Planning the Audio Chain Before the First Microphone Goes Up
A look at how our sound engineering support begins: mapping the audio chain, placing microphones with the room in mind and agreeing a mixing workflow before crews arrive.
What sound engineering support covers
Our Sound Engineering Support service is built around three things: planning the audio chain, placing microphones and setting out the mixing workflow. It is advice and planning, written down so that a crew can follow it on the day. Priya Nair leads this work, and she is usually the person a studio manager speaks to first.
I am writing as the lighting designer, but anyone who has shared a studio floor knows that sound and lighting get in each other's way. A boom shadow, a lavalier cable draped across a lit face, a stand placed where a key light needs to go: these are planning problems, and they are cheaper to solve on paper. That is why we work on the audio plan alongside the lighting plot rather than after it.
This note explains how the service starts and what a client receives, so that engineers and producers know what to expect from a first conversation.
The service applies to broadcast studios and live events alike, and the questions differ only in scale.
Starting with the chain, not the kit list
Priya begins by drawing the audio chain from source to destination: every microphone, preamp, desk input, bus, monitor feed and the final send to the vision mixer or the outside broadcast circuit. Drawing it first shows where a signal changes level, where it splits and where a delay might creep in.
Clients often arrive with a kit list already decided. That is fine, and we work with what is there. But a list of equipment does not say how it connects, and most audio faults we are asked about turn out to be routing questions, not equipment questions.
The chain diagram becomes the reference sheet for the whole production. It tells the crew which input is which, who owns each fader and what feeds the talkback. When something sounds wrong at a rehearsal, the diagram narrows the search quickly.
We keep the drawing plain: one page where possible, readable by someone who did not attend our meeting.
- Sources, preamps, desk inputs and buses shown in order
- Monitor and talkback feeds drawn separately
- Final send to the gallery or outside circuit marked clearly
Microphone placement and the room
Placement depends on the room as much as the microphone. A studio with hard flats and a bare floor behaves differently from a theatre stage with soft drapes, and a venue with a high roof adds reflections that no desk setting will fully remove. Priya visits where she can, or works from drawings and photographs where she cannot.
For presenters and panels, we weigh lavalier, headset and boom options against what the cameras will see. A close two-shot limits where a boom can sit, while a wide set offers more room but more noise from the audience or the floor crew.
This is where the lighting plot meets the audio plan. Daniel's job on these projects is to confirm that a boom path does not cast a shadow across a face and that no stand blocks a key light.
The result is a placement sheet marking each microphone position on the floor plan, with notes on the type, the pickup pattern and the person or area it serves.
- Lavalier, headset and boom compared against camera framing
- Boom paths checked against the lighting plot
- Room reflections and floor noise noted for each position
A mixing workflow the crew can follow
Once the chain and placements are agreed, we write the mixing workflow. This sets out who mixes what, how the programme feed is built, which sources are grouped and how changes are handed over between rehearsal and transmission.
For a multi-presenter programme, that might mean a simple group for each presenter and a shared bus for the guests. For a live event, it may mean separate mixes for the broadcast, the house and the stage monitors, with clear ownership of each.
Tom Fletcher, our workflow producer, checks the audio workflow against the production schedule so that line checks, sound checks and rehearsals sit in the right order. A sound check squeezed in after the lighting crew has left the floor helps nobody.
We also note what happens when something fails: which spare microphone is nearest, who switches to it and how the desk operator is told.
What a client receives
At the end of the planning stage, a client holds a short set of documents: the audio chain diagram, the placement sheet, the mixing workflow notes and a list of questions still open. We try to keep these readable by engineers, producers and presenters, since each of them uses a different part.
We do not supply equipment, and we do not promise that a plan removes every problem. Rooms surprise people, and live events change on the day. What the plan does is make those surprises easier to deal with, because the crew knows how the chain was meant to work.
If a client wants a crew trained on the plan, our technical training sessions can cover gallery operation and the audio side of vision mixing. That is a separate piece of work, quoted on its own.
Prices for sound engineering support are on the Prices page, with the enquiry route set out under Contact.
How to start a conversation
The easiest way to begin is to tell us what the production is, where it will take place and when the crew first has access to the room. A rough floor plan helps, as does a list of the sources you expect. If you have neither yet, say so; we can begin from the programme format.
Enquiries go through the contact form on this site. We reply in writing with questions, then confirm the scope and price in a quotation before any work starts.
During these autumn weeks many studios are planning winter schedules and event producers are looking at the busy run towards the end of the year. Planning the audio early leaves room to adjust. Planning it in the last week usually does not.
Good sound on air rarely comes from one clever decision. It comes from a chain that was drawn properly, microphones placed with the room and the cameras in mind, and a mixing workflow the whole crew understands. That is the work Priya and the team do, and it is easier to do early. If you have a production coming up, send us the details through the contact page and we will take it from there.