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Bbc Radio 3d Sound |
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#1 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: DUNDEE
Posts: 1,318
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Bbc Radio 3d Sound
Was interested to see the BBC is to experiment with surround sound radio see-
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcas...echnology.html back in the 70s the BBC did quadraphonic broadcasts I am using a vintage (1975) quatravox decoder which probably uses a hefler circuit by adjusting controls gives a quad effect fills the room and adds depth to the music using 4 speakers I use this to listen to Tay AM and Wave 102 also some late night programs on Radio 3 come over good in this |
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#2 |
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Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Essex
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This is hardly an 'experiment' nowadays is it?
Surround Sound broadcasting on TV (AC-3, Multi Channel AAC) has been around for some time, and on the internet there are equivalents such as MP3 Surround and WMA Professional. I imagine that this will just be surround sound streaming to PCs (much like the Radio 3 'HD' streaming). |
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#3 |
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Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Herts
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Quote:
This is hardly an 'experiment' nowadays is it?
Surround Sound broadcasting on TV (AC-3, Multi Channel AAC) has been around for some time, and on the internet there are equivalents such as MP3 Surround and WMA Professional. I imagine that this will just be surround sound streaming to PCs (much like the Radio 3 'HD' streaming). "internet broadcasts could allow listeners with the right equipment to hear 3D transmissions relatively easily." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...-3D-radio.html |
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#4 |
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Join Date: Dec 2003
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I wouldn't expect much surround from the BBC. They broadcast very little in surround on the BBC HD channels where as it has become the norm on Sky channels. It is also noticable that most of the american output is in surround.
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#5 |
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Join Date: Aug 2007
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Well they have broadcast some of Hitchiker''s Guide to the Galaxy and the Dirk Gently adaptations in Dolby surround.
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#6 |
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: East Perthshire
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Quote:
Was interested to see the BBC is to experiment with surround sound radio see-
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcas...echnology.html back in the 70s the BBC did quadraphonic broadcasts I am using a vintage (1975) quatravox decoder which probably uses a hefler circuit by adjusting controls gives a quad effect fills the room and adds depth to the music using 4 speakers I use this to listen to Tay AM and Wave 102 also some late night programs on Radio 3 come over good in this I'll bet that old decoder softens the harsh mp2 sound and gives it a nice warm, rich sound. |
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#7 |
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Join Date: Dec 2003
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Quote:
Well they have broadcast some of Hitchiker''s Guide to the Galaxy and the Dirk Gently adaptations in Dolby surround.
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#8 |
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Join Date: May 2004
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Quote:
Well they have broadcast some of Hitchiker''s Guide to the Galaxy and the Dirk Gently adaptations in Dolby surround.
The Hitchiker's audio was reased on a Dolby surround sound only DVD! Dolby prologic surround sound can be used on MPEG layer 2 at 256k on TV but not on radio (as far as i can find). Franhoffer did a test with BBC content (sport, music and drama) on DAB D1 UK and DRM+ test in Paris with 2 channels MPEG layer 2 or AAC and the other channels AAC. http://www.drm.org/old/index.php?id=353 But so far does not look like will become regular! |
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#9 |
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Join Date: May 2004
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Noticed this on the R2 schedule Quote:
Mark Gatiss leads a company of star actors as Scrooge, in a new surround sound adaptation of 'A Christmas Carol,' featuring in this special 'Friday Night Is Music Night' recorded at the Royal Festival Hall. The concert includes six scenes from the Dickens classic, recorded in a new process that aurally puts the audience into the supernatural world of the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future.
A further search found this for binaural sound using headphones (rather thsn multichannels) and also recently used on r4 and proms.http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/projects/binaural-broadcasting |
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#10 |
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Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: West London
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I'm not sure the BBC article is correct in saying that "listening to stereo programmes over headphones gives a flat impression with sounds coming from inside the head".
Those earbud-style phones that seal off your ear canal do have that problem; they can sound very good with deep bass but the soundstage is between the ears. However even a cheap pair of on-ear earphones can sound more realistic with sounds coming from around you, not just "inside the head". |
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#11 |
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Join Date: May 2004
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Quote:
I'm not sure the BBC article is correct in saying that "listening to stereo programmes over headphones gives a flat impression with sounds coming from inside the head".
Those earbud-style phones that seal off your ear canal do have that problem; they can sound very good with deep bass but the soundstage is between the ears. However even a cheap pair of on-ear earphones can sound more realistic with sounds coming from around you, not just "inside the head". |
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#12 |
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A problem has always been fitting four separate speakers into the average-sized living room. Do you make all four equal in performance, or the rear ones just a token reproduction of the treble frequencies ? Speaker wires to at least one speaker have to go over a doorway or under a carpet. Do you have a bass subwoofer in the centre front ? Which chair in the room is going to be made the "optimum listening point" ? It is not practical to have an armchair dead in the centre of the family living room.
I have to say that it is far easier to listen on headphones. Indeed in the 1970s when I lived in a bedsitter in north London, amongst the Tottenham Court Road junk that I bought over the years was a set of four-channel headphones. I didn't go as far as building a four-channel decoder, but created a four-channel effect by reversing the phase of the two rear speakers as compared to the front set. A problem was that they were surprisingly heavy to wear, especially for a two-hour concert. When the first "binaural head" was used to make broadcasts by the BBC, I'd migrated to a pair of Yamaha headphones which gave superb reproduction ( over-ear type ), and indeed they gave a spacial effect with the broadcast. Overall, the BBC served us well with the help of recording engineer Angus McKenzie, who described in great detail in the 1970s magazine "Studio Sound" how he made classical recordings using just a crossed pair of cardoid microphones suspended over the orchestra, and doing away with the complete mish-mash of individually mic-ing separate players or groups of players. It always gave an impressive reproduction listening on headphones. The problems that he had to overcome were the effect of the air conditioning affecting the microphones, and the random "popping" of early electret microphones - but being a genius, he took it in his stride. During the 1970s, the popular electronics and radio magazines published constructional articles for decoding surround sound from various sound sources, and some decoding methods worked better than others. The amount of construction work and cabinet building was probably the biggest obstacle to making such equipment. To buy, of course, it was at the luxury end of the market... All I can say is that if any of you have the listening room and the equipment to decode surround sound as a regular part of life, then well done on achieving that ! Us lesser mortals have to make do with getting something to give a convincing sound from one or two channels... |
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#13 |
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Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 456
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Quote:
It is not practical to have an armchair dead in the centre of the family living room.
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#14 |
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Join Date: May 2004
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Quote:
I have to say that it is far easier to listen on headphones. Indeed in the 1970s when I lived in a bedsitter in north London, amongst the Tottenham Court Road junk that I bought over the years was a set of four-channel headphones. I didn't go as far as building a four-channel decoder, but created a four-channel effect by reversing the phase of the two rear speakers as compared to the front set. A problem was that they were surprisingly heavy to wear, especially for a two-hour concert.
When the first "binaural head" was used to make broadcasts by the BBC, I'd migrated to a pair of Yamaha headphones which gave superb reproduction ( over-ear type ), and indeed they gave a spacial effect with the broadcast. Overall, the BBC served us well with the help of recording engineer Angus McKenzie, who described in great detail in the 1970s magazine "Studio Sound" how he made classical recordings using just a crossed pair of cardoid microphones suspended over the orchestra, and doing away with the complete mish-mash of individually mic-ing separate players or groups of players. It always gave an impressive reproduction listening on headphones. The problems that he had to overcome were the effect of the air conditioning affecting the microphones, and the random "popping" of early electret microphones - but being a genius, he took it in his stride. Hopefully there will be more broadcasts in 2017. Would still be good to have some proper multichannel radio for speakers though internet or the space on D1 DAB+ (as once tested back in 2007 I think) Edit found the D1 DAB surround sound test thread http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1056829 But there is no kit for easily linking DAB+ to a 5.1 surround sound system so sadly may not be repeated. |
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#15 |
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Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Inverness
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Classic FM had some binaural recordings on Christmas Day.
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