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Olympic Broadcast Acoustics

By jfiore on August 10, 2008.

There had been reports of the usual last-minute rush to complete facility construction at the Beijing Olympics. Now I wonder if they completed the main broadcast center. While watching the coverage yesterday, at one point NBC went to Bob Costas at the center and I noticed something strange. It was apparent that Mr. Costas was close-mic'ed, but it was also obvious that there was an inordinately large amount of room reverberation leaking in. The RT60 seemed long enough that it appeared Bob was speaking from inside of an airplane hangar. I wonder if they had time to install any acoustic treatments in the broadcast center. The effect wasn't enough to reduce intelligibility, but it was odd nonetheless, sort of an "excessively live" quality. I am curious to see (hear) if the situation continues.

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The BBC have also been having problems:

10.05am: It seems the media centre in Beijing is falling apart. At least the BBC's studio is. A violent squall has halted the women's archery bronze play-off - where we could be looking at a first medal for Team GB - and the women's cycling road race is similarly pluvial. But the real drama, as I say, is at BBC hq, where someone has joined Hazel Irvine in the studio holding a bucket. They're crouched discretely behind the sofa... but I can definitely see them holding the bucket.