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SPRING 2005
ISSUE #48
Journal
the
CANNON FODDER
- XLR TRIBUTE
AMPS News 8 Who’s Doing What 8 Projection Screens 8
AGM Report 8 Mystic Soundman 8 Sound Awards 8
amps
A Publication of the Association of Motion Picture Sound
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We thank all our Sustaining Members for their continuing support
2
amps Journal
Spring 2005 / Issue 48
the
Journal
CONTENTS
SUSTAINING MEMBERS LIST
2
NEWS, ITEMS & ODDMENTS
4
MEMBERSHIP REPORT & CHARITY UPDATE
6
MYSTIC SOUNDMAN
7
AGM REPORT
9
A mixture of readables
G John Garrett presents a different way of looking at sound
Round-up of key happenings
SUSTAINING MEMBERS SHOW
12
WHO’S AT WHAT
15
SUSTAINING MEMBER NEWS
16
Report and pictures
What you’ve been doing
New Sus Mems / Who’s up to what
NEWS, ITEMS & ODDMENTS
18
More readables
AMPS JOINS BEIRG, LOOPSYNC & LIP SYNC
19
BRAIN TICKLES & GONE WITH THE WIND
20
END CREDITS 2004
21
SCREENED - FOR SOUND
22
OBITUARIES
24
CANNON FODDER - TRIBUTE TO THE XLR
25
2005 FILM AWARDS FOR SOUND
27
MEET AMPS COUNCIL 2005
28
A mixture of info
BA and BH writings
Industry farewell
Jim Betteridge looks at the products of Screen Research
WELCOME to the third edition
of the AMPS Journal.
You may notice that this issue
feels a little heavier in your hands,
the reason being an extra four pages
bound into the centre.
This is the update to the AMPS
Membership Directory which
is only published every two
years. Just pull it out, follow the
folding instructions and it should
slip inside your existing 2004
Directory. It has been assembled in
a form that is very similar to the
original publication rather than
the photocopied update sheets that
we’ve supplied in previous years.
We still have a stock of the 2004
Directory and should you need any,
contact AMPS office.
After you’ve detached the centre
spread, enjoy the rest of the issue.
Keith Spencer-Allen AMPS
Journal Editor
PLEASE ACCEPT MY APOLOGIES FOR
THE EXTREME LATENESS OF THIS
ISSUE - ILLNESS STRUCK AT THE
WORST POSSIBLE TIME. HOWEVER
JUST LIKE LONDON BUSES, THE NEXT
ISSUE’S RIGHT BEHIND THIS ONE
The AMPS Journal (‘The Journal’) is
published quarterly by the
Association of Motion Picture Sound
It is distributed to all members and associated
organisations. A version of the Journal is also
available on line through the AMPS website
(www.amps.net). The Journal is a forum for
discussion and it should not be assumed that all
opinions expressed are necessarily those of AMPS.
All contents © AMPS 2005
Edited by Keith Spencer-Allen AMPS
TO CONTACT THE JOURNAL
COVER : As we continue our series of covers featuring essential audio
components, this issue celebrates the 3-pin female XLR-type panel socket.
According to agreed standards this is the input to all things audio, the
beginning of a signal chain when fed by a microphone or the input to all
technical creativity and processing that follows.
TO
CONTACT
amps
Tel: +44 (0)1732 740950
Fax: +44 (0)1732 779168
For general communications use :
journal@amps.net
For press releases, images etc use :
press@amps.net
admin@amps.net or The Admin Secretary, 28 Knox Street, London W1H 1FS, UK
Membership : membership@amps.net or The Membership Secretary, 28 Knox Street, London W1H 1FS
amps Journal
3
NEWS, ITEMS & ODDMENTS
YOUR RECOMMENDED FILMS
- GOOD FOR SOUND
At the tail end of last year we received a
request from Skillset for a list of the ten films
that AMPS might recommend for their sound
- a similar request went out to other Guilds
for their specialised lists. It was Skillset’s
intention that these film lists would be included with literature being prepared for new
entrants to training courses and the industry,
suggesting that the recipient might learn
something from watching (listening!) to them.
Because the deadline was short (in Skillset’s
typical manner) Council members compiled
a list of ten films that they considered would
be specifically interesting but were not certain
that this was the definitive list that more times
and wider consultation might have produced.
While that opportunity has passed, it would
seem a good idea that AMPS does have a recommended listing list that might change over
time. It could appear as a page on the website
and it doesn’t have to be ten - it could be 50!
- and there could be more than one example
in any category.
So to kick off the AMPS list of ‘Recommended Films for Sound’ here are the titles that the
Council generated in a few hours.
ALIEN
AMELIE
APOCALYPSE NOW
BATTLE OF BRITAIN
HERO
THE SAVING OF PRIVATE RYAN
MASTER AND COMMANDER
SPIDERMAN 2
TOMORROW NEVER DIES
U-571 or DAS BOOT *
What we want is any suggestions that you may
have to be added to that or even why an alternative
film would be a better example than one on this
list. So, your thoughts would be welcome - just
email a title with a paragraph on why you consider
it worth recommending, to journal@amps.net, or
by post to the AMPS office.
* You can see a category developing here - on a
ʻSubmarineʼ theme - both are really sound editing
and Foley showcases.
4
8 The pictures in the last issue of Shepperton’s new 72 fader/
600 input/24 foot Series 5 Euphonix digital console in the Korda
Theatre prompted John Aldred, AMPS Honorary member and
long-time Newsletter contributor, to email a couple of pictures
that predate the modern Shepperton by around 36 years.
“This picture is of a converted RCA console at Shepperton which I used
to mix Anne Of A Thousand Days back in 1969. It looks positively archaic with some old vacuum tubed equalisers and only six faders,
but it was enough to gain me an Academy Nomination. The console was
originally installed at Walton Studios where a young Gerry Humphreys
was re-recording mixer.”
8 CD-R Speeds : I must admit that I hadn’t given it too much
thought until a press release from HHB arrived, but every so
often burning a CD-R with audio content does go wrong. I’ve
assumed that the writing speed was the most important factor,
and providing that was suitably low, and the CD-R media was
of good quality, the fact that they might be usable up to 52x was
largely irrelevant. However HHB are informing us that high
speed CD-R media are intended for data recording and are not
fully compatible with standalone audio CD recorders ‘yielding
degraded performance and increased error rates.’
Last month HHB launched a new range of CD-R discs that are
‘optimised for low speed writers operating in the 1 to 12 times range,
delivering consistently low block error rates and low jitter in audio
recording applications, while improving economy by reducing the
operating stress on the low powered lasers used by audio CD recorders.’
Whether this also applies to CDs burnt using a computer drive
isn’t specified.
These discs replace the existing 1X-24X discs in HHB’s pro
media range although their Gold 1X-8X disc remains unchanged.
QUOTABLES
Technology is our word for something that doesn’t work yet.
Douglas Adams, author and technologist (1999)
amps Journal
NEWS, ITEMS & ODDMENTS
Historical Perspectives ....
RADIO & SILENT MOVIES
It seems fairly certain that when digital
or E-cinema finally gets sorted, film programmes will be transmitted to cinemas via
satellite thus eliminating bulk printing and
distribution costs of sprocketed film. A huge
saving for producers but putting the Labs
and Distributors out of business.
The idea of distribution from a central point
to as many cinemas who wish to show a
particular programme, is not entirely new, or
at least as far as sound is concerned.
In the silent 1920s with the idea of giving
cinema a voice, attempts were made to use
the established radio industry to broadcast
sound to cinemas showing silent movies.
Donald Crofton, in his book The Talkies,
discusses radio in the 1920s and its effect
upon films. He quotes from John H Butler
(Illustrated World, July 1922) who describes
the experiments of Frank Bacon attempting
to broadcast the sound of the plays Molly
Darling and Lilies Of The Field in synch with
film images.
Harry J Powers Junior, also presented Radio
Talking Pictures in which actors spoke their
lines watching the film in the radio studio,
their voices broadcast to remote theatres
where the film was being projected (Film
Daily, March 1922), a sort of ‘live’ post synch.
There was also Radio Film ‘making it possible to show a picture in a hundred theatres
with an explanatory lecture coming through
from a single transmission station ‘ (Film
Daily, November 1923)
In August 1925, Fritz Lang’s film Siegfried
was screened at the Century Theater in New
York City with a specially written score,
broadcast by the RCA station WJY to an
audience of 5000.
MGM in Los Angeles were also experimenting via station KF1 with simultaneous radio
and film showings said to be the brain child
of Douglas Shearer. A promotional film for A
Slave Of Fashion starring Doug’s sister Norma
and Lew Cody was projected in the radio
studio where the actors spoke the dialogue
which was broadcast to 14 theatres showing
the film. According to Bosley Crowther in
his book The Lion’s Share (1957), ‘picture and
sound never quite came together and Douglas found himself a job in the Warner Bros
Prop Department’. He later came back to
MGM as Head of Sound.
Bob Allen AMPS
8
SOUND AWARDS NOTES: While a full breakdown of all
the Sound Awards from BAFTA and the US Oscars is carried
on page 16 there are a few comments worth making. The movie
sound nominations were largely US films with US crews with
only BAFTA nominated House Of Flying Daggers having significant Chinese/Australian input. The BAFTA TV Craft Awards
however had a good showing of AMPS members with nominations including John Pritchard, Reg Mills, Richard Manton,
Catherine Hodgson, Paul Hamblin and Chris Atkinson, with
Simon Okin being on a winning crew for Sex Traffic. Congratulations to all.
The American Academy’s Technical Achievement Awards had
very little in the way of sound this year but they did turn their
attention to noise suppression systems with one of the Technical
Achievement Awards going to two of the development team at
Cambridge-based CEDAR for the DNS 1000.
The Oscars sound awards threw up a couple of points worth
noting - Randy Thom received four nominations this year which
must be some kind of record, one of which became a winner.
You can only imagine the pockets full of acceptance speeches!
Less fortunate, and although receiving a nomination is itself a
reward, you have to feel some sympathy for Kevin O’Connell,
nominated for Spider-Man 2, who according to AMPAS information has had 16 previous Oscar nominations since 1983 - and NO
wins!! He didn’t win this year either but he’s probably used to
that now.
(From our man in New Zealand - BA)
amps Journal
5
MEMBERSHIP MATTERS
FROM THE MEMBERSHIP DESK
membership@amps.net
And, we still have 10 members who are short on the subs for
2003 and 2004. This is being dealt with, as mentioned before in the
Journal, by applying any year’s received subscription to satisfying
arrears first, so by 2007, if no corrections to the Standing Orders
have been carried out, then the whole of that year’s contribution
will be swallowed up by the amounts outstanding, and the members
concerned will be advised that their membership will be considered
to have lapsed.
On a more positive note, the numbers of Companies joining in
2004 as Sustaining Members increased by seven, three of which were
brought in free of charge, in return for facilities provided for film
screenings and meeting venues. We do supply a framed certificate,
which we hope is prominently displayed at their premises, to alert
their clients to the existence of AMPS.
MEMBERSHIP STATISTICS
AS AT AGM 2005
We started 2004 with 332 members, and as
the year progressed, 13 new members joined
and one former member re-joined. However,
this was exactly balanced by 12 members,
who failed to pay any subscription, plus 2
who notified us that due to retiring, they
did not wish to continue, even in a retired
capacity, paying a reduced fee.
I do my best to persuade the latter to
stay on, as the £35 rate represents excellent
value for two seats at each of the 22 or
so screenings which we can now offer
in conjunction with other Guilds and
Pinewood Studios which allows a fearfully
generous discount for the evening bookings
of Theatre 7.
This year starts with four down on the
figure for 2004, due to one retiring and
moving away from London, one not
renewing, one leaving the industry and,
regretfully, Alfie Cox passing away.
OVINGDEAN HALL SCHOOL
TOTAL NUMBER OF MEMBERS:
LAPSED DURING 2004:
12
DECEASED (2004):
0
RETIRED, NOT RENEWED:
2
NEW DURING 2004:
(includes one re-joined)
14
OVERSEAS:
(15 believed active)
26
Pat Heigham AMPS
Membership Secretary
All fully paid-up members should by now have received their
2005 membership cards. If you have not, please contact the
AMPS office (020 7723 6727) and we can sort it out.
CHARITY UPDATE
Following the announcement in the last issue, and a bit
more background given at the AGM, we are delighted to
report that members are already responding to AMPS’
new adopted charity. Cheques and collections received
so far meant that the ball was set rolling with a first
instalment of £322 received by the school on Feb 21st
and they would like us to pass on their thanks to all
those involved.
The school invited members to their Open Day, on
28th April. Ovingdean Hall is situated just to the east
of Brighton, close to St Dunstan’s, and is well worth a
6
328
visit. Andrew Boulton, Sandy MacRae, Brian Simmons,
and Pat Heigham attended a pre-Christmas show in
the school’s soon to be refurbished assembly hall. They
came away impressed and somewhat humbled by
the confidence and enthusiasm demonstrated by the
children in learning to cope with the difficulties they
experience in a hearing world, when they lack the one
sense that all of us take for granted in pursuing our
particular careers. For instance, imagine playing the
violin, taking your eye off the conductor for an instant,
losing the timing and not being able to pick up the music
again. We’ll keep you informed of future events.
amps Journal
COMMENT
THE
MYSTIC
SOUNDMAN
This short, thought-provoking article by G. John Garrett
CAS, was written and published in the US a few years
ago as the first of a series of essays addressing the world
of production sound. Prepare for a different way of
viewing what we do.
Many film schools concentrate on theory, and give
less regard to practice. I have taught sound
recording seminars at large eastern US universities
with graduate students who had never touched a
Nagra. Why? Theory. Theory lives in the domain
of the intellect.
Its true that a picture is worth a thousand words.
The picture part of a film tells you things that you
learn by watching and thinking about. Colours tell
you something, the way something is lit, the size of
the actors in the frame, length of shots. The geography of the location is presented for you to digest.
The style of clothing and sets tells you the era, and
so on. Visual elements are processed by the
cerebral cortex, are acted on by the intellect, narrating the story to the viewer.
Sound, however, is another story. In the typical
thriller, for instance, how much time is devoted to
pictures that scare the audience? For that matter,
The mystics of film making are found in the
sound department. What all the other departments do on the set is obvious. We are the occultists. Its obvious what the art or prop or camera
department does, I mean, it’s the movie, its right
there on the screen. ANYONE CAN SEE IT! And
that is, by way of rambling, my point. Sound
is something intangible, and to such an extent
that the better the sound is, the less it is noticed.
And now I know why. Armed with some of this
knowledge I have been able to do a better job and
survive with my integrity as a skilled craftsman in
a land of egos and “its all about the picture” mentality. Sound, as it is received by the audience and
perceived by the production crew, just happens. I
am continually surprised by crew members who,
upon first donning a set of headphones at my cart,
say “WOW, you can HEAR EVERYTHING!!” No
kidding. That’s why we complain when we hear
“everything”.
Lay people often have no concept of how the
sound becomes part of the movie. Some think
there’s a microphone on the camera. I am not
making this up! So what’s the story behind all this
ignorance? Everyone has two ears, just like two
eyes, and the picture isn’t a mystery. The plain
fact is that since movies with sound have been
around, the seamless integration of two information streams is what makes a film interesting, and
makes it work. The way our brains decode these
information streams is what makes us magicians,
and at the same time invisible and incomprehensible to most people.
amps Journal
(continued over)
Author on location
G. John Garrett is a Boston, Massachusetts-based
production sound mixer with over 20 years’ experience recording motion pictures, television series
and musical events. His adventures in extreme
conditions have demanded the most from his gear
as well as his creative problem solving abilities.
John teaches an occasional sound class for Boston
University’s Center For Digital Imaging Arts, and
seminars for Digital Video magazine to which he’s
also a contributor. He is a member of the Cinema
Audio Society and the Audio Engineering Society.
7
(Mystic Soundman continued)
are those pictures really scary?? The movie Jaws
was in deep trouble during production; the subject of the film was not cooperating. Many of the
mechanical effects were not working properly and
the director had to shoot around his deadly beast.
Soon he realised that the less we saw of the
demon shark, the scarier the film would be. How
can that be? What made Jaws so scary? Those
double-basses! Who doesn’t know the ‘shark
theme’ from Jaws?
When we see a picture we tend to process stuff
in an intellectual way, by way of the cerebral
cortex, the most developed part of our brains,
where consciousness is said to live. Sound is
processed much closer to the mid brain and the
limbic system. The limbic system is the part of
the brain where our emotional response comes
from. Except for language, practically no ‘intellectual’ processing of sound occurs. So sound tends
to act directly on parts of the brain that deal with
our emotional states, and the subconscious.
One thing I’ve come to learn is that the subconscious is the place where our ‘self’ resides, the
core of who we are. The interesting part is that
we don’t have direct access to the self! Our outer
personas mediate our experience and our personality acts as a filter to send or block information
going to the subconscious. The limbic system is
part of our ancient brain, and sound does an end
run around our consciousness, to be processed in
an inaccessible environment. Animals with very
rudimentary brains have limbic systems to tell
them to be afraid and run away or stay and fight,
to hunt and kill, give them their sex drive and
give rise to profound feelings that help
ensure survival. When you’re talking to the limbic system, you’re talking to fundamental drives,
and sound talks most directly to the ancient brain.
Is it any wonder then, that the cries and whispers
we record have a profound affect on the audience
yet seem to go somehow unnoticed? It really says
a lot about why so many of our picture-centred
colleagues don’t ‘get’ what it is we’re doing on the
set, and explains why sound people seem to be a
special breed: We’re the mystics.
©1999 G. John Garrett, C.A.S.
Authors note : This was the first in an ongoing
and sporadic series of essays addressing the world
of production sound. I thank Damon Tutunjian,
Rachel Clift Margie Bergel and Kelly Doran, for
the genesis of this writing project. Without good
questions there are no good answers.
8
ANALOGUE TAPE - GONE & BACK?
In the days following Christmas rumours began to
circulate about the US Quantegy company, the only full
line manufacturer of professional
analogue recording tape remaining.
Quantegy, the company incorporates what was Ampex plus elements of the 3M tape technology,
had closed the doors of its Opelika,
Alabama plant and filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
While the movie and broadcast industries have largely
completed their transition to digital formats, the music
industry still uses a lot of analogue tape in wider width
formats, as does NASA, apparently.
When the news began to circulate tape dealers were
stripped of their stocks by customers who suddenly had
to find enough tape to accommodate current projects let
alone future needs.
Despite optimistic statements from the Quantegy
management it became obvious that the company was not
in any state to restructure without considerable investment and that was not likely to happen. It was also made
known that the audio tape side of the business was still
profitable and it was other product areas that had caused
the financial problems.
By mid February two other potential manufacturers of
analogue tape announced themselves. Philadelphia-based
ATR Magnetics, a new company and part of ATR Services
analogue tape recorder specialists had been planning the
manufacture of analogue tape for over a year spurred on
by the closure of the Emtec (BASF/Agfa) plant in Germany. ATR had a plant under construction although had
only been developing tape formulations so far.
In the Netherlands, a company by the name of RMG International also announced that it was entering analogue
tape production having acquired some intellectual rights
and production lines from the defunct Emtec some six
months earlier and was commencing prototype production of audio cassette duplication tape.
By the end of February, there were five potential bidders
for Quantegy with Discount Tape, a Georgia-based tape
distributor with a long association with Quantegy, emerging as winner at the end of March.
Rumours of the high cost or unavailability of suitable
raw materials for analogue tape manufacture have been
denied by all parties and the only barrier to a new generation of analogue tape manufacturer would appear to how
much investment these new entrants consider it wise to
make in what is obviously going to be a decreasing market in the long term.
At the time of writing, new Quantegy tape is beginning to appear in the dealerships and the other potential
suppliers are making positive noises. It looks as if we will
end 2005 with analogue recording in a far stronger state
than the year began. And for those with analogue Nagras
sitting in a cupboard, now might be the time to sell, as
usable machines with a potential supply of media rather
than later, just as beautiful museum pieces.
KSA
amps Journal
AMPS AGM REPORT
Although we say it every year, it seems almost inevitable that AMPS’ ‘AGM Day’ will be bright and sunny,
and 6th February 2005 didn’t let us down. There is some
uncertainty whether this means we have a better turnout
or not but one year our meteorological influence will fail
and we’ll find out.
AMPS Chairman Andrew Boulton opened the day’s
proceedings with an EGM to consider a motion initially
raised by AMPS founder member Bob Allen. He then
passed over to Membership Secretary Pat Heigham to
explain the background. Bob had expressed concern that
AMPS full members who were subsequently awarded
Honorary status were effectively disenfranchised because Honorary membership doesn’t have voting rights.
Bob felt now was the time to remove this restriction on
Honorary membership. This category was originally
intended for those who had a distinguished career in the
industry before AMPS was formed but would have qualified for membership had it existed during their working
life. This was offered to them without subscription and,
for several very good reasons, it was considered not to
include voting rights. These days Honorary membership
is offered to full AMPS members at the discretion of the
Council in recognition of service to the Association or
the industry, who may still have a considerable amount
to offer AMPS. They should not be deprived of voting
rights or the ability to stand for Council. The proposal
suggested a change in AMPS Constitution to allow this
to happen, together with a Council amendment that this
should not apply to those Honorary members who were
not previously full AMPS members. It was passed with
no objections.
The AGM was then opened, apologies were read, the
Minutes of last year’s AGM accepted and there were no
matters arising.
The Chairman then began his report by thanking
key members - Brian Hicken as Admin Secretary, Pat
Heigham as Membership Secretary, and Sandy MacRae
for his Website work, and the rest of the Council. He
then turned to thank the companies and facilities who
have provided AMPS with meeting venues, in particular
Pinewood Studios for their wide ranging support which
included the venue for the AGM.
The main meetings and screenings of the year were
mentioned as part of a summary of AMPS activities.
Colin Broad was introduced as AMPS new Treasurer,
and the changes to the Newsletter/Journal editorship
was covered with the delay between issues due to the
setting up of new computers, publishing software and
printers was explained. He paid tribute to the pioneering
work that Bob and Keith had undertaken on the original
Newsletter and said that much was expected of the new
Journal - that it should be viewed as a means of communicating between the membership, and it would help if
members could consider informing the Journal of their
activities. It is the voice of the membership.
The Chairman then turned to some of the ‘hot’ topics
of the year that were impacting on the industry. He read
a few lines taken from the PACT website, in particularly
how the workers in the industry wished to work in excess
to 48 hours per week as the norm and PACT wished to
respect that in the industry collective agreements! Andrew
then turned to Brian Simmons whom confirmed that these
changes were not yet finalised and that there were still ongoing discussions between interested parties although it
appears that the opt-out will remain in some form. AMPS
is not party to these discussions and any members wanting to express opinions should do this through BECTU.
Dick Hunt, the chairman (by default) of the sound
section of BECTU introduced himself from the floor and
explained some of the background difficulties.
The topic of Skillset was the Chairman’s next point and
he covered some of the requests received from them that
were generally inconsiderate of members time and effort,
now and in the past, and that the Council intended to take
a cynical attitude to requests for AMPS close co-operation.
The demise of industry NVQs was mentioned and how
much effort certain AMPS members had made that was
now wasted.
The subject of BEIRG - the British Entertainment Industry Radio Group - was raised. This is an organisation
representing the interests of the users of radio microphone
systems in discussions with OFCOM over the planned
‘spectrum trading’ changes to the RF spectrum. Potentially this will have a big impact on all users of wireless mics.
AMPS is talking to BEIRG we are planning to join. Sandy
MacRae mentioned some of the practical problems that
could result from this and how important these changes
could be.
AMPS have chosen a new charity - Ovingdean Hall
School - a school for the hearing impaired. The Chairman
told of his visit to the school and how AMPS will be helping. Brian Simmons enlarged on our aims and how this
will benefit the school.
There was some discussion on the timing of AMPS
meetings, whether weekday evenings or weekends were
preferred, and the start times.
The Chairman concluded his report by saying how
much he’d enjoyed his first year in the post and valued
being part of such an organisation of dedicated people.
Colin Broad, Treasurer then began his report by summarising developments in the 12 months since he took
over AMPS finances. While he will shortly be preparing
accounts, there will be no need for any increase in subscriptions, AMPS income last year was about £18,000,
from Membership and Sustaining members subscriptions.
Major items of expenditure were the Journal, the website,
the AGM catering, the screenings, the office, posstage etc.
The Treasurer was ‘modelling’ the new AMPS Polo shirt
and he indicated that they would be available for sale at
£12 and any profit over AMPS costs would be given to the
Charity.
Peter Musgrave requested that written accounts be
made available at next years AGM because this had not
amps Journal
9
AGM REPORT
Andrew Boulton - the
Chairman’s report
Treasurer, Colin Broad,
explains AMPS
finances while
modelling the
AMPS Polo
Shirt (£12.00)
happened for the last few years, Colin replied
that he will be undertaking to do this in the
next few weeks as he was now in possession
of all the paperwork, the changeover between
Treasurers having taken rather longer than
expected.
Pat Heigham delivered his Membership
report opening with the changes in numbers
over the year. AMPS started last year with
332 members and gained 14 new members
but unfortunately losing 14 over the year.
This year starts four members down, and ten
members who are still short on their standing
order payments. He advised of how this was
being solved. However seven new Sustaining
Members had joined.
Keith Spencer-Allen then wanted to alert
the membership to the difficulty there often
was in obtaining information for member’s
obituaries and how he felt that this was
unfortunate because a summary of your
achievements for your peers should be as
complete as possible. The Journal was open
to members providing career information for
use at some long-time in the future use. He
also apologised for the noise from the back
of the hall where four Sustaining Members
exhibits were having to be set up because
with 15 exhibitors, we’d outgrown the Green
Room.
The meeting was opened to the floor and an
energetic discussion on working conditions,
difficulty sound stages, crewing levels, producers demands, lack of training, followed.
Chris Munro then raised the question
whether AMPS should be running it’s own
training scheme as the camera guilds are? He
compared this to some other training schemes
where work is available as a trainee placement but not beyond. Chris then also carried
over a number of ideas that followed on the
subject of providing information on availability for AMPS members for producers.
The arrival of new technologies was bringing new opportunities - Simon Hayes suggesting that it presents a good opportunity to
renegotiate equipment hire rates; and from
Simon Bishop, that the increasing complexity
of new gear means that it will only be usable
by experienced personnel rather than runners
etc, The subject of AMPS credits then arose
and the difficulties, or not, of getting that suffix on screen.
The results of the Council election were
announced with Charles McFadden, Colin
Chapman, Chris Munro, Ian Wilkinson, being
elected, and Patrick Heigham re-elected.
The Chairman then closed the meeting and
the Sustaining Members Show and lunch
began.
KSA
10
amps Journal
FOOD & SOCIAL
Many thanks to Graham Hartstone, Brian
Simmons and Simon Bishop for the photographs of the AGM, and to Brian Simmons
for all the shots of the Sus Mems show.
THE NAMES BEHIND THE UNITS . THE NAMES BEHIND THE UNITS . THE NAMES BEHIND THE UNITS
André-Marie Ampère
AMPERE - The unit of Electric Current, symbol A. Named after AndréMarie Ampère (1775-1836), a French physicist, born in Lyons. He introduced
the distinction between electrostatic and electric currents, and between
current and voltage. He demonstrated that current carrying wires exert a
force on each other. He gave an explanation of magnetism in terms of electric
currents.
The 1948 Système International d’Unités (SI units) replaced the original
definition of the Ampere by the SI unit of Electric Current being equal to the
current that when passed through two parallel infinitely long conductors
placed one metre apart in a vacuum produces a force between them of 2 x
10-7 Newton per Metre.
Bob Allen
amps Journal
11
SUSTAINING MEMBERS SHOW
The
Sustaining
Members
Show
Following seamlessly from the AGM, although a little
later than planned, the Sustaining members Show got
underway. The show, with it’s now usual but unique
mix of education, discussion, eating and socialising,
was bigger than any before as 14 Sus Mems had accepted our traditional invitation to show their wares and
services. This meant that we had to ask four exhibitors
to move from the normal Pinewood Green Room and
into the rear of the Gatsby Suite. We acknowledge that
this wasn’t ideal for them and thank Richmond Film,
SADiE, Tacet and Universal Sound for their co-operation. If we have a similar number of Sus Mems wanting
to exhibit next year there will have to be a rethink over
location and layout. So if you have any suggestions how
the event might be improved, as a visitor or exhibitor,
contact the Journal via Journal@amps.net or the AMPS
office by phone or post.
We present a selection of images of the exhibition to
show the range and value of the day, and encourage
anyone who hasn’t attended a show so far to consider
doing so next year - the information and contacts are
invaluable.
Captions (from top right) - FX Rentals - intense discussions
with Colin Broad, Dennis Weinreich and FX’s Tony Andrews;
Richmond Film - Valerie Woodford and those accessories; RG
Media - Phill Russell and a happy team; Sound Station Fostex, Chris Munro and Hugh Strain; (below) New Sus Mem
Tacet’s Simon Bishop with Roger Patel and David Stephenson.
12
amps Journal
SUSTAINING MEMBERS SHOW
Captions (clockwise from top left): Rycote - final preparations;
Audio Developments - finer points discussed with Dick Manton;
Audio Ltd - Kish Patel explains details to Andrew Sissons; SADiE - innovative thinking; Universal Sound - the benefits of Foley in luxurious surroundings shown to KSA;
Everything Audio - Roger Patel with everything digital - recorder, mixer and RF mics.
amps Journal
13
Who’s At What . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.... Reg Mills, Production Sound Mixer, completed Ahead Of The Class starring
Julie Walters and directed by Adrian Shergold for Single Drama/Granada.
Boom Operator was David McMillan
Who’s At What ....
- a listing of member’s
activities, based entirely on
information provided by
yourselves.
The productions listed are
in no particular order. AMPS
members are in bold type.
If you would like to let
everyone know what you’re
doing, send a short email with
the relevant details to :
whois@amps.net
and you’ll be in the next
issue. We’d also be pleased to
hear any additional technical
information such as what key
equipment, recording format
etc, you were using.
Many thanks to those
who’ve sent pictures - more
are encouraged.
Looking forward to hearing
from you.
Dave Humphries
AMPS
.... Simon Clark has just finished David Kelly for Mentorn, a 90-minute single
drama for Channel 4, shot in the UK and Morocco, directed and written by
Peter Kosminski. Simon’s team consisted of Steve Wright as Boom Operator
and Jason Devlin as Second Boom/Sound Maintenance.
“After a long pre-production discussion with Peter K”, he writes, “We
decided to use HHB’s Portadrive machine in order to record separate tracks of
various playback sources, overlapping dialogues, and ‘as live’ telephone calls.
He is currently on his fifth year as Production Mixer on Waking The Dead
for BBC TV, with Steve Peckover as Boom Operator and Jason Bennett,
Second Boom/Sound Maintenance. Colin Chapman will again handle Post
Production
.... David Stephenson will be shooting V For Vendetta for Warner Brothers
starting in March in Berlin. Colin Wood will be the Boom Operator
.... Robin Pender is the Sound Supervisor at London College of
Communications. They teach analogue and digital location recording, postproduction and sound design, using Avid and Pro Tools systems. Find out
more at www.coelacanth.co.uk
.... Andre Jacquemin and Jean-Raphael Dedieu of Redwood Studios Sound
Design are both working on The Water Giant, a major US feature from John
Anderson that has been in CGI production for the last 3 years.
Andre was also the composer, with Dave Howman, for the series Boo and
Sprogs from Tell-tall Productions; and Music Producer on Churchill - The
Hollywood Years, on which Jean-Raphael was the sound designer. They also
recorded & supervised Debbie Myers’ album at Studio One, Abbey Road for
Robert Mackintosh’s Opera Album while Andre was also the re-mixer and
supervisor of the West End recording of BatBoy, again from Robert Mackintosh.
Jean-Raphael is co-producer, film editor and sound designer with Janelle, for
The Discovery Of Atlantis Cyprus Expedition 2004, a major feature for theatrical
release in 2005-6; and is currently finishing the sound design of The West
Wittering Affair, a comedy feature from director David Scheinmann
.... Dave Humphries has been starting up ’LoopSync’, his new location ADR
facility by recording ADR for Down To Earth; recording Foley for Daziel &
Pascoe, Shameless, Faith and Sea Of Souls as well as lecturing at Ravensbourne,
the NFTS and The London Film School
.... Anthony Faust is currently working on three features. He is Foley Mixing
and Editing on Constant Gardener; ADR & Crowd Supervisor on Shooting Dogs;
and is also supervising all the auto conforming & re-conforming of the audio
on Alpha Male
.... Production Sound Mixer Michael Spencer and Boom Operator John Lewis
set off to Vienna on New Year’s day for a six week shoot on the feature film
Klimt, directed by Raoúl Ruiz and starring John Malkovich, Veronica Ferres
and Saffron Burrows
.... Leigh Crisp is starting shooting Extras at Pinewood from March to the end
of April. This is a BBC production, starring and written by Ricky Gervais
.... Chris Round is recording The Thick Of It for the BBC, a kind of Yes, Minister
for the Blair generation, starring Chris Langham and Peter Capaldi amongst
others. He says it’s being shot in a kind of ‘Gosford-Lite’ style, with everyone
talking at once on two handheld cameras, sometimes, on different sets! Chris
continues, “I’m doing the only decent thing - wiring up all of the actors,
multitracking them on a Deva V (rented from Tacet), and creating a guide mix,
whilst Luke Neuman vaguely waves a boom at it all. It’s directed by Armando
Ianucci and produced by Adam Tandy, and very funny it is, too!”
14
amps Journal
Who’s At What . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.... Soundelux London is busy at the
moment. Per Hallberg was over from
America supervising Ridley Scott’s
Kingdom Of Heaven. James Harrison,
Oliver Tarney, Sue Lenny and Martin
Cantwell have been Sound Designing;
Alex Joseph and Harry Barnes have
produced the Foley; Colin Ritchie, Tony
Currie and Simon Chase are dealing with
the Dialogues while Paul Conway is the
ADR Supervisor. The mix happened at
Shepperton.
Still at Soundelux, Eddy Joseph
supervised Charlie And The Chocolate
Factory with Colin Ritchie and Tony Currie
on Dialogues, and Martin Cantwell and
John Warhurst on FX. Steve Boedekker
Sound Designed and Alex Joseph looked
after the Foley. Mike Prestwood Smith
mixed it at De Lane Lea
Soundelux are also involved with two
other films. John Leveque has moved
here from Hollywood and is supervising
Mrs Harris, while James Harrison will be
supervising The Last Drop
.... Chris Trussler will be mixing at World
Wide Sound Theatre One, The Rope Makers
TV drama. Director is Prue Waller for
London Fields Film and Video. (He’s also
being very secretive about an upcoming
American feature, but more of that in the
next issue!)
Also at World Wide, Clive Mitchison
has been recording ADR for Bad Girls and
Footballers Wives
Deva-equipped Brian Simmons
at the Rialto Bridge for the Merchant of Venice shortly before
January snow. Bridge canopies
hide modern shops.
Below is Stuart Wilson’s Aaton
Cantar-based ‘handbag’ kit,
his portable rig as used on
Tristram Shandy.
.... Universal Sound have been busy
recording Foley for Beyond The Sea starring
Kevin Spacey, Spooks and the Holby
Christmas Special for the BBC and Wire In
The Blood for Yorkshire TV
.... Alan Sallabank has been at Mayflower
working on Dungeons and Dragons 2 and
promos for Bullet Boy, Trust The Man and
Alfa Dogs
.... Chris Munro, Production Sound Mixer,
has recently been to Toronto, Los Angeles
and Shepperton shooting Where The
Truth Lies, directed by Atom Egoyan and
starring Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth
.... Kevin Brazier has been Supervising
Sound Editor on Sherlock Holmes And
The Case Of The Silk Stocking, Down To
Earth, Not Only But Always, Tom Brown’s
Schooldays, Shameless, Mr Harvey Lights A
Candle, Daziel & Pascoe and Faith
amps Journal
15
SUSTAINING MEMBERS INFO
NEW AMPS SUSTAINING MEMBERS
We welcome two new Sustaining Member companies to AMPS, Tacet
and Universal Sound :
Tacet is a company that is the result of a
partnership of two sound recordists, Simon
Bishop and Simon Clark. Both Simons have
worked regularly on TV dramas, films, commercials and documentaries - both are AMPS
members. They have used this experience
to assemble several recording kits based on
hard disk drive recorders and ensure that
they are complete, flight-cased and ready to use. Both have been involved in HDD file recording since the first Devas and are able to give
advice on production and post production routes that work. Systems
based around Zaxcom Deva, HHB Portadrive and others are available
for hire by the day or week. Contact Tacet - Simon Bishop on +44 78
3634 5092 or Simon Clark on +44 77 8522 8588.
Universal Sound are a sound post production facility based in
Amersham, Bucks, and have been involved in the industry for 30 years.
Originally they were a Dubbing Theatre in Perivale, mainly involved in
sound mixing for television, but over the last 10 years have specialised
to an ever greater degree in the recording of Foley tracks. The current facility has been purpose built for Foley recording with in-house
recordists and Foley artists.
A features Foley studio with the recording theatre directly connects to
a sunken Foley studio via a glass wall, with projection over the Foley
studio onto a six metre screen; and two further television Foley studios.
Each studio has fully floating floors to guarantee absolute sound proof
recording and each is directly connected to its associated recording theatre through
glass. Each
studio has
an exhaustive array of
props and
surfaces,
with each
having an
integral
water effects
area. In
addition
there is a
fully heated
and air
conditioned
inside pool
allowing
for larger
water effects than can be directly achieved in the main studios, but also
providing an excellent recreational swimming pool.
Universal Sound is different to most other studios that record Foley
in that they have three full time in-house Foley artists. This allows an
unprecedented rapport between Foley mixers and artists, allowing Foley tracks to be produced accurately, quickly and at very high quality.
However they fully understand that people sometimes have their own
favourite artists, so are quite happy to hire in freelance Foley artists, or
even totally dry hire a studio.
16
amps Journal
SADiE APPOINTS GUY GAMPELL
SADiE has announced the appointment
of Guy Gampell to the new position of
Business Development Manager for Post
Production. Gampell brings considerable experience to SADiE, having formally worked in the film and television
post-production arena with AMS Neve,
Akai Professional and Feltech.
Director Geoff Calver commented,
“There is no question that SADiE will
benefit immensely from Guy’s extensive
experience in the post industry”.
Universal Sound
Universal Sound
Old Farm Lane,
London Road East,
Amersham,
Bucks HP7 9DH.
Telephone: 01494 723400
Fax: 01494 723500
E-Mail: Foley@UniversalSound.co.uk
URL: www@universalsound.co.uk
SUSTAINING MEMBERS INFO
FX RENTALS CONTINUES WORKING RELATIONSHIP
WITH OSCAR-WINNING HOWARD SHORE
FX Rentals completed another project with Academy Award-winning
composer Howard Shore, putting together a package of audio-visual
equipment for Shore and Abbey Road Mobiles for the scoring of new
Martin Scorsese film The Aviator, based on the life of Howard Hughes.
Shore, who picked up an Oscar earlier this year for his work on The
Return of the King, worked extensively with FX Rentals and Abbey
Road on the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. The team was reunited to
score The Aviator in an historic theatre in Leuven, Belgium. Formerly an
emporium of adult entertainment, the now-respectable theatre is home
to the Flemish Radio Orchestra.
FX Rentals put together a package of audio-visual equipment, which
included a 48 I/O
Pro Tools HD3 rig
with Prism ADA8 converters and
four Millenia HV3D
8-channel mic pre
amps for Abbey Road
Mobiles to record the
orchestra, together
with a second Pro
Tools HD 192 rig
which was used to
edit to picture. A 42inch Sony plasma
screen was placed
in the control room
for Shore and the
recording engineers
to view the picture
during recording and
playbacks.
FX Rentals project
FX Rentals gear store
co-ordinator was John ‘Oz’ Osmond,
who had worked extensively with the audio team throughout the Lord
of the Rings sessions. Oz ensured that all the necessary equipment
was delivered to Leuven and set up correctly, liaising extensively with
Eventone’s technical coordinator Tim Stritmater.
“On The Aviator we were working in an unfamiliar city
in a concert hall, not a studio. FX as usual came through
with all of the gear I needed. The staff were fantastic and
I really would not even think of using anyone else.”
Shore was once more working with his scoring
engineer John Kurlander. The team from Abbey Road
were Richard Hale who runs the Abbey Road Mobile
units, assistant engineer Roland Heap and Pro Tools
engineer Richard Lancaster who recorded the orchestra
through Millenium Mic preamps and Prism ADA-8
converters onto a Pro Tools HD3 system with accel card,
running on an Apple G5 2GHz computer.
“Between sessions the recorded audio was edited
by Howard’s music editor Mark Wilsher for playback
each evening over ISDN to Scorsese in New York,”
explains Lancaster, who also worked in parallel to edit
the later cues each day for inclusion in the evening
playbacks. The whole process of recording the film
score and tracks for the CD release was completed in just over a week.
RPS transfers ‘New Town
Original’ to 35mm for New
Town Films
New Town Original is the stunning new
film from three Essex boys that
Guardian Unlimited called “A
Hollywood flick on a Basildon budget”.
Featuring some of the most exciting up
and coming acting talent and an
infectious soundtrack, New Town
Original is a brooding picture which
throws the spotlight on young lives
lived out in the urban sprawl of Britain.
RPS became involved in this project
after producer Terry Bird and director
Jason Ford saw a test demonstrating
their proprietary software on the big
screen. Bird commented, “I was
completely amazed when I saw the test
these guys did for us, I don’t know how
they do it but it’s great! Their service
and attention to detail has been
fantastic.” Producer Chris Thornton
explains; “We loved the look of this
film. The dull, subdued tones that
reflected the atmosphere New Town
Films wanted required us to write
specific software enhancements to
transfer the look of the film completely
accurately.”
RPS’ bespoke transfer system,
branded ‘Field & Frame’ has continued
to move from strength to strength.
A rapidly growing slate of features
indicates that the industry is beginning
to sit up and take notice of the service
RPS provides.
New Town Original was released in
April.
Enquiries to: Simon Burley 07702 732655, Chris
Thornton 07971 201929, Allan Curtis 07718
320184
The Aviator scoring sessions
For more information contact FX Group. Tel: +44 (0) 20 8746 2121 Web: www.fxgroup.net.
amps Journal
17
ITEMS
SOME MOVIE FACTS
First Aaton Cantar in South Africa: The first Cantar was delivered personally by the
President of Aaton, Jean-Pierre Beauviala, to production mixer Nico Louw AMPS in
Johannesburg , South Africa. Nico is reportedly very happy with his Cantar and the
mic pre amps are the best that he has heard. He’s found the Cantar to be rugged and
provides the reliability he needs in remote locations.
On Jean-Pierre’s visit he also held a sound seminar at a local post / telecine facility,
Video Lab. The subject was Aaton’s Indaw system in the telecine process, to show how
fast and cost effective dailies can be synced up, and the part that the Cantar plays as a
location recorder in the sound/post process.
Captions: (above) Nico Louw and Jean-Pierre Beauviala with new Cantar;
(below) Jean-Pierre Beauviala at the Sound Seminar
According to the publication, Screen Daily, 27 British
films were made in the UK
last year following a drop
in funding, compared with
45 in 2003 - a fall of 40%.
UK and US co-productions
in Britain fell from 102 in
2003 to 81 last year. Part of
this may also be due to 2003
having been an especially
good year for UK film production.
With George Lucas’ Star
Wars movie sextet now
complete, it is worth noting
that, following 20th Century
Fox’s decision to allow him
to retain merchandising
rights in 1977, Lucas has
earned just £1.8 billion from
the film series but a whopping £4.7 billion from Star
Wars model characters to
ring tones to themed fast
food! And it hasn’t finished
yet - toy maker Hasbro has
reputedly paid Lucas £272
million to extend their image rights for Star Wars merchandise to the year 2018!
THE NAMES BEHIND THE UNITS . THE NAMES BEHIND THE UNITS . THE NAMES BEHIND THE UNITS
Alexander Graham Bell
BEL - Used as a unit of Sound Intensity, symbol dB for 1/10th of one Bel.
Named after Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), born in Edinburgh. In 1870
he emigrated to Canada and then in 1873 to the USA. He became Professor
of Vocal Physiology at Boston University teaching the deaf using his father’s
form of visible speech. He is best known for his telephone invention which
he patented in 1876. The Bell Telephone Company was established in 1877.
In 1880, Bell received the Volta Prize, worth 50,000 Francs, which he used,
in conjunction with his cousin Chichester Bell and Sumner Tainter, to set up
the Volta Laboratory in Washington, where he continued his work on sound
recording, photographing sound on glass discs. Most important to motion
picture sound is his 1888 patent pertaining to the transmission of sound by
light, an account of which in Scientific American inspired Eugene Lauste to
pursue his recording sound on film experiments.
A Bell - the unit to compare two power levels on a logarithmic scale. It is a
large unit usually expressed in decibels, 0.1 of a Bel.
Bob Allen
18
amps Journal
NEWS, ITEMS & ODDMENTS
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Cinema Expo 2005
- June 27-30, 2005 - Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands
SMPTE (Australia)
- July 19-22, 2005 - Sydney - www.smpte.com.au
IBC2005
- Conference: 8-12 Sept, 2005
- Exhibition: 9-13 Sept, 2005 - Amsterdam
- www.ibc.org
Sound Broadcasting Equipment Show (SBES)
- November 16-17, 2005 - Birmingham NEC
InterBEE 2005
- November 16-18, 2005, Japan
- www.bee.jesa.or.jp
8
Lip Sync Appeal: You don’t have to watch
TV for too long before discrepancies in lip sync
occur. The causes are usually related to the difference in processing time between related digital audio and digital video. There are numerous
bodies looking into this but SMPTE has formed
an ad hoc Group on Lip Sync Issues to review
all aspects of this problem and make recommendations. It has issued a request for information from interested companies or individuals,
particularly relating to: Sources of differential
audio-video delay in television production,
postproduction, and distribution; Audiovideo delay issues through professional MPEG
encoding and decoding systems; Differential
audio-video delay arising in consumer devices;
Methods of measuring differential audio-video
delay; During programme methods of measuring differential audio-video delay; and Devices
for correcting delay at different points in the
broadcast chain They note that there is an ATSC
document: Relative Timing of Sound and Vision
for Broadcast Operations (see http://www.atsc.
org/standards/is_191.pdf) and an ITU recommendation: ITU-R BT.1359-1, Relative Timing of
Sound and Vision for Broadcasting. They mention
that some broadcasters have adopted target
tolerances for synchronization errors that are
smaller than those indicated by the ATSC and
ITU. SMPTE is particularly interested to hear
from manufacturers with practical solutions or
proposals for measurement and correction of
audio-video synchronization errors, and those
willing to participate in development of related
standards. Responses should be sent to the
ad hoc group chair, Graham Jones of NAB at:
Email: gjones@nab.org or Tel: +1 202-429 5345.
While this is predominantly a TV problem
the importance of DVD to the movie industry
brings it closer to home - and who’s been dealing with lip sync issues longest anyway?
8 AMPS Joins BEIRG: AMPS has become a member of the
British Entertainment Industry Radio Group (BEIRG) to help
argue against Ofcom’s (or the Government’s) plans to claim and
sell-off most of the existing frequencies available for radio microphone use which will probably mean all the VHF frequencies
and chunks of UHF being lost. The Exchequer obviously has in
mind the extraordinary sums they gained from the telecommunications companies in the G3 license sell-off compared to the very
small revenue derived from the existing use of the frequencies in
question. BEIRG represents a cross section of radio microphone
users in the UK including the theatres. TV, radio and other stage
production interests who are all heavy RF consumers, and the
radio mic manufacturers. It aims to present a unified industrywide voice on RF use and explain the wider impact such changes
would make to large sections of the entertainment industry. For
more info see www.beirg.org.uk
8
Who’s Loopy Now: Last October, St Anne’s Post asked
AMPS member Dave Humphries to record some ADR on
location. Down To Earth the Sunday night BBC TV drama series
was behind schedule and couldn’t find time to get actors from
the location up to London to record their lines. Using Pro Tools
LE running on an Apple laptop, with beeps for cues he recorded
8 actors over 2 days in a conference room at a nearby hotel.
Although there was a problem with extraneous noise (from the
groundsman’s lawnmower) and some bounce from the undraped
walls (soon fixed by scenehands and some set curtains) most of
the recordings made it into the final mix.
Dave has now refined the
rig and has set up ‘LoopSync’
specifically to record ADR on
location. The system includes a
modular booth to reduce room
reverb time, digital picture
playback on a TFT screen and a
custom-built playback system
for the artists.
For more info contact him on:
Tel: 01227 831297, Mob: 07957
228645, Email: info@loopsync.
co.uk or visit www.loopsync.
co.uk
TRUE STORY
Location: The slopes of Ben Nevis, Scotland.
Background: A 60 metre waterfall.
Dialogue: Totally swamped.
Director : “??????” (indistinct shout)
Production Mixer : “A louder pair of headphones? I’m
sorry, I don’t have a louder pair.”
Director : “No, I asked am I allowed a pair of headphones?”
Anonymous AMPS
amps Journal
19
NEWS, ITEMS & ODDMENTS
GONE WITH THE WIND
- REMASTERED
Courtesy of BKSTS, I
recently attended an
afternoon seminar at the
NFT entitled Digital Cinema
– where are we now?,
followed by a preview of
the new digital re-mastered
Gone With The Wind, a film I have to admit I’ve
tried to watch on TV, unsuccessfully, over the
years.
The seminar was run by people who really knew
their business. One of the team, Ron Hummel,
Senior Vice-President of Production Technologies at Warner Bros, I wished I had met when I
was seventeen. He was able to explain 3-strip
Technicolor in words of one syllable so that even
I could understand - I’ve known for many years
‘how’ it works - but not ‘why’. The same team
showed examples of the previous renovations that
Warner Bros had attempted. GWTW was seriously
interfered with in the 1950s using the, by then,
very shrunken original 3-strip negative. The result
was appalling, with the original Academy Framing
stretched out to a Scope format – the 3-strip was
now seriously out of register, the colour turned
into a delicate shade of jiggering mud. I now knew
why I had never managed to watch the film from
start to finish.
The new restoration technique is of course
computer-based. Each single frame is scanned
and the 3-strip is electronically realigned. Result:
the colour comes jumping back with sparkling
freshness. It looks now as it must have done in
1938. Really stunning. But it is worth noting that
each individual frame takes two minutes to scan
and the film is four hours long - running at 24
frames/sec – I think that might be 345,600 frames,
give or take a bit, which at 2 mins a frame is about
11,520 hours. Guess how much that costs ? I believe I was told but it doesn’t bear thinking about.
We also saw examples of the re-mastered of Robin
Hood and The Wizard Of Oz. If screened now I suspect the former would be re-titled as ‘The Camp
Adventures of Robin Hood’ - acting styles having
changed dramatically over the years! As for the
latter, one of the first films I can remember seeing
in a cinema, it looked to me like an escapee from
Monty Python – however the colour of both was
breath taking.
In the evening the new digital version of Gone
With The Wind was screened in its entirety, the
format returned to the original Academy shape. I
was entranced by it, watching all four hours and
enjoying every frame. It came to life before my
eyes and I suddenly understood why it keeps on
winning best films polls.
Brian Hickin AMPS
(Since January 2004 the NFT has been running a series of digitally
converted and projected classic films with the intention that they’ll be
available to digitally capable theatres around the country. Look out for
Casablanca and Singin’ In The Rain. Ed)
20
8
DOLBY SHARES HIT HIGH : Shares in Dolby Labs’ initial
public offering jumped to $25.40 from $18 offered price on the
first day of trading on Wall Street in March. The issue of 27.5
million shares raised around $495 million following heavy
investor demand which had forced the initial offer price from
$13.30. Ray Dolby still retains a 70% stake in the company which
is now estimated to be worth in excess of $1.7 billion.
I’d hazard a guess that this makes Dr Ray Dolby AMPS Honorary
Fellow the most pecuniary-advantaged of any of the membership.
8
SONY QUOTE : As the Sony Corporation in Japan appoints
a non-Japanese, in the form of Howard Stringer, to the positions
of Chairman and CEO, after a decade of decidedly patchy
performance, it is interesting to consider where the company lost
it’s way. One clue might come from an interview that Nobuytuki
Idei, Stringer’s predecessor, gave to John Nathan, a US academic
for his book Sony - The Private Life in the mid 90s.
After his surprise appointment in 1994, Idei set about restructuring the company, and in a very un-Japanese manner, made
personal criticism of Sony patriarchs Norio Ohga and Akio
Morita, intending to show how different and largely irrelevant
their philosophies were in his eyes. He told author Nathan that
“running Sony was impossible because it was a company driven
by the founders’ vision.” and then focusing his attention on the
Sony co-founder he continued, “For Mr Morita, what mattered
was the position and proper function of a switch, a start button,
on a Sony product. If he took one home and tried it and the
switch was hard to reach, that was an ‘insult’ - the engineer responsible had insulted him.” If that is considered a criticism by
the outgoing management it probably explains why Sony is still
struggling to regain the strong engineering position it once held.
STOP LETTING THINGS GET YOU DOWN
- GIVE YOUR BRAIN A TICKLE
The medical Journal Neuron, reports claims made by
John Rothwell and his colleagues at University College
London, that two minutes of ‘transcranial magnetic
stimulation’ alters neural pathways for up to an hour,
and that people suffering from Depression, Epilepsy,
Stroke and Parkinson’s disease could benefit from this
non-invasive magnetic treatment.
By moving a magnetic coil over the skull, tiny
electric currents stimulate or inhibit activity in
different parts of the brain. “It’s a bit like tickling the
brain”, says Rothwell.
So when Production Mixers begin to feel depressed
by noisy sets, noisy locations, long hours and low rates,
why not try moving your headphones back and forth
over the head a few times, between set-ups ?
Bob Allen AMPS
amps Journal
‘Typoglycemia’ ?
If you have a lot of time on your hands and you fill it with
trawling the internet then you may have come across this
little oddity that has been appearing on various sites over the
last 12 months. Try reading the following ...
“I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was
rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a
rscheearch taem at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht
oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the
frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses
and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the
huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a
wlohe. Such a cdonition is arppoiately cllaed Typoglycemia.”
Despite the fact that it looks a challenge most people can
read it almost instantly even if word processor spell checkers
go into meltdown. Being heavily involved with the printed
word I decided to dig a little deeper. Was it really unnecessary to place the letters in the right order? Could this be an
explanation why it is very difficult to see spelling errors
when reading of a computer screen? Mobile phone texting
shows how far you can dismantle the English language and
still convey a meaning of sorts but the used letters are still
in the correct order and it is an art that needs to be learnt.
The above is ‘natural’ to read. However it does appear that
this paragraph has been carefully constructed to achieve this
result. Try this sentence which has been assembled by the
same rules but is shows that we need more than the just the
first and last letters:
“A dootcr has aimttded the magltheuansr of a tageene ceacnr pintaet who deid aetfr a hatospil durg blendur”
The most likely inspiration for this topic appears to have
been a letter written to New Scientist in 1999 by a Dr Graham Rawlinson in response to some published research and
he mentions his PhD work from 1976 on this subject at the
University of Nottingham. Cambridge University (UK) has
nothing to do with this at all.
A member of the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at
Cambridge has suggested reasons why the original example
worked and these include the use of plenty of three and four
letter words that don’t change at all or little (the 4 letter ones)
and this preserves the structure of the sentence because half
of the words are as they were. Most of the letters are still
close to their correct position and as most know it is the simple transposition of letters in a word that is difficult to spot
while the opening or closing letters of a word are easy to see.
It has also been suggested that when we see a word the
brain identifies the first and second part at different points in
the retina sensors for processing in the opposite sides of the
brain. If the letters remain close to their original position after
jumbling then it is easier to make sense of that than if the
jumbling causes the letter to cross the sides of the brain.
Even after the jumbling, the words did not then spell an
existing word which would considerably reduce our reconstruction ability. Additionally, our jumbled words still sound
very similar if read out further enhancing readability. And
lastly the paragraph had a very high degree of predictability
enabling the brain to partially guess the most likely word.
Apparently, a translation of this paragraph works well in
most European languages although Finnish is difficult, and
apparently it doesn’t work at all in Hebrew.
So while this wasn’t a con, it was a very cleverly constructed example to take advantage of our ability to read ‘flexibly’,
or to ignore visual errors rather than presenting a potential
new area for scientific research.
END CREDITS 2004
CAST
Anthony Ainley
John Blyth Barrymore
John Baron
Marlon Brando
Lyndon Brook
John Bullock
Duncan Carse
Philip Crosby
Kenneth Cleveland
Francis Dee
Tiny Doll
Buddy Ebsen
Sam Edwards
Jack Elam
Alice Fraser
Spalding Gray
Fritha Goodey
Uta Hagen
Julius Harris
Howard Keel
Anna Lee
Janet Leigh
Diana Mahony
Hugh Manning
Richard Marner
Mercedes McCambridge
Ann Miller
Spoli Mills
Robert Pastorelli
Denis Quilley
Tony Randall
Dolly Rather
Christopher Reeve
Ronald Reagan
Cyril Richard
Paul Roach
Caroline Snodgress
Ingrid Thulin
Alan Tilvern
Peter Ustinov
Fay Wray
Paul Winfield
PRODUCTION
John Grant
Jack Greenwood
Godfrey Jennison
Roger Mirams
Russ Meyer
Ted Morley
Michael Relph
Ray Stark
DIRECTION
Vijay Anand
John Armstrong
Brian Gibson
Bernice Rubens
Theo Van Gogh
Mike Walker
WRITERS
George Axelrod
Jose Luis Castillo Puche
Melvin Harris
Jerome Lawrence
Robert Lees
Françoise Sagan
Maurice Shadbolt
CAMERA
John Alcot
Peter Allwork
Jim Body
Brian Cross
Eric Cross
Basil Cox
Carlo Di Palma
AA ‘Tubby’ Englander
Neal Fredericks
Nick Gordon
Peter Hammond
Bill Jordan
Tony Lucas
Reg Morris
Steve Oxley
Roy Pointer
Charles W Smith
SOUND
Mike Carter
Ivor Kitching
Paul Le Mare
Archie Ludski
Don Sharpe
Claude Wickstead
Roy Williams
PA SCRIPT SUPERVISOR
Anne Deeley
EDITING
Gillian Dearberg
Bernard Gribble
Ralph Kemplen
Mary Kessel
Kitty Marshall
John Trumper
Kitty Wood
MUSIC
Ena Baga
Elmer Bernstein
Fred Ebb
Jerry Goldsmith
Ustad Vilayat Khan
Billy May
David Raksin
Hal Shaper
Artie Shaw
ANIMATION
John Hardwick
John Hench
Franklin Thomas
KSA
amps Journal
21
FEATURE
SCREENED
- For Sound
Screen Research Fixed Screen
perforations, producing an almost perfectly flat
acoustic response that obviates any compensatory
EQ. Though relatively little known in our
industry ClearPix2 received THX certification
back in December 2003 with this comment from
John Dahl, Technical Product Marketing Manager
for THX Ltd: “No screen we’ve tested to date
matches the acoustical transparency of the Screen
While researching equipment for his recently completed audio
Research ClearPix2 fabric”. Not content with
post facility, Jim Betteridge came across French company, Screen published figures we asked Roger Quested of
Research, whose projection screens have enhanced sound appeal,
Quested Monitoring to compare some fabrics for
particularly for the smaller room.
acoustic performance. He too was amazed at how
much better they performed than the competition
with his findings broadly supporting the Screen
The need to place the front speakers behind the
Research claims.
projection screen has always presented our industry
The woven wonder is also claimed to eliminate
with a problem: it’s hard to make a surface that’s
moiré
interference from the picture and
both suitably reflective to light and transparent
received
certification from the Imaging Science
to sound. You can of course place them above or
Foundation: for “Flat Spectral Response and
below the screen level but that’s an unacceptable
White Field Uniformity”. Depending on your set
compromise if you’re intending to achieve a final mix
up,
the picture quality might be further improved
for theatre applications (occasional, uncritical playback
by
the
use of a layer of equally acoustically
applications is another matter).
transparent black material behind the screen to
Until recently the only mainstream way to make
avoid reflections from light or shiny surfaces at
screens acoustically porous was by peppering them
the rear. This same material is used by Screen
with micro perforations – as found in all the major
Research in their masking system, Xmask, which
cinema chains and large film dubbing theatres
allows size and aspect ratio to be changed using
around the world. Though simple in concept the
a system of borders without worrying about
making of acoustically effective holes turns out to
whether they obscure the speakers.
be unexpectedly tricky and so prices for similarly
The screens come in various formats for home
proportioned perforated screens can vary by several
hundred percent. But even the best set of perforations applications including simple roll-down, or a
causes comb filtering and a progressive high frequency permanent model with electrically adjustable
masking or alternatively a simple fixed frame
roll-off requiring extra EQ, not to mention adding
undesirable moiré interference patterns to the picture, with optional masking as mentioned. And the
final icing on the cake of this little find: the
especially when used with fixed-pixel projectors like
ClearPix2 is actually considerable less expensive
DLP and LCD.
than the top end perforated option – somewhere
There has quite recently appeared an alternative
in
the region of 65% of the cost. Now that’s
in the shape of ClearPix2 from a French company,
progress.
Screen Research. It uses a woven fabric rather than
Jim Betteridge AMPS
22
amps Journal
Close-up detail of ClearPix screen
Frequency response plots for screen with micro perforations (left) and ClearPix on right. Red line is original signal
and black line is signal measured at 4 inches from screen on viewing side on both graphs.
For more info:
UK Agents - Pulse Marketing:
25b Hockerill St, Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, CM23 2DH.
Tel 01279 655 955
Interesting Web Sources:
www.screenresearch.com
www.screenresearch.fr
White paper on ClearPix2:
www.screenresearch.com/documents/
ClearPix2_eng_light.pdf
Corner detail of the Xmask masking system, which
allows size and aspect ratio to be changed using a
system of borders without worrying about whether
they obscure the speakers.
Info from US agent re THX approval:
www.stjohngroup.com/downloads/
screenresearch/03121/_SR_THX.doc
amps Journal
23
OBITUARY
ALFIE COX AMPS Hon
It was with great sadness that I learned of Alfie’s death
on 19th January. He passed away peacefully, after a
short illness, in hospital at Weston-Super-Mare. He was
seventy-nine.
Like many of us, Alfie found his way into the film
business almost by accident. On leaving school in the
early forties at the age of fifteen, he found a job with
The National Cash Company in Soho, but one day,
wandering the streets in his lunch hour, he saw a card
in a window advertising a vacancy for a junior general
assistant. Among his duties was the task of visiting
retail outlets ‘up North’ to arrange film advertising and
publicity material in shop windows. On one occasion,
Alfie decided to brighten up the high street of a rather
dull town by carefully arranging his advertising literature upside down. A fascinated and amused crowd soon
formed. But not long afterwards a policeman appeared.
The law advised Alfie that he was risking arrest for causing obstruction.
Soon afterwards he was relieved of his challenging
advertising task and, under the tutorage of Silvia Cummins, an editor who worked for the company, found
himself in a cutting room working on countless Government documentaries until 1949. Later, he was to earn his
first two screen credits as film editor. They were both
features titled Celia and Room To Let.
Following those early assignments Alfie joined Hammer Films and spent five years working at Hammer
Films where he met Jimmy Needs, Bill Lenny, and others. Then, from 1955 he spread his wings in the outside
world and embarked on a large number of features,
alternating often between picture and sound editing.
By 1991 Alfie had amassed an incredible total of 70
screen credits. And bearing in mind that some of these
credits were on six, or more, one-hour TV programmes,
it was a very impressive achievement.
In the late 70s, Alfie was elected Secretary of the Guild
of British Film Editors, a post he held for almost twentyfive years. These were still relatively formative years for
the Guild and Alfie was to steer it through many trials
and tribulations before it settled into its final form. Years
later, the Guild was to become one of the founder groups
of The Cine Guilds of Great Britain (CGGB), placing an
even more onerous role on his shoulders. But Alfie had
great respect for CGGB and worked tirelessly to promote
its aims and improve the lot of technicians everywhere.
During this period Alfie had many complex dealings
with the member guilds. Sir Sydney Samuelson wrote:
‘.....Alfie was one of the people I have known during all
my years in the industry who I enjoy describing as a “no
problem” kind of person. Whenever I turned to him with
a query ... he always delivered the information, with the
best of goodwill attached. He was particularly valuable
to me when wearing my BAFTA hat.
Alfie’s activities were by no means confined to UK.
During the 60s and 70s his work included visits to Spain
- The Lost Command; Italy - Better a Widow and Arabella;
and South Africa - Death of a Snowman. Other land-marks
were Death Wish, and John And Yoko.
In the spring of 1991 Alfie spent some time in hospital.
He recovered well but in early 1992 he became ill again
and, this time, found himself in intensive care. Finally
recovering from his health ordeals he decided to backpedal for a while. But inactivity was not his forte, and
for a while he put his enormous experience to good use
lecturing and teaching at the Beaconsfield film school.
I cannot conjure an image of Alfie enjoying this age of
galloping technology when, it seems, everything is simply and quickly achieved by stabbing at a row of buttons.
But I do retain clear memories - stretching back over several decades - of him hunched over a moviola and, much
later, happily seated at a Steenbeck producing the sort of
quality work that was the envy of many. Our industry
goes marching on. None of us is indispensable, and we
will be replaced as time and age dictate. But one thing’s
for sure - there’ll never be another Alfie Cox. He was
truly a loved and much-respected doyen of our industry.
Our thoughts and love are with his wife, Audrey, and
their sons, Stephen and Simon, who, I am sure, have
many wonderful memories of their own to sustain them
in the coming years.
Lionel Selwyn AMPS
A fuller version of this obituary appears in the newsletter of the GBFE.
OBITUARIES IN BRIEF
Jeff Marks, Cutting Room Maintenance Engineer at Pinewood from 1977 to until his retirement in 1993.....
Erwin Hillier, formerly a Director of Photography and Oscar nominee, died aged 93..... John Beaton, Sound
Editor..... Nick McClaney, technical engineer, ex-AMS Neve and his own company Backup Audio.....
Dickie Best, film editor..... Dickie Batchelor, sound mixer (full obituary next issue)
24
amps Journal
TRIBUTE
Connectors are one of those audio products that it is hard to become
passionate about - until they let you down. Like cables, they form a
key part of the infrastructure of virtually all audio installations, large
and small, and we depend on them being reliable and trustworthy
in whatever situation we throw them into. With the arrival of digital
audio, computers, telecommunications interfaces and other parallel
technologies, the audio world has had an influx of new connector
types that has greatly complicated the art of interconnection. Life has
become far more complicated as we learn to handle connectors that
were never intended to work in an audio environment of any type
and to depend on computer connectors that were probably never
designed to be cycled (plugged in/out) more than a dozen times.
It is this situation that makes us appreciate the XLR connector and
it’s reliability; a standard for decades and the adaptable connector
workhorse of professional audio everywhere.
XLR HISTORY
The story of the XLR connector begins with the US Cannon Electric
Company, a company that describes itself, quite believably, as “the
very first connector manufacturer in the world”.
Cannon had developed several series of connectors that found
common application in audio. The 3-pin version of Cannon’s P Series
was popular as a microphone connector although it was quite sizeable, at over an inch in diameter, and relatively heavy. Users recall
that it gave problems when winding mic cables, often getting caught
and damaging the cable connection. However, the P and the later EP
Series version were the standard microphone connector in film and
music recording applications for many years. But as microphones became smaller, there was a need for a compact connector with similar
features.
Following the introduction of other connectors such as the Dshaped UA Series, that found use on some American microphones,
and slightly later, the O Series, shaped like a squashed circle, Cannon
turned to their already established X Series connector.
The X Series was far smaller but lacked a locking mechanism. Following a redesign to reposition the connection pins, and so allow the
addition of a Latch function, the XL Series was created. This was the
beginning of the connector that we are all familiar with and whose
critical dimensions have subsequently been copied worldwide.
Cannon continued developing the XL connector series, redesigning
the female connector by using a tough rubber material to hold the
pins that was also claimed to ‘maximise performance in humid conditions while minimising vibration and electrical noise’. This they designated the XLR Series (R for rubber). Although other manufacturers
didn’t follow them in the use of rubber, it was the XLR designation
rather than XL that we’ve accepted. Despite XLR being a registered
trade mark, and parts of the connector being patented, the term is
now universally recognised as referring to a connector now made by
multiple manufacturers worldwide. AES14, the 1992 AES standard
for the use of connectors in professional audio, refers to XLR as now
being a ‘generic term’ and ‘free of proprietary restrictions on its use’.
The first XLR connectors appeared on equipment in the early 1950s
but the wiring convention was determined by the equipment manufacturer. One of the clever features of the XLR design is the way that
pin 1 on the female connector is slightly further forward than pins 2
& 3. So when male and female connectors mate, pin 1 connects before
the others. This was designated the screen or ground connection so
that any potential buildup of noise in the screen could be dissipated
before the audio signals connected. The polarity of 2 & 3, however,
was a matter of debate. In the mid 70s most of the world accepted
IEC standard 268 which designated pin 2 positive polarity. Despite
the US having raised no objection to the IEC discussions, and the
recommended adoption by SMPTE, the USA still had several manufacturers who, until recently, remained keen supporters of a ‘hot’ pin
3. The AES14 standard clearly states that the US should now fall into
line with the rest of the world.
amps Journal
CANNON
FODDER
- a tribute to the XLR
PHYSICAL COMPATIBILITY
Manufacturers of XLR-type plugs and sockets have
managed to maintain remarkably close adherence to the
dimensions of the original Cannon design and there are
few problems in mating plugs and sockets of whatever
make. However, as with everything, there are exceptions
- such as the original rubber insert Cannon XLR female
connectors that are equipped with ridges of rubber
material running along the insert barrel with the intention of holding the two connectors more firmly when
mated. Unfortunately there are some brands of male
XLR connector that don’t take too kindly to being mated
with such a plug and only come apart with some effort.
Fortunately or unfortunately (?) it doesn’t seem to be
repeatable across every example of the same brand combination of connectors and may therefore be a matter of
tolerance in one of the connectors or, as these connectors
can last for decades, one may be of an older design.
These minor annoyances are rare in comparison to
the ‘rogue’ microphone connector syndrome. Some
microphone designs call for all or part of the body of the
microphone to be machined from a single piece of metal.
The XLR connection is made to a male insert positioned
inside the mic body. While this can work very well, if the
tolerance of the mic body is even slightly out, the XLR
plug may go in, but coming out is a different matter. It is
likely that the manufacture had a specific brand of XLR
in mind when specifying the dimensions. The best solution would seem to find the connector that fits best and
dedicate that lead to that microphone.
➥
25
TRIBUTE TO THE XLR
EXTRA THOUGHTS
- The XLR has been a very successful design, as proven by its use
throughout professional audio. Other industries, such as stage lighting,
industrial processes, and medical equipment, have seen the ruggedness
of the XLR connector and adopted it extensively, even creating their
own wiring standards for its use. Before the arrival of dedicated speaker
connectors, XLRs were also used, inadvisably, to handle speaker level
signals. It is also the recommended connector for digital AES/EBU
signals. Bearing in mind all these factors it would be wrong to assume
that you know exactly what is coming down the XLR connector you are
about to plug into.
- Although the XLR is a very reliable type of connector, keeping that reliability may need a degree of maintenance. A connector on the end of a
cable permanently plugged into the back of a rack will be good for years
without any attention but the same connector on the end of a free mic
cable needs looking after. While many recent designs have eliminated
the use of screws, the more traditional XLR designs have several - a pair
for the strain relief and one for locking the insert into the shell. If these
are loose or missing, the strain or movement acting on the soldered connections can cause them to break. Our reliable connectors are then only
as reliable as our cable maintenance schedule.
Page from an early Cannon catalogue showing XLR and
connectors that preceded it
XLR WIRING TIPS
Wiring anything when tired, weary and under
pressure can lead to mistakes; and rewiring XLR
plugs is far more fiddly than getting it right first
time. There are some simple tips for making XLR
connections.
- When trying to figure out if you should be using a male or female plug on a cable, remember
that the XLR pins always ‘point’ in the direction
of ‘signal flow’.
- some brands of XLR have the pin numbers on
the opposite end of the plug to the wiring end. If
you don’t wire XLR connectors regularly, it is too
easy to check the pin number at one end, turn the
insert around to wire it, and then go to the wrong
pin. Consider making a simple drawing of the
pin numbers, viewed from your wiring side, as a
worthwhile exercise.
- Wiring an XLR requires at least 3 hands and
preferably a wiring vice. But as this will not be
available when you need it, push the pins of a
male XLR insert through a piece of card or into
a box top, to hold it while wiring. Female XLR
inserts are not so easy to improvise holding but as
they will stand upright without support, a little
piece of gaffer tape will usually steady them.
- Use a low wattage soldering iron when wiring
XLR connectors - around 30W is ideal. It doesn’t
take very much heat to work on an XLR pin but if
it becomes overheated by a high rated soldering
iron, the heat is almost instantly conducted to the
material that the pin is set in. Depending what
that material is, the result may vary from nothing
serious, to a softening and misalignment of the
pin and a problematic connector.
26
- When selecting an XLR type for use, match the design against the
usage. Some connectors are far easier to assemble and wire than others.
Some favour U-shaped pin contacts over hollow pin ends within the
XLR. The former is easier to solder to, easier to rewire if needed, and
more suitable for those cases where a connector has to be unbalanced
or a component added within the shell. However they do seem slightly
more prone to fractured connections. Because of these factors such XLR
designs are often favoured in static use, with more robust designs for
the more demanding situations. With the hollow pin type of connection,
check that the size of the ‘solder pot’ end of the pin is sufficient to allow
insertion of the thickness of conductor you will be using plus solder.
This dimension is not an XLR standard and smaller and larger sizes are
available.
XLR FUTURES
For a connector over 50 years old, the future of the XLR appears bright.
It made the transition into the digital domain by being specified as a
suitable connector for the 2-channel AES/EBU digital interface despite
some reservations reported about the potential problems of misconnecting signal types. Although there was discussion about modifications to
the XLR connector to differentiate between ‘digital’ and ‘analogue’ XLR
connectors this was dropped in favour of no change. However Neutrik
have developed their own variation of an XLR designed to transmit
digital audio signals. It features a coaxial ground spring and coaxial hex
crimp ferrule at the cable entrance for reliable and accurate transition of
the cable shield to the shell. It also provides 360 degree ground connection between the cable shield and the connector shell.
With the AES formulating an extension of the AES3 standard for use
with ‘digital’ microphones, the published draft standard shows that
the XLR connector is again at the forefront of discussion. AES42-2001
(downloadable from www.aes.org) shows a proposal for an ‘XLD’ connector, largely identical to the XLR standard, but with a few additions
to prevent mating with an XLR connector if that might cause damage.
The suggestion is that an XLD ‘uncoded’ will have XLR compatibility.
Proposals for additional grooves and user insertable keys for signal
identification make the XLD progressively less compatible until we have
a ‘fully-coded’ XLD which cannot be mated with any XLR type. Further
proposals include such additions as a ‘zebra ring’ outside the connector
to identify it as an XLD, plus the addition of a grounding ring as part of
the connector construction.
In many ways the XLR has evolved into the ideal in-line connector
- robust, compact, reliable, easy-to-wire, and universal. It is these characteristics that may well cause the XLR to continue to be the connector
of choice until there is a better and cheaper way of getting audio signals
from A to B without cables.
KSA
amps Journal
2005 SOUND AWARDS
BRITISH ACADEMY FILM AWARDS - BAFTAS
12-02-05
FILM SOUND AWARD
THE AVIATOR : Philip Stockton, Eugene Gearty, Petur Hliddal, Tom Fleischman
COLLATERAL : Elliott L Koretz, Lee Orloff, Michael Minkler, Myron Nettinga
HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS (SHI MIAN MAI FU) : Tao Jing, Roger Savage
RAY : Steve Cantamessa, Scott Millan, Greg Orloff, Bob Beemer
SPIDER-MAN 2 : Paul N J Ottosson, Kevin O’Connell, Greg P Russell, Jeffrey J Haboush
BRITISH ACADEMY TV CRAFT AWARDS - BAFTAS
8-05-05
SOUND FACTUAL AWARD
BIG CAT WEEK : Andy Hawley, Andy Milk (BBC/BBC2)
THE BOY WHOSE SKIN FELL OFF : Bob Jackson (Yipp Films/C4)
THE GENIUS OF MOZART : Andy Rose, Tony Meering, Ben Baird (BBC/BBC2)
HIMALAYA WITH MICHAEL PALIN : John Pritchard AMPS, George Foulgham (Prominent Television / BBC1)
SOUND FICTION/ENTERTAINMENT AWARD
DIRTY FILTHY LOVE : Reg Mills AMPS, Nick Cox, Phil Barnes, Nigel Edwards (Granada Television/ITV1)
THE LONG FIRM : Richard Manton AMPS, Catherine Hodgson AMPS, Graham Headicar, Paul Hamblin AMPS (BBC/BBC2)
SEX TRAFFIC : Simon Okin AMPS, Jane Tattersall, David McCallum, Lou Solakofski (Granada/Canadian Broadcasting Corp/C4)
SHAMELESS : Chris Atkinson AMPS, Gavin Dunn, Tony Cooper (Company Pictures/C4)
77th ACADEMY AWARDS - OSCARS
xxxxxxxx
27-02-05
SOUND EDITING AWARD
THE INCREDIBLES : Michael Silvers and Randy Thom
THE POLAR EXPRESS : Randy Thom and Dennis Leonard
SPIDER-MAN 2 : Paul NJ Ottosson
SOUND MIXING AWARD
THE AVIATOR : Tom Fleischman and Petur Hliddal
THE INCREDIBLES : Randy Thom, Gary A. Rizzo and Doc Kane
THE POLAR EXPRESS : Randy Thom, Tom Johnson, Dennis Sands and William B. Kaplan
RAY : Scott Millan, Greg Orloff, Bob Beemer and Steve Cantamessa
SPIDER-MAN 2 : Kevin O’Connell, Greg P. Russell, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Joseph Geisinger
ACADEMY AWARDS FOR SCIENTIFIC & TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
12-02-05
TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS
To Steven E Boze for the design and implementation of the DNF 001 multi-band digital audio noise suppressor.
Designed in the early 1990s when digital signal processing was in its early stages, the real-time digital approach of the DNF 001 provided accurate filter
response with minimal interaction, allowing noise attenuation with fewer artifacts.
To Dr Christopher Hicks and Dave Betts for the design and implementation of the Cedar DNS 1000 multi-band digital noise suppressor.
The Cedar DNS 1000 is specifically designed to reduce background noise from the recorded motion picture dialog. With its precise filters it allows the frequency ranges to
be altered or even cascaded to pinpoint and reduce the offending noise.
NB: Only audio-orientated awards listed
Congratulations to all Nominees, Winners and their crews
amps Journal
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AMPS Council pictured at the first monthly Meeting following the election. From left to right: Brian Hickin (Admin Secretary), Sandy MacRae, Charles
McFadden, Graham Hartstone (Vice-Chairman), Patrick Heigham (Membership Secretary), David Humphries, Colin Chapman, Jim Betteridge, Chris Munro,
Andrew Boulton (Chairman), Tim Blackham, Brian Simmons, Colin Broad (Treasurer), Peter Hodges (Secretary), Simon Bishop, and Ian Sands. Not included
in photo are David Crozier, Norman Brown, and Ian Wilkinson nor members co-opted to Council, Anthony Faust and Alan Sallabank.
Picture taken by Simon Bishop who made it back into the crowd.
Meet AMPS COUNCIL 2005
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amps Journal