Owner`s manual

Monitoring

The term Monitoring in audio refers to the signal which is intended to be heard in the control

room or edit suite. There are several different methods of controlling and selecting the audio

signal which is monitored, each of which is similar to various methods of video picture

monitoring (but with one special consideration - humans can view several different video

monitors and concentrate on one of them. This approach does not work well with audio -

even with the ‘cocktail party effect’ !).

To meet the exacting requirements of broadcast monitoring and metering, the monitor matrix

generated by the BVE02 within the mixer delivers 2, 4 or 8 channels of discrete monitoring

audio via the mixer Omni outputs that should be connected to an external metering and

monitoring system.

When monitoring the output to the recorder or To Air these discrete channels accurately

mirror the audio delivered to the external path or device. They should be connected to

appropriate moving coil, bargraph or surround metering units and via monitor mixing and

switching to a stereo, 4-channel or 5.1 surround loudspeaker monitoring system.

Here is a brief description of the different monitoring schemes in an edit suite and a studio

gallery.

Edit Suite Monitoring

The various monitoring styles in an edit suite assume the main mixer bus outputs (either 4

channel or 2 channel) are fed to the audio inputs of the record VTR(s).

Very Simple Monitoring

The edit controller assumes the audio output from the record VTR is permanently fed to the

audio monitors. The edit controller uses (Full) EE commands sent to the record VTR to select if

it is off-tape audio or the mixer output is heard.

Simple 2 Channel Monitoring

The edit controller assumes it is able to select monitoring between the mixer bus outputs and

an alternative ‘monitor’ source - usually the 2 channel audio return from the record VTR. (This

avoids the loss of off tape picture caused by EE switching record VTR as described above).

Sophisticated 4 or 8 Channel Monitoring

The edit controller assumes it is able to select audio monitoring in a manner similar to video

source and monitor selection - i.e. the mixer offers FROM, TO, and Monitor (PRESET) bus

selection. With the BVE02 most of the choices available for video mixing and monitoring are

also available in the audio domain. The edit controller is able to support changes of record

Machine and functions such as channel selective edits and pre-read replay from D-VTRs.

When controlled by the BVE02 Interface, the default monitoring setup is this sophisticated 4

or 8 channel monitoring control using the external metering/monitoring system described

above.