Last month the ICoSOLE project gathered in Salford for a test shoot, to capture source material for our research work. We were lucky to have 10 musicians from the ±«Óãtv Philharmonic orchestra performing for us in their rehearsal studio at Dock10 studios. It was a busy few days, but it was a lot of fun, especially when the musicians started playing. I thought I'd share a little bit about what we did.
We recorded the performances with a large number of microphones, working with Mike Smith, a sound technician at ±«Óãtv Radio, who has worked with the orchestra many times. We used conventional spot mics on each instrument, plus several different main microphone arrays that capture surround sound with height. These were all extensions of microphone techniques used for surround sound recording, such as the spaced omnidirectional approach (A/B), the optimised carioid triangle (OCT), the Hamasaki square, and the double mid-side (DMS) techniques. We also got our old friend the dummy head out. In addition to this vast array of microphones, we had some HD video cameras and a (ultra-high definition) camera.
New audio team member Richard Day starts another take
We also had a lot of mobile consumer devices such as smart phones, tablets, and cameras. These were also used to record some of the performances. Several of the project partners are looking at ways to smoothly integrate user-generated content into broadcast productions of live events. This is particularly of interest for events where professional coverage is limited and so the coverage can benefit greatly from being augmented by this UGC.
We now have a lot of data to process and begin working on. The ICoSOLE project runs for three years and hopefully we'll have some interesting developments to report on before then.
Many thanks to the musicians and the ±«Óãtv Philharmonic for yet another successful collaboration!Pictures by Mike Matton from VRT.