Audio engineering for broadcast: how we now plan sound on every job

For some years we treated audio as something to be fitted around the camera and lighting plan. A producer would send us a running order, the picture plan would be settled, and the sound brief would follow a few days later, often as a list of questions. That order of work caused avoidable trouble: a microphone position that wanted a boom swing the lighting grid did not allow, or a presenter walking a route that no radio microphone could cover cleanly.

These weeks we have changed the habit. When an enquiry is accepted, Priya Nair, our Audio Lead, joins the first planning call alongside Daniel Thorpe, who designs the camera and lighting plan. The three of us walk through the studio or venue together, on paper or on site, and agree where people will stand, speak and move before any equipment is specified.

The change is small to describe and has made the early days of a job calmer. Fewer decisions are reopened late, and the crew arrives with one plan rather than three that nearly agree.

Audio engineering at actiora means sound capture, mixing and monitoring for live and recorded broadcast productions. Capture is the choice and placement of microphones: lavalier, handheld, boom, and room or audience microphones where the programme needs atmosphere. Mixing is the live balance of those sources, plus any playback and remote contributions, delivered as a clean programme feed.

Monitoring is the part clients see least and rely on most. It covers what the engineer, the director and the gallery can actually hear, and at what level, so that a problem is caught while it can still be fixed. We specify monitoring as part of the job, not as an afterthought.

We work on a single studio day or across a multi-day event, and the audio crew is sized to the brief of each client rather than to a fixed package. The engineer on your job is the person who planned it.

The sound brief is a short document Priya writes after the first call. It lists every speaker and source, how each will be miked, which channels they occupy on the desk, and what the programme feed and any separate recorded feeds should contain. It also notes what could go wrong in that room: reflective walls, air handling noise, a nearby road, a lift shaft behind the set.

We send it to the producer and the director for comment. It is deliberately plain, written so that someone who does not work in audio can still check that the right people are covered and the right outputs are promised.

Where a venue is unfamiliar, we ask for a recording of the room taken on a phone during a normal working hour. It is crude, but it tells an engineer more about background noise than a floor plan does, and it often changes where we place the first microphone.

• Speakers, sources and microphone types listed
• Desk channels and output feeds named
• Known room noise and reflections noted
• Monitoring needs of gallery and director agreed

Audio crews usually arrive before anyone else. Cabling is laid and taped, microphones are placed, and radio frequencies are scanned and assigned so that the channels do not clash with other equipment in the building. Only then do we ask for presenters, guests or musicians to test.

We run a sound check with real speech at the level and distance the programme will use, not a count to ten into a handheld. Levels are set with headroom, because a guest who laughs or raises their voice should never clip the feed. Talkback between the engineer, the gallery and the floor is tested last, so that everyone knows how to reach the audio position quickly.

Once the programme is running, the engineer's job is mostly attention. Small corrections are made early and quietly, and anything larger is raised with the director in a few words rather than a conversation.

The season matters more than clients expect. Once the heating comes on in older buildings, fans, pipes and ventilation introduce a steady low noise that was absent in summer. Windows stay shut, which helps with traffic but changes how a room sounds, and wet coats and scarves in a green room mean radio microphones are fitted over thicker clothing, which can cause rustle.

We now ask venues whether the heating can be switched off or turned down for the recording itself, and we allow a few extra minutes at the start of a day to find the noisiest source and deal with it. For event work in cold halls we also keep spare batteries warm, since they run down faster in a chilly room.

None of this is dramatic. It is the kind of detail that is cheaper to plan for in October than to explain to a producer in the edit.

If you are planning a programme and want audio included, the most useful things you can send us are a running order, a list of who will speak and from where, and any existing recordings of the venue or earlier episodes. Tell us how the programme will be delivered, whether live to air, to a streaming platform or to a post-production team, because that decides which feeds we record separately.

If sound will be edited later, say so early. Separate recorded tracks cost little to capture and a great deal to recreate. If the programme is live, tell us who in the gallery will be listening and on what, so that monitoring is specified correctly.

A short call with Priya before you commit is usually enough to settle all of this. You can reach us through the contact page, and a written quotation follows once the brief is clear.

• Running order and speaker list
• Venue details and any room recordings
• Delivery route: live, streamed or recorded
• Whether separate tracks are needed for post