Chapel Session - The RTU's

Figure 1 - Live at the Chapel

The RTU's

On Monday 21st October, The RTU's and Jake put together a jamming session for all the Level 3 students to have a hands on experience of setting up The Chapel Studio. 
I took on the role of Audio Engineer and Floor Manager. both these jobs are demanding and i had to be thinking fast and making quick and prompt decisions. 

Floor Manager
As floor manager i took on the responsibilities of directing the guys in my team to set up the recording studios in the quickest time possible. by doing so, we were able to set up the equipment such as drum kit, microphones and amplifiers and rigging them to the audio console via the XLR patch bay. 

Audio Engineer
As part of the role as Audio Engineer i had to set up the audio console and perform sound checks to ensure that the band sounded at their best possible. i performed many tasks to do this, such as; adjusting equalization, cut and boosting, changing the top and bottom levels and many more.  
Jack who as well as playing lead guitar decided to become vocalist and wanted to hear himself through monitor speakers, so we quickly set them up using the 350 watt Live Mackie Speakers and patched them using the patch bay in Control Room A so he would be able to hear himself through them.

It was great to have a hands on experience and to do something different for a change. i will hopefully be performing many different roles within the industry throughout the year.

Microphones used
Shure SM94 Condenser Microphones - Drum Kit
Shure SM47 Dynamic Microphones - Guitar Amplifiers
Shure SM48 Dynamic Microphones - Vocals

Instruments
Roland XP-30 Keyboard
Drum Kit
Electric Guitars 
 -Epiphone Les Paul Custom
 -Mexican Fender Talicastor

Other Equipment
-Marshal AVT150

Media Institution Case Study - British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB)

British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB)

Established in 1989, SKY is one of the leading worldwide entertainment institutions with over 11 million subscribers in the UK alone. With a capitalization of £4.7 billion in the London Stock Exchange in 2012. 
SKY is a trading name for The British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC and offers a large range of services including Sky+ and Sky+ HD, Sky Broadband, Sky Talk, Sky 3D, Catch Up TV, Sky Go, Mobile services, Sky Multiroom and Freesat from Sky.
As well as these products 

BSkyB is a world leader in multi-channel digital television. Launched 16 years ago, the Company owns 28 channels including Sky One, Sky News, Sky Sports and Sky Movies
and has almost eight million sky digital customers. BSkyB employs 11 000 staff in multiple geographical locations, including London, Harrogate, Chilworth and Scotland. Their ccupations are wide ranging, from television producers and satellite engineers to presenters, production staff and call centre employees. In May 2005, following an independent audit, BSkyB won an international award from the British Safety Council for its lower than industry average accident rate. 

Sky has its own subsidery companies that offer a wide range of products and services that include

 Sky Broadband L company for Sky's broadband and telephony services.
 Sports Internet Group Ltd
 Sports content and online betting services.
 British Interactive Broadcasting Holdings Ltd
 Interactive television services, formerly an alliance of BSkyB, BT Group, HSBC and                     Matsushita.
 Mykindaplace.com
 Being both an agency and a media owner, run many successful sites.
 Aura Sports Ltd
 Media Sales Agency, sells advertising on the majority of premiership football club                         websites, as well as other major sports.
 Aura Play Ltd
 Another Media Sales Agency, sells advertising across a number of websites in the music            and entertainment sector.
 Sky Ireland
 Operating company for Sky pay-television service in Ireland.
 Acetrax
 A video on demand movie rental service.
 The Cloud
 Wi-Fi provider acquired by BSkyB
Sky has many competitors as they offer such a wide range of products and services. These include, Virgin Media, TalkTalk,                                                                                                                                                                                           

SKY have millions of customers who are subscribed to their various services

TV customers         10,422,000
Sky + HD customers         4,786,000
Multi-room customers         2,489,000
Sky Broadband customers 4,906,000
Sky Talk customers 4,501,000



Adjusted revenue         £7,235 million*
Investment in programming         £2,486 million*
Adjusted operating profit 1 £1,330 million*
Number of employees         24,000
Price of Sky TV package From £21.50 a month

Programmes produced by SKY

 A League of Their Own ♦
 A Town Called Eureka ♦
 Battlestar Galactica
 Bondi Vet
 Caprica ♦
 Crash Test Dummies
 Don't Stop Me Now ♦
 Football's Next Star
 Fringe ♥ ♦
 Futurama ♥ ♠
 Glee ♥ ♦ (Series 3 onwards)
 Glenn Martin, DDS ♦
 Got to Dance
 House of Anubis (Reruns of Season 1; Season 2 on Nickelodeon from April 16, 2012.)
 Hawaii Five-0 ♠
 House (Series 5 onwards) ♦
 Last Man Standing
 Law & Order ♥
 Lie to Me ♦
 Lost (Series 3-6) ♦
 Modern Family ♦ ♥
 Mount Pleasant ♥ ♦
 NCIS: Los Angeles ♦
 Nip/Tuck (series 1-3) ♦
 Oops TV
 Pineapple Dance Studios
 Raising Hope ♥
 Road Wars
 Ross Kemp in Afghanistan ♦
 Ross Kemp on Gangs ♦
 Spartacus
 Stargate Atlantis ♦
 Stargate SG-1 ♠

Chapel Session 1 - Richard Watson

Richard Watson

Richard Watson is a highly-accomplished and multi-talented pianist who has made a name for himself in a number of fields as both sought after session musician, accompanist and composer. This classically trained pianist’s forte is in essence this: he has the unique ability to improvise ad lib in absolutely any musical style for artists in any genre with almost none to very little rehearsal time needed. This distinctive ability to mould himself to whatever the musical requirements are, whether it be classical, classical-crossover, jazz, musicals, pop or rock, is indeed a rarity in itself.

As a session musician, Richard’s skills on piano, keyboards and drums are in demand from producers and engineers alike in UK recording studios around the country. He has subsequently performed on countless recordings from a variety of recording artists. He is also regularly asked to provide masterclasses at the world-renowned Rockfield Studios near Monmouth; where his prowess on the Hammond organ is much in demand.

As it was the first session of Live at the Chapel, The Media Students observed the process of recording live artists at the Chapel Studios. As mentioned in my last blog, many roles were undertaken by the members of staff, these included;

• Cameraman - David Wood - To record Richards performances  the Chapel Studios used three Sony HD cameras for best quality footage of which two were static and used as safety shots and David had a roaming camera to work on close shots and to ensure quality. 
• Visual Mixer - Phillip Farr - As Visual Mixer, Phil had many responsibilities as he had to ensure the quality of the video was at its best. As well as choosing what footage to use and work closely with Dave to direct him and tell him what camera shots he wanted. Phil uses tri-castor to control what video footage coming from the three cameras he wanted to use. Phil and Dave communicated via in ear headsets so they could discuss what camera shots to make when the recording process was in action. Although Richard was singing various tracks, Phil had to find out what key lines Richard was making so he could get close-ups of Richards face - this is where he had to tell Dave to get close up of Richard's face just in time for the nine.
• Paul Cobbold - Chief Audio Engineer - Paul took on the role as Cheif Audio Engineer, as part of this role he has to ensure that the sound quality was as it's best and that all the recording equipment was set up correctly. Paul and I discussed ways that he could sharpen the sound of Richards voice and not pick up any sounds within the chapel apart from vocals. Paul used the Reverb function to remove ambient sounds from the chapel surroundings so that Richard's voice was clear enough. Condenser microphones were used to capture the sounds of the piano effectively as it would pick up more sound frequencies than a standard dynamic microphone would. By enabling the phantom power button on the console percent 48V to the microphone so that it would pick up many more piano keys.

To visit Richard Watson's website, please Click Here.

Introduction

Today is Monday 16th September. The first session in the Chapel Studios at RNC.

The group had a taster of what it will be like to be a part of the 'Live at the Chapel' sessions by watching previous videos of bands and performers who have been filmed at the chapel in previous years.

Genres of the the types of videos that we were shown included acoustic folk, psychedelic rock and traditional blues, the group had mixed thoughts in regards to the types of music that we were shown as they weren't their personal favorites. 
The Team will be experiencing various of roles within the media industry within during throughout the year, these will include; Cameramen, Visual Mixers, Directors, Floor Manager, Editors, Sound Engineers and many more... 

I will be regularly blogging my experiences, watch this Space!
-T