[[email protected]]

This is for those who have followed recent threads of perf screens and DIY perf experiments.


I came across a scene on a TV programme recently that I thought I would pass on as food for thought.


The scene involved 3 actors in a three way telephone conversation - the screen was split in 3 with each having a third of the screen at the same time as they spoke to each other. (This was an English drama and I can track back and find the programme name if you need it).


The interesting thing was that each character also had their own dedicated audio channel; left screen left channel dialogue; centre to centre; right to right channel.


Now in my system I have placed all 3 LCR behind my perf screen. And in this scene the imaging was perfect - the left hand character came from the left third of the screen (exactly where he was on screen); centre from the centre and right from right third. Each of the other 2 channels were silent as this discussion unfolded - due to the accurate rendering of character to dialogue in this scene audio-video synergy was achieved.


I pass this on as an interesting example of why all 3 LCR must be behind the screen to have any chance of recreating the audio-video synergies accurately.


You might want to ask yourself in *your* system how would this scene have sounded and could it have integrated the sound and video image together.



Max Christoffersen
www.audioenz.co.nz

 

[NickB]

Yeah, well I watch 24 and it has the same split screen thing going for it. My speakers are just kind of haphazardly thrown around the room but I get the same effect as you describe. Weird how your brain works isn't it.


NickB

 

[petegrif]

Max

better hope someone doesn't write a movie that calls for 4 actors

 

[thebland]

There is nothing special about that except all the channels are discrete (which these days ain't special)!




JEff

 

[[email protected]]

No it's not special - it is merely a very good example.


There are many others, but this one demonstrated what many scenes used to demo perf screens can't: *horizontal* and vertical orientation to a visual spoken voice cue over all 3 channels at the same time.


Most perf enthusiasts mention the location of the spoken word to the character - typically an insolated vertical cue mid-screen. This was more interesting in that it used 3 channels, 3 visual images and 3 sound effects each located directly to the visual image simultaneously on both the vertical and horizontal axis.


If you have your speakers located away from the screen the dislocation will be obvious. The synergystic 'integration' will be achieved thru psychoacoustics.


Perf screens rely still on the fact that we are less sensitive to vertical orientation than horizontal. Unless you have a 'moving speaker' 100 per cent focused on the character's on-screen location, and moving behind the screen to match the exact screen location to the character, perf still relies on being close enough to fool the mind into linking and integrating the two together.


If you subscribe to the view that the mind is a 'hard-drive' with limited memory, that human hard-drive will try to integrate what is disintegrated (in these cases dislocated verbal to on-screen character), the closer you can get the mechanics of the sound delivery to the visual cue, the less hard drive space the mind has to use to make that audio-video synergy. Because it *will* try to do so. The mind prefers order and integration and most systems disintegrate the sound/visual cues to total dislocation.


When using fixed screens I am aware that I feel fatigued - and I put it down to the dislocation effect. I'm working hard to get everything to match they way it should be in real life. With perf screens there is less to do and I feel more relaxed.


Interestingly the real sonic location is not sometimes the spoken voice but small transient peaks, percussion, car door slams, guitar notes being picked, cuttlery being dropped..all of which provides a profound sense of synergy if it matches the on-screen cue.


At the end of an experience like this, a basic question always arises: Does 'accuracy' to the source apply in home theatre performance as it always has in traditional 2 channel audio?



Max Christoffersen
www.audioenz.co.nz

 

[Andrew J.Giusti]

Max, what kind of perforated screen do you have? Is it an off the shelf product such as Stewart, or a DIY?


If it's a DIY, what type of material is it and where did you source it from?


Thanks in advance.

 

[JJay]

But what about sounds that come from just the right or left front that are supposed to be off screen? Now isn't your set-up putting the sounds in the incorrect spot? My point being, is that all speaker placements are a compromise and good sound mixing at the source can help alleviate these problems.

 

[[email protected]]

Sounds coming off screen are replayed as they would be in the movie theatre.


The replay model I advocate and use is based on a the replay model that the film was produced, mastered and intended to be played on.


To me the achievement of audio-video synergy is home theatre performance objective Number 1 - *everything* is secondary to this.


But your point is a good one: A good example is in T2 - John Conner's mum skewers her husband when her arm turns into a knife. The solid transient impact is located hard right channel - but the image is off-screen to the right.


As I say, perf still relies on psychoacoustics to achieve synergy. But this is the way it would have been replayed in the theatre. There are no off-screen speakers.


Elsewhere in T2 there are a couple of scenes which also demonstrate why all 3 (LCR) channels should be behind the screen:


A) When Arny has had his head stoved in with the moving

press he falls to the metal grate and crawls along trying

to get his gun - his right arm bangs heavily on the grate

and that sound is located hard left channel where his

arm is on-screen.


B) When John Conner and Sarah are trying to walk up the steps

in the steel furnace she says 'steps' out loud which is

located hard right channel which is exactly where they are

on-screen.


There are numerous others, but the point here is that audio-video synergy and screen centered sound is the basis on which film is made.


I have quite deliberately gone for a cinematic film-based approach to my system - I am trying to replay film as accurately as possible.


My view is that generally, home theatre has moved away from cinematic performance objectives and it now has its own reference point - and that reference point and associated performance parameters have very little to do with the accurate replay of film in the home.


But you really don't need to believe me: all of the evidence you need to confirm that A/V synergy is a requirement of film is on the soundtrack.


Just listen - with your *eyes*!



Max Christoffersen
www.audioenz.co.nz