BBC Contributor Access video - technical problem

[T Morgan]

Further to my queries at this thread, I managed to identify the Question Time episode in which an elderly friend of mine asked a question from 1998. The footage of him asking a question was then used the next time the series changed their opening titles. Surprisingly, and rather frustratingly, it was quite difficult to find out how long that version of the titles was used for. However, after paying to research at the BFI in London, I was eventually able to check enough episodes from the period to establish the first and last transmission dates for those titles.

I then requested the episodes via BBC Contributor Access on behalf of my friend (the one in which he asks a question TX 04/06/1998, and the first episode in which he was seen in the titles TX 24/09/1998). I have received two video files from the BBC of these episodes.


Unfortunately, the episode in which my friend features in the titles only has audio in the left channel. I queried it with the archivist who was dealing with my query, and he replied: "This has been checked by one of our technical operators and I’ve been told that this is the original live recording so that’s how the programme was broadcast and then archived."



Frankly, I don't believe that. Would the BBC have broadcast a flagship political programme on TV with sound only in one channel? I doubt it. I think I'm probably being fobbed off. I suppose the best solution is to duplicate the audio into the right channel, if I can do that easily with PC editing software.

The June 1998 episode has a count-in clock which says 'stereo', although the programme itself sounds like mono. So perhaps it was still common for a current affairs debate programme to be broadcast in mono during that period, rather than stereo? I'm wondering if correcting this audio fault myself would therefore be authentic. It would certainly sound better, in any case.

I've emailed another contact I was previously in touch with at BBC CA, although I'm not holding out much hope.

Can anyone help with any of the above please?

[Peter Stirling]

It is possible that the sound was originally recorded on tracks embedded in the video which would have given a higher quality sound and the mono on the standard linear LH sound track is just a 'safety' track while the RH track was used for something else (codes and ques for example).

So perhaps the machine they transferred it to for you was only capable of standard linear sound tracks and so you are only getting the 'safety' track the others will not be heard?

However the most probable reason is the fact that although video embedded sound is a higher quality it is subject to dropouts as it ages which leaves blank spaces on the sound which are irritating however short they are..the picture looks fine as the Vision part has a dropout compensator.

But if you can double it up in software hardly see there is really a problem to worry about.

[T Morgan]

Thanks for the info. I'm not sure I understand why video embedded sound means a silent track/channel? I loaded the video audio into WavePad and the right channel is completely empty.

I suppose I could save the video as mono in Handbrake, would that be an effective solution? I don't know how to do it otherwise.

[Peter Stirling]

If you drop your file into Handbrake the audio tab should be along the top centre of the page. Select mono
(but not mono left or right) and encode that should give you what you are looking for.

[T Morgan]

Thanks, I'll give that a go.

[markboulton]

I think there's a bit of confusion going on here with VHS/Betamax/Hi8 Hi-Fi sound which is modulated onto helical tracks like the video signal is, but with different azimuth and frequency modulation.

Professional video formats don't, as a rule, do that. You would usually have 2 to 4 linear audio tracks. TV programmes made in mono would often have the mixed mono sound on Track 1 and the other tracks could have anything or nothing. Young operators probably just dump Track 1 onto the left channel and Track 2 on the right, and if Track 2 is empty you get what you've got there.

Even when Nicam came along not all programmes were made with stereo sound, especially OBs.

The only embodiment of "video embedded sound" I'm aware of is "Sound in Sync" which was mainly used for transmitting sound on video feeds sent via satellite that only had one frequency booked for the link, either from OB to a studio or between transponders which would then decode it and remodulate it in the standard way onto the final broadcast feed.

[markboulton]

Other common audio track configurations are to have audience on Track 2 and dialogue, music and effects on Track 1 with instructions to mix both into mono on broadcast, or to have music and effects on separate channels, and again have them mixed to mono.

In fact the reason it took so long for TV programmes to be made with stereo sound was not the lack of audio tracks on the VT or channels on the desk, but it was because technicians were used to using the multiple audio tracks at their disposal to create a better mono mix and to give more flexibility to omit things in that mix later or even for alternative audio like a foreign language dub or expletive-bleeped version. Having to make programmes in stereo meant using audio tracks in pairs, so all of those audio options had to be planned in a completely different way.

[T Morgan]

Thanks for your replies. So it sounds like this programme would probably have been broadcast in mono originally?

[markboulton]

Jul 22, 2022 14:46:13 GMT T Morgan said:

Thanks for your replies. So it sounds like this programme would probably have been broadcast in mono originally?

More than likely.

[T Morgan]

I'm surprised TV programmes were mono that recently.

[markboulton]

Jul 26, 2022 16:46:47 GMT T Morgan said:

I'm surprised TV programmes were mono that recently.

I don't think it was standard by then, but live OBs I think were still quite mixed then, and it depended on the facilities and lines booked at each location. It may well have been that a second audio mix channel may have been sacrificed for a talkback channel, for instance.

[T Morgan]

Thanks. I suppose stereo was probably less important for a discussion show than for drama or music.

[Ronnie McDevitt]

Jun 30, 2022 13:15:30 GMT T Morgan said:

Further to my queries at this thread, I managed to identify the Question Time episode in which an elderly friend of mine asked a question from 1998. The footage of him asking a question was then used the next time the series changed their opening titles. Surprisingly, and rather frustratingly, it was quite difficult to find out how long that version of the titles was used for. However, after paying to research at the BFI in London, I was eventually able to check enough episodes from the period to establish the first and last transmission dates for those titles.

I then requested the episodes via BBC Contributor Access on behalf of my friend (the one in which he asks a question TX 04/06/1998, and the first episode in which he was seen in the titles TX 24/09/1998). I have received two video files from the BBC of these episodes.



Just out of interest, can I ask if the files you received had a BBC watermark?
A lot of the archive footage supplied to researchers now either has a watermark or a time code.

[T Morgan]

No, it doesn't. When I requested material internally (I was volunteering in local radio), about ten years ago now, the DVDs were timecoded. After receiving a video file more recently (perhaps a year ago), I was told it should have been watermarked. But it wasn't.

When I bought footage from Fremantle, maybe a few months ago, that was watermarked.

[Mark Tinkler]

All screeners from the BBC should be watermarked nowadays - it a screener just has BITC, it was probably sourced from a old DVD (or even VHS). But as it's doe by servers, the watermark should be automatically added. I say "should be"...