duration of their programme.  In this screenshot on the right you can see the playlist of songs that are most commonly used throughout the entirety of the BBC Radio 4. This playlist was found on the website “media.info” these are probably the most popular songs whenever that playlist was released. BBC does this to then attract more people, so then more people listen to the radio shows. These songs can be listened to on Spotify, which then people recognise the songs on the radio shows and then listen to the radio shows which increases the listening figures for BBC Radio 4. This is a smart strategy from BBC Radio 4 which can increase how many people listen to the radio shows.

 

In this picture on the right is a digital playout system in a BBC radio 4 studio where they record the radio drama “The Archers”. A digital playout system is an automation and play-out system, including the video & TS capture, editing, storage and management, query
, broadcasting and supervision functions, which helps operators to manage plenty of programs more effectively. BBC radio 4 uses these playout systems to broadcast their radio shows, these use these to put on air or off air different shows. The playout systems are very useful to lower latency and timing to be the quickest possible, so that the show is live and there is no delay between the real life talking of the show and when it is listened to on the radio.