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Author: kdk
Date: 2018-01-06 22:25
This post is, I hope, marginally on topic if not by much.
We've been watching the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Eve concert on TV (Great Performances series on NTV). The orchestra plays beautifully and the concert makes great listening and interesting viewing. But it's disconcerting that the sound and picture are out of sync for much of the performance. All is well through Tales from the Vienna Woods. But after that (a little less than half-way through the concert) the orchestra, when the cameras are showing it, is half a beat ahead of the sound, making for some strange visual effects.
I know we're pretty far away from Vienna here in Philadelphia and sound travels slower than light, but, really???
We watched it on a home HDTV set. But I've checked the video on the Great Performances website using my computer. The problem is the same, so it isn't somehow an artifact of my TV's circuitry. Can anyone from the world of electronics or recording engineering explain why this might have happened? Could the picture and sound have been re-synced during editing (I suspect the answer is "yes")? If so, why would it have been released out-of-sync? Someone on the production crew must have noticed it.
This isn't a second or third tier orchestra, and the performance each year gets international attention.
Karl
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2018-01-07 03:04
The live streaming from Vienna on BBC TV had no problem and the copy available on their stored site (BBC iPlayer) worked fine the next day, so clearly something going wrong over on your side of the pond.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2018-01-07 03:22
Well, could be. But in that case, I'd still be interested to know what could go wrong between there and here. I'm assuming the transmission is done electronically - digitally, since they offer an HD stream on the PBS Great Performances site. And why would only half the performance be affected? Does anyone here understand the whole distribution process enough to have a guess?
Karl
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2018-01-07 04:42
They do generally play half a beat behind the conductor's beat, so it must've appeared like they were playing behind the beat by a whole beat whilst the camera was on him.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2018-01-07 06:25
Chris P wrote:
> They do generally play half a beat behind the conductor's beat,
> so it must've appeared like they were playing behind the beat
> by a whole beat whilst the camera was on him.
>
No, audiences here in Philadelphia are used to that.
But that's clearly a delay between the conductor's beat and when the musicians play. You still see their bows start and the percussion sticks and mallets hit the heads when the sound happens. In this telecast video the bows and sticks were pretty much with the conductor. The delay was between the *players'* movements and the sound.
Karl
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Author: elmo lewis
Date: 2018-01-08 01:29
Unlike analog where audio and video are on the same tape or film, the digital audio and video travel separately and are reunited afterwards. Since video processing is much more complicated (leading to freeze-ups, tiling, and delays) and audio processing is simpler, it's very easy for things to get out of whack, especially on a live broadcast.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2018-01-08 01:57
Aah the digital age. So much promise, yet so much disappointment.
I've lost count how many times I set my machine to record something and it fails to record as the signal is weak once it gets dark - the worst culprit being BBC4.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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