CTV, the most popular television network in Canada, is enjoying the functionality of Neumann digital microphone technology for its audio production of everything from documentaries to voice-overs to music recording.
CTV’s post sound supervisor Michael Nunan attributes CTV’s increasing use of the cutting-edge technology to features that are essential to broadcasters and unmatched by analog technology: failure-proof fidelity and consistently easy setup.
One of CTV’s Neumann digital microphone productions was the re-recording of “The Hockey Theme,” often lovingly referred to as Canada’s second National Anthem.
The recording used an amazing thirty Neumann digital microphones, one of the largest such recordings ever.
“It was a high pressure recording,” recalled Nunan. “Our work would be scrutinized by a nation of hockey fans who had been listening to the original version for forty years! Failure was not an option.”
Despite the importance of the session, Nunan and his collaborators still faced tremendous constraints.
Without a sufficiently large scoring stage, they sat the 52-piece orchestra at a local concert hall and rolled their remote truck up to the back, well aware of the unexpected technical demons that can plague a remote session.
They had only three hours to track over a dozen cues.
“Despite the fact that our remote truck has a wonderful SSL C200 console with remote mic preamps, we decided to bypass them and conduct the session exclusively with Neumann Solution-D digital microphones,” said Nunan.
“We would rely on their fantastic dynamic range as well as the peak limiter feature to shorten soundcheck. The transparent peak limiter allowed us to be aggressive with gain settings without risking a lost take due to ‘overs’.”
CTV is also using Neumann Solution-D mics for audience pickup for its in-studio productions and remote coverage of award ceremonies.
The same peak limiter feature allows them to face the first thunderous round of applause with confidence, while still providing enough noise-free gain to capture the subtle reactions that really convey a live feel to viewers at home.
