The VU (Volume Meter) show the levels of sound in the studio. The sound is measured in dB (Decibels) The VU meter makes it easy to find the right level. When a member of the talent is speaking you want them to on the highest possible level with out distorting the sound. You can always tell by the VU meter as the it you by colour if its the the green it good levels, amber you peaking just a little to high and if your in the red the sound is too high and will be distorted. You have to be alert and be have flexibility to adjust when they change their volume of there voice. the ideal level to use is around -8dB and -18dB so their is room to go louder or quieter depending on if and when the talent gets louder.

My Final Job Audio Desk

The audio desk was main role in the second half of the live show. I was in charge of changing the levels of the talent and the host making sure they did peak on the VU meter, also controling the sound to the studio floor of DVD inserts. I was confident in doing this but it was hard to control levels as the the voices was not Consistent therefore i had to try and predicdit the levels. Watching my performace back you can see there was many mistakes made and that the talents projection of there voice was defintly not consistent. If i get the chance to go on audio desk again i would try to get more practice with the talent and double check on all mic's.

Health & Safety

If there is an emergancy there are rules that have to be followed.

If the fire alarm sound or there is a fire in the studio we have to leave calm but quicky through the double doors on the studio floor, or by the single door in the audio room. and go down the corridor to the fire exit and wait by the road.

If there is an evacuation or emergancy on the studio floor, the floor manger is in charge and have to take orders from him/her.

The Director is in charge of getting everybody out of the Audio and Vision Mixing Room.

The set has to be checked before filming, lights checked, flats have been screwed down.

Signal Paths

As you can see from the diagram there is two singal paths line and mic singnals. Line level is a much stronger singal (1 volt) and mic is much weaker (milly volt). Line and mic singnals come from different sources. Firstly the Line level will come from any sort of soundtrack for example a theme tune for a quiz show or a clip of music. The Mic level comes from a stob box which is received any sort if microphone, Both of these audio sound clips and vioces are put through the sound desk in analogue. The CD play is digital but contains a D.A.C (Digital to analogue converter), this is so you dont complicate it. Once the soud has been through the audio desk at the right levels it can be recorded on a HDD (Hard Disk Drive) in digital. This makes the audio recording solid so if copy's are made the quality will not drop. On the studio side of the wall we are able to have up to five different cameras on the stob box and 12 mic inputs.

CANS

Communication is the most important thing when making a live TV show. In a studio we communicate by using cans which are like having walkie talkies, Cans allows you to hear the director at all times also you can hear other camera opperators, FM's, AFM's and audio desk. If there is any problem on the studio floor either the floor manager or any of the camera crew on cans is able to speak to the director and tell the director without moving. This is used in the professionally to keep everything running smoothly.

Studio Floor Plan

This diagram shows you a rough layout of the studio we will be using for our live show, as you can see. The audio control room and vision mixing room are smaller and at the back of the studio with sound proof walls in between. The audio control room has two people operating it a audio director and an audio assistant and a DVD operator, the vision mixing room has the director aswell as a assistant director and the vision mixer. The FM and AFM are on the studio floor and are encharge of running the floor, keeping everything up to date also relaying any infomation from director to the floor. Each camera is used by two people, a camera operator and an assisstant camera operator. Every body should be wearing Cans or can be able to listen to it.

Other Jobs I Done

I was involed in more than just the content on the pre production. I got stuck in with helping the desgin team move flats around and paint on several Occasions. I was also took on the task of Finalising the que cards for the host, along with alex and steph. This includied getting card and Laminates, printing and sticking the logo and question on each card then laminating each one. I helped put the set up and screw it together.