Audio Engineering Society Singapore Section

On Friday, 23rd March 2001 at around 7.15pm, 4 members & 28 guests of the AES Singapore Section gathered at the MediaCorp Reception Centre to attend a talk cum studio tour at the MediaCorp Radio Singapore. MediaCorp Radio is currently celebrating 65 years of radio broadcast in Singapore. The organized trip was the section’s second trip to the broadcast station and the eighth event for the Term 2000/2001. The earlier trip was first organised in May 1996 during the station's 60th years celebration in radio broadcast in Singapore. The speaker for the evening was Mr. Jibby Jacob, the past Chairman in 1998-2000 and also a founding member of the local chapter. He is currently holding the post of an Honorary Advisor to the Singapore Section.
 

Mr. Lai presented the speech on behalf of his Vice President (Technology Services), Mr. Asaad Bagharib, who could not make it for the talk.

Jibby, who is also the Manager (Projects) at MediaCorp Radio Singapore, began his talk by telling his audience the history of the organisation. It was the national broadcaster, when Singapore gained independence and it became known as the Radio Television Singapore (or RTS in short). That was before it became a statutory body and renamed as the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) in 1981. In 1994, the organisation was corporatised to become the Radio Corporation of Singapore (RCS). It was only privatised recently on 11th January 2001, and the new organisation is now known as the MediaCorp Radio Singapore Pte. Ltd. 
 

Located at the Caldecott Broadcast Centre along Andrew Road, the broadcast chain of MediaCorp Radio begins at the Air Studio (a.k.a “Continuity Suite” in the British terminology). Here, programmes from the twelve FM stations are digitised before passing through the MCR (Master Control Room) before it is sent to the transmitting station. Transmission of the signals from the MCR to Bukit Batok, where the transmitting station is situated, is done via a 2Mb/s fibre optic link. A microwave link serves as a backup in case the fibre optic link should fail.

The evolution of the Air Studio saw the vinyl records, or LPs, being replaced by the CDs over the last decade. Cartridges and open-reel tapes have also made way for the newer and more cost effective MiniDisc (MD) technology. A hard disk system, found commonly in the PCs, has also been introduced while certain things remain unchanged such as the DJ, announcer, presenter/producer, as well as the possession of on-air personalities. Jibby, who has more than 16 years of experience in the radio industry, highlighted that although Hard Disk ON-Air systems could well replace the need for any CD or MD players, the latter is essential as they are back-ups in the event of a hard disk or a network failure.

Jibby made a comparison between an ON-Air studio versus a production studio. He mentioned that the main function of the former is for audio distribution while the latter is for audio acquisition. The Noise Criterion (NC) rating is very critical in a recording studio and recordings are done “off-line” as opposed to “on-line” in an On-Air studio. Therefore, technical failures or operational mistake made during a recording is limited to the awareness of the people in the studio. These steps cannot be done in an On-air studio which go ‘live’ on-air. A chart showing the typical room noise measurements was presented next, where the NC rating ranges from between a value of 15 to 25, depending on the type and function of studio.

As the mission is critical for the broadcast console, they are normally fitted with a redundant power supply along with an un-interruptible power supplies (or commonly known as the UPS). These are installed as backups in case of either a power supply or a power failure. About 12-24 number of faders can be found in a typical broadcast console. These figures are usually higher in a recording console, that is, about 24-96 faders as the latter involves many more microphones in a typical music recording. The audience was told that generally a broadcast console is also more expensive than a recording console for the same number of faders as it is typically fitted with higher-grade components than the production studio console.

As it can be a rather expensive option to man a station 24 hours a day, the radio Automation Systems or hard disk delivery system, were adopted. This is where computers will play the songs without any DJ intervention during off-peak hours. Automation allows “Juke Box” capability with pre-programmed playlist of songs, commercials, trailers, announcements, etc. 
 

profanity delay, and an air check/logging, among many others. At MediaCorp Radio Singapore, all digital equipment are connected using the AES/EBU format with the analogue connections acting as backups to ensure greater reliability. 

One of the main reasons for the transition from analogue to a complete digital system was in anticipation of the introduction of the new digital radio technology, added Jibby. The new generation digital Air Studios cater for this revolution in radio broadcast that is also known as DAB or Digital Audio Broadcasting. DAB is a European technology and is compliant to the Eureka-147 standard and it has the capability to transmit both audio and visual contents. It has been widely adopted in Europe, Canada, Asia, as well as in Australia.

Under the MediaCorp Radio’s initiatives, DAB is also dubbed as the "SmartRadio". Launched on 19th November 1999, it is the first broadcaster in the Asia-Pacific region to have introduced digital radio services. Five radio stations are currently simulcast along with the FM stations on the DAB channels. And they are, Class 95FM, NewsRadio 938, Y.E.S. 93.3FM, Symphony 92FM, Bloomberg Market Reports. There is also a preview channel that showcases the rest of the stations. Jibby stressed that not every digital tuner found in the retail stores is necessarily a DAB receiver. Some are merely receivers that come with a digital LED display or it may simply contain a digitised clock synthesiser tuning circuit.

The talk generated much interest during the Q&A session. In particular, one member of the audience voiced his concern over the difference in reception strength from the various stations that listeners have been experiencing. In his reply, Jibby clarified that  the transmitter power at MediaCorp Radio is about 10kW. He cited other possible reasons for the inconsistent reception qualities. For example, it can be due to such things as blockages through heavily built-up areas, multi-path propagation, changing weather condition, and so on. Unlike FM, listeners will not face such undesirable reception qualities with DAB. On the contrary, a slight variation in the loudness level could also be due to the different ON-Air processor settings in order to give each station its unique signature sound. Attendees were also given an insight as to why Headsets (microphone & headphone combination) were introduced in the On-Air studio. These allow head/body free movement while still remaining on axis with the microphone as well as isolating the voice from the ambience of the computers, fax machines, televisions etc that now resides in the On-Air studio.
 

After the Q&A session, it was immediately followed by a guided tour around the studios namely, Y.E.S. 93.3 FM, Perfect 10 98.7 FM, Class 95 FM, and NewsRadio 938. There was much excitement in the air when the audience gets to see some of their favourite DJ in action through the “glass-wall” studio design concept. The audience also visited the MCR as well as TrafficWatch Centre where they got a chance to see how traffic in Singapore was monitored ‘live’ using video cameras that are installed in the major expressways and city areas in the island nation. These information are subsequently fed to the On- Air studios on the Trafficwatch computer network. The DJ then announced the conditions of the road along with weather information from the Meteorological Services of Singapore 

The AES Singapore Section would like to express their sincere thanks to MediaCorp Radio Singapore, in particular, Mr. Asaad Bagharib and Mr. Lai Wing Hin, for their continuous support and the use of the premises for the event.

Copyright 2001 AES Singapore Section