Hi-Fi TV Soundtracks (pre 1978) - Why?
 

I was listening to the closing theme music of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
on MeTV last weekend on my system (Pioneer VSX-D209 + 4 Polk T15s).

IIRC, in 1978, TV sound distribution (USA) was upgraded.

The VTTBOTS soundtrack had amazing fidelity, with musical instruments
whose sounds wouldn't survive the (pre 1978) TV sound distribution
(except in the cities where the Network signal originated - NYC/LA etc.).

I'm wondering why composers created TV soundtrack music using
musical sounds that wouldn't be heard by the majority of TV listeners.

Kirk Bayne

Can you explain a bit more what the upgrade was and what instruments you think were affected?

If it wasn't a live program meant to be aired once then odds are it would have been recorded directly on film or videotape when created and would have had a good Hi-Fi audio recording...If it was intended to become available for rerun some stations would have run it locally off of film or tape at the station and those viewers would have gotten the best quality sound that the studio and recording media could put to air.

Also, I can't imagine it being common for a live program to only survive as a recording from a different station connected to the network so the sound you hear was probably from a direct master studio recording.

Just like I remembered one night when I noticed an unreal improvement in sound while watching Lawrence Welk. Instead of telephone line the sound came from microwave!

From the article "TV Sound at the Crossroads"
contained in the Fall 1973 Stereo magazine (USA):

Some (1973) TV audio section specifications:
Sylvania TVs: 47Hz-2kHz 36dB S/N
Magnavox TVs: 50Hz-9kHz 50dB S/N
Zenith TVs: 100Hz-4kHz 45dB S/N

(Network) Film/Video Tape sources:
to 7.5kHz or 12kHz

Musical content in the treble range wouldn't likely
be heard or would be severely attenuated.

1978 TV audio improvement (USA):
https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/13/a...und-of-tv.html
^^^
This action by PBS goaded at&t into improving TV sound
distribution in the late 1970s.

Kirk Bayne

I'd bet that these frequency responses were improperly measured as the electrical response at the speaker. Due to the small speakers in TV sets, the high frequencies were rolled off to get a flatter acoustic response. (This also served to attenuate any 15,750 Hz horizontal sweep energy that got into the audio).

https://www.americanradiohistory.com...ng-1973-12.pdf

Letter on page 10 (about NYC originated, LA broadcast):

"But locally on the air it appeared to be compressed
and have incredible high frequency distortion."

I don't know how much of the sound quality decrease
was due to the national TV audio distribution system
and how much was due to the local TV station.

Kirk Bayne

AT&T Long Lines was a big issue, especially the further from NY or LA/Hollywood you got. Radio networks had as many issues with audio from AT&T Long Lines as TV did. Mutual Radio Network in East Tennessee did well to have 8 Khz audio on the high end. I remember being in the control room at WATO 1290 in Oak Ridge, right when Mutual News got aired from a Satellite Feed the first time, went from barely acceptable phone feed the hour before to right in the control room with you grade in one upgrade.

Just wanted to let you know they will be releasing every score done for this series in a cd set , I hope they include the stereo unused version of the theme .
Believe it or not some tv scores were recorded in 2 track stereo and some 3 track , wild wild west , ufo , star trek , space 1999 to mind where surviving stereo tracks exist

As I recall my station got network audio via landline while video was microwave in the 70's. Must have been in the late 70's, At&t offered a second audio channel to those stations who wanted it. (Your network paid for it into your facility.) There was already talk of TV stereo which finally came about in '84 using the Zenith system.
Another 10 years later network distribution would move to satellite.

Some stations got the audio and video via landline. The video was delivered via the A2A system:
https://www.americanradiohistory.com...l-1955-4.o.pdf
It was easy to add a second audio channel.
But for microwave fed stations, it required an additional subcarrier modulator at the microwave transmitter and an additional demodulator at the microwave receiver.
So it cost a little more for them.

As an audio engineer working during the time of that transition, the thought of mastering at low fidelity would never cross our minds. Mixing to play to the limitations of the presentation method, sure. But we wouldn't make things sound awful because the playback medium sounds awful. The goal was to make things sound good on good systems, and good enough on bad systems. TV and music on records as well. So it's not surprising that old stuff can sound better now than it did on the equipment of the day.

And keep in mind that a common source for high-def video is film from decades ago...

http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~boyk/spectra/spectra.htm
^^^
...a cymbal crash shows no sign of running out of energy at 100 kHz.

I was actually wondering if anyone mentioned to TV soundtrack
(theme music and music in the episodes) composers that, due to
technical limitations, some/most of the harmonics of certain
instruments wouldn't be heard by home TV listeners (using those
instruments for dramatic effect might not have the desired result)?

Kirk Bayne

Trying to accommodate a wide range of possible degradation would be foolish, and could result in distorting the frequency response of what could get through. Better to master for reasonable limitations, and if the transmission path or particular home receiver were worse, so be it. (Of course, you would not produce something where the plot depended on the possibly missing or unheard highs - thus, a fake lower-frequency mosquito buzz if it was essential to the plot.)

If I remember discussions of TV sound distribution at that time (I was a teenager just getting my first VCR soon afterward), most or all network TV audio was distributed on two voice-grade AT&T lines, being processed at both ends so that the second line carried the converted higher frequency content. When recombined/converted at the receiving end, the result was sound up to 8 kHz roughly.

I first noticed the potential for improvement when I had the line-level audio from my Sony SL-7200 VCR connected to my stereo system in late 1979. The sound from local station WGN (Channel 9 in Chicago) was quite good, and far better than any of the network stations had.

Is a change away from the voice-grade lines what you are referring to as the "post-1978 upgrade"?

The quoted May 13, 1978 NYT article on DATE says 62 stations had bought receive equipment. It was an expensive box .

DATE was 4 audio channels, 15 kHz, 16bit, mux’d onto ~5.5 Mhz QPSK carrier, intended to ride above the video.

To my knowledge DATE was never used on the ATT terrestrial microwave system used for PBS video. ATT would not allow DATE on the terrestrial microwave links, serving a limited number of PBS stations, as it ‘violated ATT tariffs’.

This dispute led to PBS obtaining money from CPB to build their own complete network satellite distribution system, in service Sept 1978. It included over 300 downlink dish/antenna receivers (FM video and one channel FM subcarrier for mono 15khz audio) and a ground uplink station Springfield, Va., and leasing Western LC Union satellite transponders. This allowed PBS stations to receive stereo programs (not all programs were stereo) via DATE if they purchased a decoder, or FM mono if not. NPR used the other two DATE channels. The cost of the complete PBS satellite system was equivalent to 10 years of ATT microwave line charges at 1978 rates.

The ‘big three’ networks used 5kHz telephone circuits for audio until ~1978 when ATT added FM subcarriers providing 15kHz audio. ATT used Farinon FM modulators above the video at about 5-5.5 MHz.

Quad tape audio at 15 ips would do 15 kHz.
16mm television film projectors, ~6 or 7 kHz (best I ever saw)
TV station audio transmitter, audio path, etc., 15 kHz, same as any FM radio station required.

Working at two networks, everything audio was kept as flat a response as possible, with agc and peak limiting at transmitters.

The Music and often dialog for filmed shows would have been recorded separately from the film, the Music would have been done in a studio to the same standard as any other music recording, it would have been put together later in post production.

This is why they can remaster movies and TV shows years later with upgraded audio mixes.

The quoted May 13, 1978 NYT article on PBS developed DATE (Digital Audio for Television) says 62 stations had bought receive equipment. It was an expensive box.

DATE was 4 audio channels, 15 kHz, 16bit, mux’d onto ~5.5 Mhz QPSK carrier, intended to ride above the video.

To my knowledge DATE was never used on the ATT terrestrial microwave system used for PBS video. ATT would not allow DATE on the terrestrial microwave links, serving a limited number of PBS stations, as it ‘violated ATT tariffs’.

This dispute led to PBS obtaining money from CPB to build their own complete network satellite distribution system, in service Sept 1978. It included over 300 downlink dish/antenna receivers (FM video and one channel FM subcarrier for mono 15khz audio) and a ground uplink station Springfield, Va., and leasing Western Union satellite transponders. This allowed PBS stations to receive stereo programs (not all programs were stereo) via DATE, if they purchased a decoder, or FM mono if not. NPR used the other two DATE channels. The cost of the complete PBS satellite system was equivalent to 10 years of ATT microwave line charges at 1978 rates.

The ‘big three’ networks used 5kHz telephone circuits for audio until ~1978 when ATT added FM subcarriers providing 15kHz audio. ATT used Farinon FM modulators above the video at about 5-5.5 MHz.

Quad tape audio at 15 ips would do 15 kHz.
16mm television film projectors, ~6 or 7 kHz (best I ever saw)
TV station audio transmitter, audio path, etc., 15 kHz, same as any FM radio station required.

Working at two networks, everything audio was kept as flat a response as possible, with conventional agc and peak limiting at TV transmitters.

Network audio nationally was always just single ‘5khz’ equalized circuits to the local stations, for both the radio and tv networks.

Telcos provided special ‘local loops’ for example, studio to transmitter 15 khz equalized lines, but you paid dearly for these, and you’d better check that response yourself.

In 1978 two FM subcarriers were added above the network video channels at about 5-5.5 MHz. These were typically Farinon units and were flat to 15kHz. ATT’s network video channel was wide enough to carry the two added FM subcarriers above the video bandwidth.

Local tv stations always had the capability, and were required to be capable of transmitting 15kHz audio, same as any FM station, but not all program sources were 15khz audio. Particularly network audio until the above system was installed.

Yes, I had read about the PBS DATE audio system upgrade, I first noticed improved audio (in the late 1970s) on the CBS evening news, transmitted by WMT ch 2 and viewed (via roof antenna) on a Sylvania GT-Matic TV.


Kirk Bayne

OK. All of this is quite interesting.

https://www.bbceng.info/Technical%20...digits-fm.html
^^^
On the 14th of September 1972 the link from Broadcasting House to the Wrotham transmitter switched to the new BBC PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) system.


I had read about the BBC using PCM for national FM audio distribution (funnily, when the CD appeared in ~1982, some complained that 16 bits wasn't enough, they were reminded that they had been listening to 13 bit PCM since ~1972)


Kirk Bayne

Other big reason for HiFi soundtracks. Music and concert shows. Which also before MTS were simulcast by FM Stereo stations.

https://bayarearadio.org/sf-radio-history/netsnd
^^^
A few stations in extremely small markets used 3.5 kHz circuits.


(just found this, provides some background about national audio distribution)


Kirk Bayne

From the title I thought the discussion was going to be more along the lines of "Why bother with Hi Fidelity Soundtracks?". A lot of us old guys would be lucky if we can hear much above 8khz. Fortunately for us there's not much intelligence up there that keeps us from surviving.
Good music still sounds just fine. :music:

I guess my question could be summed up as:

The limitations of the (USA) radio and TV national audio distribution systems were well known, did anyone tell the composers about the limitations?


Kirk Bayne

Do you seriously think there was a conspiracy? :D For a reality check consider all the folks today listing to music and video soundtracks on their teeny weeny cell phone speakers. Do you think they know what they are missing, or even care to plug in an ear bud?

Given the fidelity limitations were on the transmitter end, NO TV could make it sound better than it was....Thus if the composers owned TVs or spent enough time around someone else's TV logically they should be able to hear for themselves how limited the medium was....All except for Bethoven.

Between Jan. 26 and Feb. 26, 1978, from what I have read, was the period when the transition from the old 100 Hz-5 kHz telco audio to the diplexing system that allowed 50 Hz-15 kHz audio transmission was effected. Apparently the later date was when the old telco audio was shut off permanently.

I have something to add to this thread. Primetime episodics from that era were usually shot and also post produced on 35mm film. 35mm optical sound has MUCH higher frequency response than the 16mm optical sound you may have heard at your local TV station, or in a classroom. 35mm running speed is nearly three times faster than 16mm, roughly 90 feet per minute, versus only 33 feet per minute for 16mm. Faster media makes reproduction of high frequencies easier. But, that's not all.

Sound post was done using 35mm mag film media, which is audio-only film with a magnetic audio coating mostly across its full width and no photosensitive emulsion. It has sprocket holes along each edge just like 35mm photographic film and also runs at 90 feet per minute. That's 18 inches per second, folks.

Mag film fidelity was incredible for the era, due to wide tracks, higher mass, fast speed, and a very stiff base compared to audio tape. Track skew and wow and flutter were all amazingly low due to mass and dimensional stability.

Mag film was typically used throughout the post process, including the final mix. The visual editing produced a silent "picture master." The audio post produced an "audio-only mag track master." Both final elements were then used to create any 35mm release prints with optical sound that might be needed for network play.

The 35mm optical soundtracks provided to the networks were very good, theatrical in quality, much better than network distribution could support in that era, but sound from the magnetic film is even better.

In most cases, the production studios kept the separate picture and sound masters and those are often used as the sources for what you see and hear today.

AFAIK, the limited frequency response of the USA national audio distribution system existed since the first (AM) radio network was set up, it's just interesting to me that, after ~40 years of (known?) poor fidelity, a composer would use instruments (musical bells in the VTTBOTS case) that almost no TV viewer would hear.


Kirk Bayne

Two reasons:

1. In NYC and LA, the two largest television markets in the USA by far, primetime audio quality was always vastly superior to what was heard elsewhere. Viewers in those markets enjoyed very high quality audio because the local stations in those cities were often in the same buildings as their respective East and West Coast network operations centers. Short hops to their local transmitters, often via microwave, kept the audio quality quite high compared to what the rest of the country was getting from AT&T Long Lines.

2. Business decisions. Since the days of I Love Lucy, producers have struggled with cost versus future proofing. Some are acutely aware that they can earn as much or more from reruns as first runs, so they invest in the future of the product by using technology and production methods that go far beyond what television can faithfully render at the current time. Others are primarily interested in a quick return, or believe their product doesn't have the future "legs" to justify the investment, or simply can't afford anything better.