Radio and TV Broadcasting

A room’s acoustic defects are the main source of error when playing back a mixed track.  The importance of good acoustics is often underestimated, because of the mistaken impression that investing in instrumentation (hardware and software) is sufficient for broadcasting purposes. Specular reflection, excessive reverberation and uncontrolled standing waves inside the room may generate misleading timbral effects.

One of the most common errors is the belief that equalisation is enough to cover the room’s acoustic defects. Equalisation is only partially able to compensate the spectral defects that the shape of the room creates in the music, and the operation depends closely on the position from which the measurement is made.

Diffusion Wall

The acoustic design of a control room includes the provision of a neutral listening area, which is a space of suitable size where the music can be heard flat, meaning without reflections or standing waves and with the right reverb time.

When it comes to the soundproofing of a radio and/or television studio, the various rooms (control room, recording room and speaker room) must be insulated from each other and from the outside. Various parts of the structure (walls, floors and ceilings) and access points (doors and windows, air-conditioning systems and electrical systems and wiring) are all involved in this process.

Strutture controsoffitto, pavimento e pareti

Low frequency soundproofing is the most critical aspects, and therefore an external structure capable of containing these frequencies (non environment double shell), preferably in brick or stone, must be built.  Dry sand filling may be used in the cavities (including those of the double ceilings) as an amorphous material. The internal acoustic treatment modules (Helmotz or diaphragm resonators) are sometimes installed between this perimeter structure and a second, inner structure, with specially angled or diaphragm walls.

The inner structure may be in multilayer plasterboard, including composite types, taking special care over joints and other points requiring filling, together with the use of elastic mounting joints in the anchor points. The floor must be mechanically decoupled: several layers of thin wood sheets on an interlocking lath framework resting on a mattress comprise one possible system, with the cavities filled with mineral  fibre, for example. In more expensive solutions, a cast concrete floor is supported by precalibrated suspensions, with a double layer lath framework providing the structure of the internal walls.