5.1 Television Audio

Over the past couple of months I have read many articles from places like Mix Magazine about this year’s Grammy Awards.  They have been doing surround sound for the Grammies for several years now, but this year they did something new.  Instead of having to separate mixes for stereo and 5.1, they did just one 5.1 mix and encoded it for stereo.

This is a big step in live sound for television.  Most productions for live seem to be nervous of backwards compatibility and run a separate stereo mix (at least all of the reviews I’ve read).  The technical requirements for this show are unreal, and truly amazing.  I watched the Grammies this year (ok, I watch them most years) and listened to it through analog television signal – but decoded with Dolby Pro Logic 2 on my surround sound receiver.  I thought it sounded great!

One of the lessons I learned from my audio professor in college, John Fishell, was to continually read reviews and profiles of other producers and engineers to see what they are doing.  Often they may be doing something you never thought of.  These articles from Mix and others have really delved into what it took for to pull off the Grammies – a broadcast not many of us have to do on a regular basis.