STUDIO BROADCASTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 530, 6 December 1928, Page 6

STUDIO BROADCASTS

ARTICULATION BETTER THAN IN HALLS MR. HARRIS REPLIES TO CRITICS (Special to THE SUX) CHRISTCHURCH, To-day. ‘.Vot one per cent, of the quarter million listeners who, it is estimated, listen at one time or another, concern thems*\£yes abcut such details as those referred to in The Sun yesterday',” declared Mr. A. R. Harris, general manager of the Radio Broadcasting Company of New Zealand. Continuing, Mr. Harris said it was a most absurd statement to make that radio listeners throughout New Zealand are complaining that the time has come for an improved system of radio transmission. “An occasional broadcast from a concert hall *»vould certainly make an appeal for the- time being,” continued Mr. Harris, “but if we broadcast entirely from a concert hall and occasionally from flic studio, the latter would make the greater appeal, such appeal to a greats extent being psychological. “As a matter of fact the best results are obtained from a properly designed studio, ,as the acoustic properties can be adjusted to suit the performance, whereas in a concert hall the acoustic properties cannot be adjusted fk> the same extent and vary according to the number of people present.” Mr. Harris pointed out that in the broadcasting of the Royal Musical Society’s performance of "Stf. Paul” from the Municipal Concert Hall, though there was a certain amoiffit of resonance, the articulation was 1 not nearly as good as it is from the sttfdio. "The statement by listeners whom The Sun interviewed that the modern practice is to eliminate drapings from the studios is not quite correct,” continued the general manager- “The latest studios of the National Broadcasting Company in New' recognised as the last word in broadcasting studios. The walls of these studios are not only' suspended to prevent resonance, but they are covered with sound-absorbing plaster as well as drapings. The New York studios of the Columbia. Gramophone Company also use sound-absorbing wall material as well as drapes.” A Sun reporter was escorted to tine broadcasting room at 3YA by the conv pany’s engineer and shown the drapings about the walls and padding in* the ceiling. The engineer emphasised that far better articulation could be obtained in the studio than in the concert hall, and produced American papers to show that the stations there made frequent use of drapings and sound-deadening material. “When a broadcasting studio is first constructed,” he explained, “it is toned down with drapings until the timeperiod of the .sound most closely approximates to the ideal period for broadcasting purposes.” Some American studios, lie admitted, were attached to an echo chamber through which the resonance and atmosphere of the concert hall might be obtained.