Before You Commission Audio Advice: A Checklist for Broadcast Teams
Priya Nair sets out the questions a producer or technical director should settle before hiring a sound consultant, from the audio chain and console choice to monitoring and crew handover.
Start with what the room has to do
Before anyone talks about consoles or microphones, write down what the space is actually used for. A news studio with two presenters and a guest bench asks very different things of its audio from a live event stage with a band, a presenter and an audience microphone feed. Consultants can only advise well when the brief describes real programmes, not a general wish for better sound.
Gather the running order of a typical week: how many sources are live at once, how often the format changes, and who operates the desk. Note which shows are live and which are recorded, because a recorded programme forgives a mistake that a live one cannot. This single page of notes saves more consultancy time than any specification sheet, and it is the first thing I ask to see.
- Number of simultaneous microphone and line sources
- Live or recorded, and how often formats change
- Who operates the desk and with what experience
- Any fixed deadlines such as a launch or a season start
Map the audio chain you already have
An audio chain is the path a signal takes from the microphone to the transmission feed or the recording. Draw it out, even roughly, with every stage in order: microphones, preamplifiers, console, processing, routing, monitoring and the final send. Marking where it is analogue and where it is digital shows quickly where conversions add delay or noise.
Most problems that teams describe as a console fault turn out to sit somewhere else in the chain, such as a poorly grounded connection, a mismatched level, or a delay that appears only when two systems are joined. A consultant who sees the whole chain can separate what needs replacing from what only needs setting up properly. Replacing a console that was never the cause is an expensive way to learn that.
- Every stage from microphone to final send, in order
- Where signals change between analogue and digital
- Known faults, hum or dropouts and when they occur
Questions to settle about the mixing console
A console should be chosen for the people who will use it and the shows it will carry, not for the length of its feature list. Ask how many channels you truly need now and how many in two years, whether the surface suits the operators' habits, and how the desk connects to the rest of the facility. A smaller desk that every operator understands often serves a studio better than a large one used at a fraction of its capacity.
Consider also how presets and show files are stored and recalled, since a busy schedule depends on changing between programmes quickly and safely. Ask about maintenance, spares and who can service the desk locally. These practical points rarely appear in a brochure, yet they decide whether the console is still a good decision after the first year of daily use.
- Channel count now and in two years
- Fit with operators' existing habits
- Recall of show files between programmes
- Servicing, spares and local support
Monitoring: what the operator really hears
Monitoring is where good decisions are made or missed. If the operator cannot trust the speakers and headphones in the control room, every balance becomes a guess. Check the room itself as well as the equipment: reflections, background noise from ventilation and the position of the listening seat all change what is heard, and no speaker can correct a poor space.
Ask whether the monitoring level is set to a consistent reference, so that a mix made on Monday sounds the same on Friday. Think about talkback and communications too, because the director, the floor and the sound operator must be able to speak to each other without interrupting the programme feed. A consultant should be able to explain how the monitoring will be set up and checked, not simply name the products.
- Control room acoustics and background noise
- A fixed reference listening level
- Talkback routes that never reach the programme feed
Crew, handover and what happens afterwards
Advice is only useful if the crew can carry it forward. Decide early who will own the system once the consultancy ends, and what documentation they need: signal flow diagrams, labelled patching, saved settings and a short written note on how the chain was meant to behave. A system that only its designer understands is a risk to the production, however well it sounds.
Ask whether time for training is included, and whether the operators will be involved during setup rather than shown the finished result. People learn a desk by touching it while someone explains the reasoning. Agree also how problems will be reported after handover, so that a fault in the middle of a live schedule has a clear route to someone who knows the installation.
- Signal diagrams, patch labels and saved settings
- Training for the operators who will run the desk
- A clear route for reporting faults after handover
Scope, cost and timing questions
Finally, be clear about what you are buying. Is it a review of an existing chain, a recommendation for new equipment, or help through installation and commissioning? Each carries different effort and a different price, and prices on this site are listed on the Prices page so you can compare before writing in. A written quotation should state what is included and what would change it.
Ask when the work needs to finish and what else depends on that date, because audio is often left until late in a project and then squeezed. Leave room for testing with real programme material, not only tone and test signals. A realistic timetable that includes rehearsal time is worth more than an optimistic one that ends the day before transmission.
- Review, recommendation or full commissioning support
- What a written quotation includes and what changes it
- Testing time with real programme material
A sound consultancy engagement goes well when the brief is concrete: the shows, the chain, the people and the date are all written down before the first conversation. Work through these points with your technical director, mark the ones you cannot answer, and bring those to the discussion. Gaps in the answers are exactly where good advice earns its place, and they are cheaper to find on paper than in the gallery during a live broadcast.
Further reading
Planning a Television Studio Floor: A Practical Walk-Through
A step-by-step guide to laying out a studio floor, from set footprint and camera paths to cable routes and where the control room should sit.
What we look at first when a studio floor plan lands on our desk
A note from the consultancy on how we are approaching Broadcast Studio Design enquiries in these weeks: the questions we ask, the drawings we want to see, and what a first review covers.