Only Connect

First new topic, so feel free to lock if it isn't appropriate!

I'm a fan of Only Connect, and I'm grateful that they've managed to keep it on the air given the social distancing requirements etc. I watch it on iPlayer rather than via broadcast, and I've noticed that the audio seems a little less than perfect.

During quieter moments in the show, there's a definite hiss/hum/rumble sound in the background, almost as if there's a computer on with a buzzing fan, and even when people are speaking the audio doesn't sound "right". Is it just me starting to go slightly bonkers, or is this a fairly duff recording?

It's been going on for a good few weeks now. You can (or I can!) hear it from 5'10" onwards in this iPlayer broadcast and again at roughly 7'25" as the team answer the "music question": https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000q5yc/only-connect-series-16-12-colleagues-v-sandy-shores

I heard something similar that was very very loud in a handful of episodes of Joy of Painting that BBC Four are/were airing, but the bulk of those were all recorded in the 1980s, and the noise it was so loud and so obvious I was very surprised that Bob Ross couldn't hear it (unless it was introduced some other way after recording). I could only presume that was an air conditioner or something?

Although I will admit I have heard this on quite a few programmes recently, especially studio based stuff. Rarely on inserts that were filmed on location (there is a difference between natural wind and noise and the effect we're discussing), which makes me think it is an air-conditioner or something, since I think one of the Covid-secure requirements is adequate ventilation, and since leaving the doors and windows open doesn't work in a studio, the next best thing is mechanical ventilation.

When it comes to The Joy Of Painting, the first 9 seasons have recently been put on Amazon, and on the very first episode there's loads of banging and clattering in the background, as if they were filming in the corner of a cafeteria (which probably wasn't too far off the reality). There's music on all the rest of the episodes during the first season which I wouldn't be suprised was partly done to cover up that background noise. BBC4 haven't gone back that far, I imagine it's unlikely to be repeated on TV at all considering the low technical quality- not least because it only seems to survive on VHS or something similar. Guess it's not suprising there's sometimes something similar in some ofthe later episodes as well.

And when it comes to what sounds like air conditioner hums, watch some of the Nicky Cambpell Wheel of Fortunes on Challenge, quite often you can hear a noise like that in the quiet moments- especially during the final round.

1st season of Joy of Painting is known to be technologically crap compared to the rest of the run, as it was filmed outside of where it settled down and I suspect it was cobbled together quickly to have something to flog to other networks, even if it was just the basic "man stands there and paints for 30 minutes" format. BBC Four has Bob Ross: The Happy Painter PBS Documentary which tells the whole story of how that happened.

But with regards to the topic at discussion, it's a noise that once you've heard it, is very hard to unhear. As I say I've almost always heard it on studio productions. If you go outside and film in a field somewhere its an entirely different noise. Unless this is another one of those "you wouldn't have heard it back in the day" type things like when we can see how SD material looks foggy when it gets upscaled on a HD channel.

It could be some kind of air conditioning/ventilation system. Good ventilation is a requisite of a “Covid-safe” studio, so they may have gone overboard with the air conditioning to make sure the studio is safe safe.

Only Connect has always had poor sound quality in their studio. Go and check out Series 3 on YouTube and they sound appalling. It sounds like the studio they used is creaking. This was when they used the ITV Wales Studio in Cardiff.

Your words are respected, but poor sound quality doesn't take away from OC being - as it always has - a darn good quiz show.

You are Victoria Coren Mitchell and I claim my £5.

I wonder whether the style of the show doesn't do itself any favours in the sound stakes. I'm not a regular viewer but from memory it has little in the way of background music and there are long pauses for the teams to confer. Lots of opportunity for background noise to creep in.

The studio itself (Enfys in Cardiff) doesn't exactly look purpose built, although it might be a perfectly reasonable facility on the inside.

http://www.doctorwhofilming.uk/photo/enfystelevisionstudios-outside?maxw=590&maxh=443&s=08-02-25

A History Of Corners is still the best thing she ever did.

Such sound is audible on the snooker on eurosport now, in milton Keynes. Could it also be noise from the production equipment itself?

It was the same with the UK Championship coverage on the BBC at the weekend. (Same venue as this week's Scottish Open held in the beautiful Scottish venue of Milton Keynes 😉)