Sky News Uses Tieline ViA for Program Sound and Comms Feeds
In this Q&A, freelance Audio Director Paul Huxham explains how the Tieline ViA was used to provide low latency feeds between the TV Outside Broadcast site and studio hub for a national show on Sky News Australia.
Paul can you please briefly summarize your career?
I live in Perth, Western Australia and have been in the broadcast industry since 1986 and have seen plenty of changes during that time. I am primarily employed as a freelance audio director and have worked on a wide range of television programs and major sporting events.
What television broadcast were you working on ?
We were doing a live Paul Murray Our Town show. Paul Murray Live on Sky News is usually based in Sydney but the show travels to different regions during the year.
How was the codec set up?
We had travelled to Mt Gambier in South Australia. The Tieline codec was set up in a drawer in the communications rack and connected via a switch to a wireless modem, that also enabled some other networked facilities for our broadcast.
How did you use the ViA codec?
We used the codec to receive three audio feeds from the control room in Sydney. They were:
- Full mix program audio – sent to local comms and to PA for the audience.
- IFB feed for the onsite talent – sent to the earpiece for the talent onsite which contained a program mix and producer communications feed from the control room.
- Talkback receive – sent to the local communications feed for camera operators, vision switcher, lighting, etc.
How was this useful for the success of the broadcast?
The ViA codec was important. We also have two phone hybrids; however, they are only able to do a single feed (each way) and provide much lower audio quality than the codec.
What city/studio did the codec dial into?
We were connected via cat5 to our local wireless modem that connected to the Sydney hub.
How did the codec perform from an audio quality and latency perspective for live real-time broadcasting?
The ViA performed flawlessly. The audio quality is significantly better than a regular phone connection and the latency was negligible (for our application).
How does using the ViA codec improve the workflow for a broadcast such as this?
We received three high quality audio feeds from the one box that connects to our existing infrastructure. It also has a screen so we can see the incoming audio levels and input routing. We aren’t currently using any of the onboard audio processing but this would be useful if required.
Want to know more about Tieline products and software?
For more information about Tieline codecs visit www.tieline.com/products or contact Tieline sales:
- For USA, Canada & Latin America contact: sales@tieline.com
- For Australia and International: info@tieline.com
