Overview

 

If you sit down in front of the television to watch a high profile broadcast that features live studio sound, there's a good chance that Plus 4 Audio will be involved. From the X Factor to Dancing On Ice, Children In Need to Sports Personality Of The Year via Celebrity Love Island, Plus 4 has established itself – and its considerable inventory of Yamaha mixing consoles – as one of the primary choices for live studio sound by the big hitters in UK television.

Launched in 2001, Plus 4 was founded by Stewart Chaney whose many years experience in the live sound industry was the ideal background for the new venture. However, there was actually a much more prosaic reason for the creation of Plus 4. "The main reason I started Plus 4 was so I could be at home more. I wanted to come off the road and spend more time with the kids," he says.

Web site:

http://www.plus4audio.co.uk 

Installed Products

Mixers:

PM1D, PM5D-RH, M7CL-48, LS9-32, DM2000, DM1000

Details

From a DM2000 to Big Business

Stewart set up the new company specifically to provide compact, high quality PA & foldback solutions for the television industry. The first job was doing Pop Idol at Fountain TV studios, swiftly followed by Lily Savage. However, with just two jobs completed it was apparent that it made economic sense for Plus 4 to buy its own equipment. "At first we were sub-hiring gear in for each show, but the business developed very quickly," says Stewart. "I rapidly realized that using our own equipment made economic sense. In addition, of course, that meant we were in sole control of maintenance and prepping the gear, which meant that we knew it would always be in optimum condition, maximizing its reliability."

Because of the demands of the television industry, Plus 4 needed the highest specification equipment. So Stewart invested in a Yamaha DM2000 console and an L-Acoustics dV-DOSC speaker system. It was a wise investment, as it allowed the company to go from strength to strength.

Continued Growth in the Broadcast Industry

In 2003 Plus 4 became a limited company and, the following year, a sister company Plus 4 Rentals was formed to provide high quality radio microphone solutions for the broadcast industry. The company currently owns over 100 channels of radio mic and in-ear monitor systems and, like its sister concern, continues to grow at a steady rate.

Despite having never actively asked for work, Plus 4 Audio's combination of professionalism and high specification equipment has pushed them to the very top of the ladder. Currently Stewart, junior engineer Stefan Manko, and an army of freelance staff service many BBC productions, three of the UK's biggest independent television studios, and a wide range of outside broadcast events.

Recent examples of productions which have featured Plus 4's work include Grease Is The Word, Dancing On Ice, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, Sports Personality of the Year, Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, Children in Need, The Mercury Music Prize, Comic Relief, The Dame Edna Experience, and The Graham Norton Show.

Staff and Equipment in Top Form

Providing live sound in television studios is a very different discipline to that for the concert or theater stage. Not only that, but with vast television audiences and shows often broadcast live, your staff and equipment have to be at the absolute peak of their powers.

"Having a good understanding of the broadcast industry and attention to detail is absolutely vital," says Stewart. "In the studio you may only be doing sound for a very small audience, but the broadcast is often going out to millions. We have to be very aware of coloration and delay due to the audience mics. Speaker placement is also crucial to reduce any possibility of problems like feedback. Sometimes we're also forced to compromise – the perfect acoustic solution may not always be possible because of the set, studio, and so on. But an advantage over concert sound is that this is a lot quieter!" he adds with a grin.

He continues: "We have to make sure that we always maintain the highest quality of service. I always work within what we think we can cope with. If we've got too much work we turn it down, it's as simple as that. I'd rather do that than do a bad job."

A Formidable Fleet of Yamaha Digital Consoles

Since Plus 4's initial purchase of a DM2000, the company has invested heavily in Yamaha digital consoles. Reliability is absolutely crucial for Stewart and it's this in particular that ensures Yamaha is his first choice: "I've been using Yamaha consoles since my early days in the industry," he says. "Now Plus 4 owns at least one of every Yamaha digital console – PM1D, PM5D, M7CL, LS9, DM2000 and DM1000. The reason I use Yamaha is because of the reliability. The company is so far ahead in the coding, firmware and software side of things. It just works, and can be totally relied on."

"There's also a desk for every occasion," he adds. "For example, the new LS9 is the perfect vocal to track monitor board. It's got everything on it and it's so small. I use it for The Paul O'Grady Show, Loose Women, and The Graham Norton Show. There's not another console that can touch it at the moment."

Working in television sound requires strict discipline and the ability to be very flexible. A prime example of this – and also where the Yamaha consoles are so vital – is illustrated by the BBC's Children In Need broadcast. The 2006 event saw nine crew and no less than seven Yamaha consoles on the show, and it proved a test of Plus 4's ability to react quickly. "We had a PM1D at front of house (FOH) in the main studio with over 120 inputs, plus a DM2000 to submix the orchestra and a PM5D-RH on monitors," says Stewart. "Then, on the outside stage we had PM5D-RHs on both FOH and monitors, plus the Jamiroquai crew brought their own PM5Ds to add to ours."

"The main challenge with a show such as Children In Need is that there are acts being added to the schedule all the time, frequently at the last minute," he continues. "This gives you very little time to do a technical rehearsal with each one. As a result the scene memory on the consoles gets used extensively!"

Meeting the Daily Challenges

As well as the challenges of specific events, the daily challenges for Stewart and his team mean that they are constantly kept on their toes finding solutions to logistical and technical tests of their ingenuity.

"We work very closely with sound supervisors, set designers, and lighting designers, so we can decide on things such as whether foldback can be put into the set, where we can build a FOH tower, is there any space for monitors, etc., because typically sound is the last thing to be thought about," says Stewart. "We always attend production meetings and, as the years have gone by, the various people at studios have now started to come to us to find out what it is we're going to need."

Interestingly, recent technical advances in visual technology, most notably LED screens, have had an effect on Plus 4's work. "One of main problems we currently face is the increasing use of LED screens on set, because of the interference with radio mic frequencies," says Stewart. "RF is probably the most time-consuming part of the prepping and planning for large shows. For example, it took three days just to install all the radio equipment for Grease Is The Word."

But it also has its advantages too. "Sometimes we do shows on which everything is wireless, such as Celebrity Love Island and Hell's Kitchen," he continues, adding with a broad smile "For Celebrity Love Island, we had to go out Fiji for a week to rig the RF. Of course that was hell..."

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