Getting the Balance Right

Engineer Graham Backhouse has to deal with a wide variety of acoustic environments: "some weeks we're in theatres, sometimes we're in an aircraft hangar! Typically, it's a local leisure centre which has poor acoustics." Backhouse's role is PA supervisor for the live show; to get the sound from the panel of senior politicians, journalists and activists to the audience, and make sure that the panel can hear the input from the audience. "I have to ensure the levels in the venue are not so loud that they colour the TV sound, make it sound natural and clearly audible in the room and eliminate the chances of feedback via the boom mics over the audience."

Backhouse has just brought in two stereo Intelli-Q units from Belgium company APEX, replacing four graphics and four compressors in the rack. "It took less than ten minutes of instruction in how the programme worked, and then I was able to set up the system in under twenty minutes. This is probably the most user-friendly DSP I've ever come across."

Microphones from the panel and from presenter David Dimbleby's mic, as well as the boom mics used in the audience, total more than sixteen feeds, all going into a splitter rack, out of which comes Backhouse's studio feed.

"If I had to pick one word to describe the biggest advantage of the Intelli-Q, I would say 'speed'. It is easy and quick to rig and set up, and, even more importantly, to de-rig! One of the best features is the amount of information on the screen. It's difficult for a live sound engineer to have to work through three layers of menus, keystrokes and commands; with this unit, I can just click on a parametric EQ and adjust the frequency, cut and Q in one movement. In terms of processing speed, it's fantastic. Every adjustment can be heard practically instantaneously, and that's vital when you're dealing with live TV and especially feedback.

"The Intelli-Q has many more interesting and useful features than I need on 'Question Time' but this is a unit we can use on many different shows, particularly for example a distributed PA system in a theatre."

For further information:
www.apex-audio.be
www.vme.uk.com

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