China - China's National Broadcaster CCTV has selected HK Audio's Cohedra Coherent Dynamic Response Array system for its Studio 1, from where the prestigious CCTV New Year Gala TV show is broadcast to over one billion Chinese people at home and abroad. Studio 1 was constructed on the site of a circular garden alongside the main CCTV building in 1997. The 1600 square metre building, which can seat 800, was purpose-built for the New Year Gala show and other large-scale live broadcast programs. As the studio was constrained by the shape of the garden, it is also circular in shape, meaning that improving the sound quality has become a constant challenge to the CCTV audio department, and this is why CCTV chose to install the Cohedra system. Sixteen CDR 208 T/S mid-high cabinets have been installed into the room where they have already been used for shows such as Joyride in China - Seven Days of Live Broadcast; Friends and the CCTV National Dancing Competition. For one of its latest productions, Touch the Future - Children's Festival, celebrity CCTV presenters Ju Ping and Dong Hao greeted thousands of children to the studio using the Cohedra system.Leading FOH and monitor engineers Li Yongjun, Han Liqun and Chen Chen have all had the chance to work with Cohedra and have been very impressed with the results. "Cohedra performs extremely well in our studio, and its directivity control is very precise," says Guan Chaoyang, the engineer in charge of Studio 1's audio system. "It provides a much better vocal intelligibility than our old system. The dramatic improvement has been perceived by all the staff working in the studio - even the person who builds the stage sets has noticed."
(Lee Baldock)
