Viewers judge a broadcast largely by its sound. They do not notice a picture that is slightly soft, but they do notice sound that is too quiet, too loud or half a second late.
This part describes the four things a playout does with sound, in the order in which the sound passes through the program: the level of each cue, the master fader and its meters, the track that goes to the output, and what you hear at the desk.
| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Volume per cue | The Vol column, and the automatic correction behind it. |
| Master and meters | The fader of each playout, and how to read the VU column. |
| Audio tracks | Which of the six tracks an output carries, and the loudness and dynamics processing on the output. |
| Monitoring | How to hear the playout at the desk, and the one setup that causes problems. |
What you hear is what goes out
What you hear at the desk is what the program sends out. The monitoring signal comes from the same point as the output, so there is no separate monitor mix, and no version of the sound that exists only in the control room.