Grammys Herald 5.1 Bícasts (Prosound)

24-Mar-03

The 25 million viewers who tuned in to the 45th Annual Grammy Awards Show on February 23 were part of a historic event, experiencing the very first telecast of the record industryís yearly celebration in 5.1. The decision by the Recording Academy, Cossette Productions and CBS to make the show available in the HDTV format, which incorporates 5.1 audio, gives the industry a much needed boost following the reported 10 percent decline in record sales last year.It also builds on the boom in home theater sales and the labelsí burgeoning catalogs of 5.1 DVD and SACD releases to help move the multichannel format toward critical mass. Who better than the music industry to show off the potential of the format in a 3-1/2 hour extravaganza that left HDTV viewers singing the showís praises.Postings made to the online home theater discussion forum, AV Science, suggest that all concerned in the showís production have raised the bar for 5.1 broadcast audio, and opened the eyes and ears of consumers to the formatís true potential. Viewers were ecstatic: ìFirst-class productionÖthe guys mixing the 5.1 audio deserve a Grammy,î ìStunning 5.1 sound,î ìUnbelievable and incredible sound,î ìThis is quite possibly the best live HDTV broadcast ever.îHank Neuberger, joint broadcast audio supervisor for the show with Phil Ramone, believes the telecast was a turning point. ìBefore the broadcast, I viewed it as a bit of a beta test,î Neuberger reports. ìNow that weíve actually delivered it with surround sound in sync with the picture, from coast to coast on a broadcast network, I believe itís actually something else. It signals the beginning of the age of 5.1 broadcasting.îNeuberger elaborates, ìI believe that in the next year weíre going to see content producers and even advertisers really commit to finishing their shows and their spots in 5.1. Weíll probably have 10 times as many homes that can receive it a year from now, and 10 times that number a year after that.îRamone, praising the commitment of the showís producers, network executives and technical teams, and their willingness to push the envelope this early in HDTVís development, agrees it was a shot in the arm. ìThereís no question that the reaction to this was so positive. If we can give you the digital sound on the air, why wouldnít you want to have this in your collection? I think this is a great boost for us.îDirector of the Academyís Producers & Engineers Wing, Leslie Lewis, believes this is just the beginning. ìGoing forward we feel that weíve learned a lot, are ready to expand on that, and are definitely very committed to bringing the best experience into peoplesí homes and making them feel theyíre in the arena.îThe Surround Music Alliance, part of the P&E wing, will build on the high-profile event to educate artists, label executives and consumers on the relatively new 5.1 format, Lewis continues. ìWeíre going to start an educational tour this year that is going to help people not only experience what it is, but also go home and understand how to achieve it, a little more clearly than maybe they do now.îRandy Ezratty, whose Effanel mobile units contributed both the stereo and 5.1 music mixes, observes that the audio team was very cognizant that not everybody could experience surround audio. ìThe absolute bottom-line mandate, in respect to the artists on the show, and knowing the vast majority of the public would see this in standard def and hear it in stereo, was that the broadcast should not be compromised by the addition of 5.1 and hi-def.îEzratty continues, ìWhen (show producer) John Cossette told me last summer that he was close to pulling the trigger on doing this, there were different camps saying, ìItís the first one; letís just do it really conservatively. Letís hang a few audience mikes at the back of the arena, and that will be our 5.1 mix.í I said, no! If this stuff doesnít get interesting, itís going to be ho-hum for the next five years. I wrote a paper to NARAS and Cossette saying that the show should be ambitious in its approach without the novelty of surround taking away from the content.îThis was truly a team effort, notes Ezratty, who combined the 5.1 music mixes from lead engineer John Harris and Saturday Night Live mixer Jay Vicari with Ed Greeneís production sound and the pre-taped packages into the multichannel broadcast. Ezratty adds, ìThe Dolby guys, for ensuring that the encoding was proper and for making sure we had the right monitoring equipment, and the CBS guys for getting the sync right, deserve gold stars. Weíre always made to look good by the caliber of engineers that most of these artists show up with, whether live engineers or studio engineers.î