Variation in NCN sound quality rooted in gradual modernization of facilities and training of staff

Dear Editor,
Thank you for providing us with the opportunity to provide comments to a letter that was published by your newspaper (‘Why is the volume variable on NCN radio?’ SN, August 19).

We appreciate the interest displayed by Mr Fyffe in the radio service provided by NCN and wish to state that he is quite accurate in his description of the problems experienced. Most listeners would have dismissed the audio fluctuations as human errors and very few would have had the presence of mind to point out this discrepancy much less take the time to write a letter to the press.

We can see from the details in the letter that Mr Fyffe is an avid radio fan and has become familiar with the wide range of programmes our radio broadcast covers.

The technical explanation for the variation of sound quality in our broadcast is rooted in the gradual modernisation of our facilities and to a large extent training of our operators/editors to produce a quality product. In the merger of radio and television we have retrained our reporters to produce video and audio news inserts. News stories are being covered by reporters and cameramen. The audio for radio is extracted from the videotapes or hard drives of the cameras used in covering news events. The problem surfaces when the audio editor inserts the camera audio into a radio piece. While the quality of the sound appears to be good to the ear, when it is broadcast the problems described by Mr Fyffe surface. To correct this we had to retrain our audio editor(s) to use the VU meter on the editing suites to control the sound levels. We also have to ensure that studio operators make use of the sound meters when broadcasting radio content using our new digital studio equipment.

We are constantly working to upgrade our skills and to improve the quality of our signals, but with the constant turnover of staff this is a daily task. While we cannot guarantee a total and sustained correction of every deficiency, we are working to correct those issues which arise from time to time. We thank Mr Fyffe for bringing this issue into the public domain and hope that he has seen improvement following our efforts to correct the problem.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Sattaur
Chief Executive Officer
National
Communications
Network Inc