BBC HD The Proms 2011

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Anonymous

Guest
Yes, the first night was excellent with very clear image, good lighting and only the occasional camera mistake.

The surround mix made such a difference from flat stereo and really made it all so engaging and involving. The BBC do seem to mix 5.1 very well with no exaggerated surrounds and yet give a good depth to the soundstage. The coughers were picked up very accurately.

The sub managed to pick up a few odd bumps and thumps which were not part of the music. I often think the BBC loudspeaker monitoring is not going as low as it should in the sub department as I hear bad rumbles and thumps quite often, yet in Jools Holland's show there isn't enough bottom end.

The big mistake is that HD and surround don't feature in any of the BBC proms pages, at least from my searches anyway. All they list is broadcast schedules for BBC1, BBC2 and BBC4. No sign of BBC HD or any HD broadcasts and nothing about surround. They are certainly keeping it a secret. It can't be still experimental as they managed it well in the 2010 season.

I worked with the BBC surround department in 2003 and had a DTS surround CD of an earlier prom (Holst's Planet Suite) it was excellent but has now been lost.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
I agree. The coughing being picked up was very surreal. On one hand the music would have been better without them but the feeling of a prom was so much better with them.

I watched it on BBC HD and it was outstanding.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Stravinsky's Rites of Spring certainly looked and sounded good on HD.

The cameras do like to focus close up on a French Horn on a regular basis, they must like the reflections and intricate plumbing to show off the high definition.

The LF was odd though. The tam tam shook the room and was quite overpowering, not a bad thing in this piece, but the double basses were not very audible and were lost with the general string mix. It seemed like the only thing with low frequency was the tam tam. I know The Albert Hall is not a very warm acoustic but the orchestra sounded a little thin when the tam tam wasn't being whacked. Anyone else hear this oddity?

It could be the Dolby LFE channel, it's always a bit boomy compared with the DTS LFE or discrete uncompressed LFE, but I do think trying to mix low frequencies accurately in a cramped OB truck must be very difficult.
 

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