CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO AIR

1.1INTRODUCTION
All India Radio (abbreviated as AIR), officially known as Akashvani is the radio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati (Broadcasting Corporation of India), an autonomous corporation of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. Established in 1936, today, it is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, the national television broadcaster. The word Akashvani was coined by Professor Dr. M.V. Gopalaswamy for his radio station in Mysore during 1936. All India Radio is one of the largest radio networks in the world. The headquarters is at the Akashvani Bhavan, New Delhi. Akashvani Bhavan houses the drama section, the FM section and the National service. The Doordarshan Kendra (Delhi) is also located on the 6th floor of Akashvani Bhavan. A famous thing that happened with the AIR was that during his regular broadcasts from the Azad Hind Radio, Subhash Chandra Bose used to refer to the pre-independence AIR as Anti Indian Radio. The first radio program in India was broadcast by the Radio club of Bombay in June 1923. It was followed by the setting up of a broadcasting service that began broadcasting in India in July 1927 on an experimental basis at Mumbai and Kolkata simultaneously under an agreement between government of India and a private company called the Indian Broadcasting company ltd. The operation of AIR began formally in 1936, as a government organization, with clear objectives to inform, educate and entertain the masses.

When India attained Independence in 1947, the AIR network had only 6 stations at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Lucknow and Triuchirapalli with a total complement of 18 transmitters - 6 on the medium wave and remaining on the short wave. The coverage was 2.5% of the total area and was just 11% of the population. AIR today has a network of 208 broadcasting centres with 150 medium wave, 48 short wave and 128 FM transmitters. The coverage is 89.51% of the area, serving 98.82% of the people in the largest democracy of the world. AIR covers 24 languages and 146 dialects in home services. In external services, it covers 26 languages; 16 national languages and 10 foreign languages. AIR has many different services each catering to different regions/languages across India. One of the most famous services of the AIR is the Vividh Bharati Seva (roughly translating to "Multi-Indian service"). Vividh Bharati celebrated its Golden Jubilee on 3 October 2007. Vividh Bharati has the only comprehensive database of songs from the so termed "Golden Era" of Hindi film music (roughly from 1940s to 1980s). This service is the most commercial of all and is popular in Mumbai and other cities of India. This service offers a wide range of programs including news, film music, comedy shows, etc.

1.2OBJECTIVE
To provide information, education and wholesome entertainment, keeping in view the motto, Bahujan Hitaya; Bahujan Sukhaya i.e. the benefit and happiness of large sections of the people, and strive to: Uphold the unity of the country and the democrative values enshrined in the constitution. Present a fair and balanced flow of information of national, regional, local and international interest, including contrasting views, without advocating any opinion or ideology of its own. Produce and transit varied programmes designed to awaken, inform, enlighten, educate, entertain and enrich all sections of the people, with due regard to the fact that the national broadcast audience consists of a whole series of public.

 Serve the rural, illiterate and underprivileged population, keeping in mind the special needs and interests of the young, social and cultural minorities, the tribal population, and of those residing in border regions, backward or remote areas. Promote national integration.

CHAPTER 2 STUDIO CHANNEL IN A TYPICAL AIR STATION 2.1 INTRODUCTION

The broadcast of a programme from source to listener involves use of studios, microphones, announcer console, switching console, telephone lines / STL and Transmitter. Normally the programmes originate from a studio centre located inside the city/town for the convenience of artists. The programme could be either live or recorded. In some cases, the programme can be from OB spot, such as commentary of cricket match etc. Programmes that are to be relayed from other Radio Stations are received in a receiving centre and then sent to the studio centre or directly received at the studio centre through RN terminal/telephone line. All these programmes are then selected and routed from studio to transmitting centre through broadcast quality telephone lines or studio transmitter microwave/VHF links. schematic showing the different stages is given in Fig. 2.1. A simplified block

Fig. 2 .1 Simplified block schmatic of broadcasting chain

2.2 Studio Centre

The Studio Centre comprises of one or more studios, recording and dubbing room, a control room and other ancilliary rooms like battery room, a.c. rooms, switch gear room, DG room, R/C room, service room, waiting room, tape library, etc. The size of such a centre and the number of studios provided depend on the programme activities of the station. The studio centres in AIR are categorised as Type I, II, III and IV. The number of studios and facilities provided in each type are different. For example a type I studio has a transmission studio, music studio with announcer booth, a talks studio with announcer booth, one recording/dubbing room and a Read Over Room. Type II has one additional drama studio. The other types have more studios progressively.

2.3 Broadcast Studio

A broadcast studio is an acoustically treated room. It is necessary that the place where a programme for broadcast purposes is being produced should be free of extraneous noise. This is possible only if the area of room is insulated from outside sound. Further, the microphone which is the first equipment that picks up the sound, is not able to distinguish between wanted and unwanted signals and will pick up the sound not only from the artists and the instruments but also reflections from the walls marring the quality and clarity of the programme. So the studios are to be specially treated to give an optimum reverberation time and minimum noise level. The entry to the studios is generally through sound isolating lobby called sound lock. Outside of every studio entrance, there is a warning lamp, which glows Red when the studio is ON-AIR. The studios have separate announcers booths attached to them where first level fading, mixing and cueing facilities are provided.

2.4 Studio Operational Requirements

Many technical requirements of studios like minimum noise level, optimum reverberation time etc. are normally met at the time of installation of studio. However for operational purposes, certain basic minimum technical facilities are required for smooth transmission of programmes and for proper control. These are as follows: Programme in a studio may originate from a microphone or a tape deck, or a turntable or a compact disc or a R-DAT. So a facility for selection of output of any

of these equipments at any moment is necessary. Announcer console does this function. Facility to fade in/fade out the programme smoothly and control the programme level within prescribed limits. Facility for aural monitoring to check the quality of sound production and sound meters to indicate the intensity (VU meters). For routing of programmes from various studios/OB spots to a central control room, we require a facility to further mix/select the programmes. The Control Console in the control room performs this function. It is also called switching console. Before feeding the programmes to the transmitter, the response of the programme should be made flat by compensating HF and LF losses using equalised line amplifiers.(This is applicable in case of telephone lines only) Visual signalling facility between studio announcer booth and control room should also be provided. If the programmes from various studios are to be fed to more than one transmitter, a master switching facility is also required.

2.5 Mixing
As already mentioned, various equipments are available in a studio to generate programme as given below: Microphone, which normally provides a level of 70 dBm. Turntable which provides an output of 0 dBm. Tape decks which may provide a level of 0 dBm. CD and R-DAT will also provide a level of 0 dBm.

The first and foremost requirement is that we should be able to select the output of any of these equipments at any moment and at the same time should be able to mix output of two or more equipments. However, as we see, the level from microphone is quite low and need to be amplified, so as to bring it to the levels of tape recorder/ tape decks. Audio mixing is done in following two ways:

i)

Required equipments are selected and then outputs are mixed before feeding to an amplifier. This is called low level mixing (Fig. 2.2). This is not commonly used now days.

Fig. 2.2 Low level mixing ii) Low-level output of each equipment is pre-amplified and then mixed. This is called high level mixing.

Fig. 2.3 High level mixing Low level mixing system may look economical since it requires one single preamplifier for all low level inputs, but quality of sound suffers in this system as far as S/N ratio is concerned. Noise level at the input of best designed pre-amplifier is of the order of 120 dBm and the output levels from low level equipment 70dBm. In low level mixing, there is signal loss of about 10 to 15 dB in mixing circuits. Therefore, the S/N ratio achieved in low level mixing is 35 to 40 dB only. High level mixing system requires one pre-amplifier in each of the low level channels but ensures a S/N of better than 50 dB. All India Radio employs High level mixing.

2.6 Announcer Console

Most of the studios have an attached booth, which is called transmission booth or Announcer booth or play back studio. This is also acoustically treated and contains a mixing console called Announcer Console. The Announcer Console is used for mixing and controlling the programmes that are being produced in the studio using artist microphones, tape playback decks and turn tables/CD players. This is also used for transmission of programmes either live or recorded. The technical facilities provided in a typical announcer booth, besides an Announcer Console are one or two microphones for making announcements, two turn tables for playing the gramophone records and two playback decks or tape recorders for recorded programmes on tapes. Recently CD and Rotary Head Digital Audio Tape Recorder (R8

DAT) are also included in the Transmission Studio. transmission studio is shown in Fig. 2.4.

Audio block schematic of

Fig. 2.4 Announcer Console

2.7 Control Room

For two or more studios set up, there would be a provision for further mixing which is provided by a control console manned by engineers. Such control console is known as switching console. Broad functions of switching console in control room are as follows: Switching of different sources for transmission like News, O.Bs. other

satellite based relays, live broadcast from recording studio. Quality monitoring. Signalling to the source location. Communication link between control room and different studios.

Audio block schematic of control room is shown in Fig.2. 5.

Fig. 2.5 Block Schematic of Control Room

CHAPTER 3

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TRANSMITTER

The electronic equipment used to produce radio Frequency for radio transmission is called transmitter. The function of the transmitter is to generate the R.F carrier of proper frequency and of sufficient power. The output of a transmitter is applied to the antenna, which radiates the signal into space. Basically, a transmitter consists of two sections. 1. RF section 2. AF section

3.1 RF Section
a) Master oscillator: - An oscillator is the heart of a transmitter. It generates radio frequency voltage with high degree of frequency stability. Crystal oscillator has maximum degree of frequency stability and it is used as master oscillator. The frequency generated depends upon the thickness of the crystal. b) Buffer amplifier: - A buffer amplifier is used to isolate an oscillator so that the frequency of the oscillator is not affected by the operation of succeeding stages. c) Int. Power amplifier: - It is a class c amplifier used to increase the power level and deliver to succeeding stages. d) Power amplifier: - This is a plate modulated class c amplifier. Its O/P is fed to the transmitting antenna through a feeder line.

3.2 AF Section
This section is designed to convert the information Into corresponding electrical variations of sufficient magnitude. The electrical signals are amplified, modulated and fed to the power amplifier.

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Fig 3.1 Block Digram of A Transmitter 3.3 TRANSMITTER PATH The music programme is fed to the line transformer with 0 db nominal level at 600 and this signal is given to the music amplifier and adjusted to the 4dbm level. The signal is

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passed to the low pass filter fixed in baseband interconnection unit. The signal is fed to the VCO unit where oscillator frequency of 415 MHz and at the same time music is modulated. This frequency is multiplied by 4 times in RF amplifier. The exact frequency 1440 MHz is adjusted in reference oscillator. The signal is further amplified; the power of transmitter is connected to the antenna filter which is then given to antenna port. When power of one transmitter is connected to antenna port, the other transmitter is connected to dummy load (stand by).

3.4 RECEIVER PATH The transmitted signal at the other station is received through antenna feeder cable .It is then passed through antenna filter tuned for receiver frequency. The signal is then given to RF front-end amplifier where it amplified by 12 db. The RF amplifier is consists of a mixer, local oscillator and a multiplexer. The local oscillator frequency is generated in VCO unit is fed to the RF amplifier (+10 dbm) and then it is multiplied by 4 times for mixing with received frequency. The output I.F. 35 MHz with a gain of 20-25 db is then given to the I.F. amp. Where it is amplified and demodulated. The detected music signal is then amplified, filtered and then given to line transformer.

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Fig 3.2 Reciever

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3.5 SPECIFICATIONS 1. Frequency range -1427- 1660 MHz (1440 MHz working) 2. FM modulation. 3. 3 Watt power output. 4. Output impedance 50 unbalanced. 5. Total harmonic distortion <1 o/o 6. Antenna Parabolic reflector dish type. 7. IF - 35 MHz at receiver. 8. I/P and O/P audio level 0dbm.

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CHAPTER 4 MICROPHONES 4.1 Introduction

Microphone plays a very important role in the art of sound broadcasting. It is a device which converts accoustical energy into electrical energy. In the professional broadcasting field microphones have primarily to be capable of giving the highest fidality of reproduction over audio bandwidth.

4.2 Microphone Classification

Depending on the relationship between the output voltage from a microphone and the sound pressure on it, the microphones can be divided into two basic groups. 4.2.1 Pressure Operated Type In such microphones only one side of the diaphragm is exposed to the sound wave. The output voltage is proportional to the sound pressure on the exposed face of the diaphragm with respect to the constant pressure on the other face. Moving coil, carbon, crystal and condenser microphones are mostly of this type. In their basic forms, the pressure operated microphones are omni-directional. 4.2.2 Velocity or Pressure Gradiant Type In these microphones both sides of the diaphragm are exposed to the sound wave. Thus the output voltage is proportional to the instantaneous difference in pressure on the two sides of the diaphragm. Ribbon microphone belongs to this category and its polar diagram is figure of eight.

4.3 Types of Microphones

There are many types of microphones. But only the most common types used in broadcasting have been described here.

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4.3.1 Dynamic or Moving Coil MicrophoneThis is common broadcast quality microphone which is rugged and can be carried to outside broadcast/recording etc. It consists of a strong permanent magnet whose pole extensions form a radial field within a round narrow gap. A moving coil is supported within this gap and a dome shaped diaphragm usually of aluminium foil is attached to the coil. The coil is connected to a microphone transformer whose secondary has sometimes tapings to select proper impedance for matching. With sound pressure changes, the diaphragm and coil move in the magnetic field, therefore, emf is induced in the speech coil, which is proportional to the incoming sound. The primary impedance of the matching transformer is generally high (5 to 6 times of thespeech coil impedance so that low frequencies are not lost and rising impedance frequency characteristic is avoided as best as possible. The resonant frequency is generally damped with special arrangements of absorption in acoustic cavity, Bass/boost arrangements are provided by an equalising tube connecting the rear side of diaphragm i.e. inside of microphone with the atmosphere. The diameter and length of the tube is critically adjusted for achieving good frequency response. The output of the microphone is 65 to 68 dBv and various shapes of the body make it OMNI UNI or SEMI directional.

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Fig.4. 1 Dynamic Microphone (Moving coil) 4.3.2 Ribbon/ Velocity Microphone Corrugated aluminium foil about 0.1 mm thick forms a ribbon which is suspended with in two insulated supports. The ribbon is placed within the extended poles of a strong horse shoe magnet. The ribbon moves due to the difference in pressure (at right angles to its surface) i.e. from the front or rear of the mike. There exists the maximum pressure difference between the front and rear of ribbon because of maximum path difference. The sound does not develop any pressure gradient when it comes from the sides of the microphones because there is no path difference. It reaches the front and rear of ribbon at the same time, hence no movement of ribbon. Thus, this microphone is bi-directional and follows figure of eight directivity pattern with no pick up from sides. Such a microphone has a clarity filter. This is a series resonant circuit at low frequencies across the primary of microphone transformer. When switched to the Talk or Voice position, the response is modified cutting down low frequencies by about 8 dB at 50 Hz. This filter should therefore not be in circuit during music performances.

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All the other types of microphones are pressure operated whereas ribbon mike operates on pressure gradient which results in the change in velocity of the ribbon. Thus it is also called the Velocity microphone. This microphone is very good for balancing of programmes. In case of Orchestra, instruments with strong output are positioned towards the dead side and week voices or instruments are arranged on the front and rear of the mike. The distance and location with respect to microphone are considered against loudness of voice or musical instrument during balancing.

Fig 4.2 Ribbon Microphone 4.3.2 Electrostatic or Condenser Microphone This consists of a thick metallic plate insulated from the body of the microphone and connected to polarising voltage through a resistance. Another thin foil is fitted close to the above plate forming a condenser. The sound pressure variations on the foil, change the capacitance due to increase and decrease of distance between foil and the plate. With fixed DC voltages across the two, the quantity of charge changes due to the variation of capacity. The changes in electrical charge form the sound signals and are picked up through a coupling capacitor.

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This microphone delivers 80 dBv with a very good frequency response. The output impedance of this microphone is high. The popular method of providing d.c. voltage to the condenser is known as Phantom Powering. Variable directivity capacitor microphones are becoming popular these days.

Fig 4.3 Condenser microphone 4.3.3 Electret Microphone It is a modified form of condenser microphone in which the polarising voltage is avoided. In fact a plastic polymer containing metallic dust keeps the metal particles permanently charged with in the plastic insulation and such a polymer within the diaphragm foil or fixed plate delivers the electrical signal on the principle of the condenser mike. The hissing noise gets avoided since there is no external polarising resistor as a load. The microphone has high impedance and is generally having FET pre-amplifier. The microphone costs very little but developes excellent quality designs in many forms. Perhaps this microphone is going to flourish most in comparison to all other.

4.4 Special Microphones

4.4.1Combined Microphones More than one microphone is placed within the same unit to achieve a particular purpose e.g. Western Electric 639 combines a dynamic (OMNI) microphone with a Ribbon (Bi-directional) microphone to get a cardioid pattern. Thus we have a choice of three patterns by switching in either or both units. AKG 202 consists of two dynamic
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microphones to obtain a flat frequency response. In fact the dual arrangement is coaxially mounted with the smaller in the front and the bigger diaphragm in the rear in a single housing. The two are connected electrically with a phase correcting network. The response shows a cross-over at 500 Hz. One unit is adjusted for frequencies above and the other unit for frequencies below to achieve good response. A switch is provided to cut down low frequencies with 50 Hz dropping upto 20 dB with respect to 1 kHz. The sensitivity is 53 dBv and mike is uni-directional resembling a cardioid pattern. 4.4.2 Lip Ribbon Microphone It is also called noise-cancelled mike since the ribbon even if held close, does not pick up breathing noises due to a guard in between. The stainless steel mesh acts as a wind shield. The design and other features resemble the ribbon mike. 4.4.3 Lapel Microphone Both carbon and ribbon types are available. The microphone is very small and lightweight and is suspended around the neck keeping the mike just below the chin. It is most suitable for running commentary or in a lecture. 4.4.4 Contact Microphone It is generally a dynamic microphone of lower sensitivity. It is normally placed close to the source of sound, when it is not supposed to pick up other stray noises. 4.4.5 Gun Mike It has two forms, (short gun and long gun). A dynamic mike placed at the end of a perforated tube extends its directivity in the front. The short gun about 18 long can pick up a talk from about 10 feet distance and a long gun with a tube of about 3 feet length can pick up sound from a distance of about 20 to 25 feet. The quality suffers but is intelligible. This microphone is useful when sound from a distant spot is to be picked up. An example is the picking of the sound of bat hitting a cricket ball.

4.5 Important Characteristics

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Important characteristics of the microphones are as under : 4.5.1Frequency Response This characteristic indicates the relative signal output voltage of a microphone at different frequencies for a constant acoustic level input at all the frequencies. These days it is possible to attain an almost flat frequency response over the audio range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Frequency response of a microphone depends on :Direction of arrival of sound, and Distance between the source and the microphone Frequency response specified by manufacturers is generally that obtained by using a calibrated sound source at a specified distance in an anechoic test room or duct. The full 20 Hz to 20 kHz spectrum may not be necessary or required in some applications. In some microphones a roll off at low frequency end is provided to cut off low frequency noise. If a microphone covers the essential audio range 100 Hz to 7 kHz within + 1 dB it is considered to be a broadcast quality microphone. 4.5.2 Directivity Microphones can be designed either to respond equally to sounds from an angle or to discriminate those arriving from specific directions. Microphones which respond equally at all angles are called omni-directional. The microphones which pick up equally from front and rear and have very little pick up equally from sides are called Bidirectional and have a polar diagram as figure of eight. The microphones which pick up maximum from the front with slight reduction in the sides and very less pick up from the rear are called Cardioid (means heart shape). Microphones directivity is often a principal reason for choosing between different models for particular applications. 4.5. 3Sensitivity The ability to pick up weak sound and to deliver more electrical signal determines the sensitivity. It is measured in dBs below 1 volt as the electrical output from a microphone when a standard sound pressure of one microbar i.e. 1 dyne per sqr. cm. is applied at the diaphragm of the microphone. The velocity or Ribbon Mike gives an output of about 70 dBv and dynamic Mike 65 to 68 dBv.

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4.5.4 Distortion The microphone should not add or subtract the amplitude or frequency of the sound during conversion. The maximum change in complex wave form cannot be measured, as such the tests are conducted under sine wave conditions and within the broadcasting range offrequencies, the distortion is not allowed to exceed beyond a specified value, typically less than 0.5% at 1000 Hz. 4.5.5Termination Impedance The microphone must have a proper impedance and a balanced or unbalanced output suited to the pre-amplifier. In the broadcast chain the microphone lines cover long distances, therefore, the impedance is chosen in the range of 50 ohms to 60 ohms at the microphone terminals. The commercial microphones in public address system do not require lengthy mike cables and prefer high electrical output across high impedance which is generally above 5 k ohms. Moreover broadcasting microphones use balanced output with Mike cable containing two live conductors and a earth shield commercial microphones have unbalanced output connected to single core of mike cable which is shielded. The above arrangement used in commercial practice is not suitable for broadcasting set-up mainly because, the noise pick up on unbalanced lines and high impedance of circuit become objectionable and prone to loss of high frequencies when the cable is long. Therefore, the termination of broadcast type of microphone will have balanced output with impedance in the range of 50, 70, 100, 200, 300 or 600 ohms to suitably match the input impedance of the pre-amplifier. In some modern microphones, the pre-amplifier is an integral part of microphone and high level output is brought out. In another modern variety the cable is not used at all. The sound picked by microphone is modulated on miniature FM transmitter and a power of 100 mW or so is radiated. Such microphones do not have any termination but an antenna and are called cordless or RF microphones or Radio Microphones, Sound signals are available on demodulation at the receiver for mixing with other microphones.

4.6 Guidelines for choice and placement of Microphones

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4.6.1 Choice of Microphone a) Frequency response : A flat frequency response (50-10000 Hz) is preferred for music and drama programmes whereas a gentle roll on low frequency side below 200 Hz is preferred for talks and announcement. For OBS, the above requirements can be somewhat relaxed further. b) Directivity pattern: For announcements, in modern practice cardioid microphones without proximity effect (like AKG-2-way cardioids are preferred though at one time we were using omni-directional microphones. For talks/discussions and music cardioid or bi-directional microphones are preferred. An omni directional microphone can sometimes be used for discussions. For OBs having PA system cardioid with very good front to back ratio only should be used. For open air discussions/interview etc. omni directional microphones can be used. Special type of microphones such as lavalier microphones should be used where situation demands use of such a microphone 4.6.2 Placement of Microphones Placement of microphone has important bearing on the quality of its output. A few general guidelines given in the following paragraphs should help in improvement of programme production. a) As far as possible, microphones should be placed with its 0o axis facing the source of sound to avoid off axis colouration. b) Phasing of Microphone Whenever two or more microphones are used with their outputs mixed together, it should be ensured that their outputs are in phase. A simple test for above is as follows: Fade in one microphone and monitor the sound level output for any programme. With all other controls undisturbed, fade in the second microphone. If the outputs of the two microphones are in phase, an increase in the overall sound level output should result. If there is loss of sound level and deterioration in quality (attenuation of low frequencies) leads of one of the microphones should be reversed in the microphone socket and the

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test repeated. In the case of ribbon bi-directional microphone the same result can be achieved by rotating the microphone through 180o. If more than two microphones are used simultaneously second and third microphones and so on should also be tested similarly. c) Working Distance Whenever a directional microphone is kept fairly close to the source of sound low frequencies in the output of the microphone may get disproportionately boosted thereby giving rise to boomy sound. This effect known as proximity effect is most pronounced in bi-directional ribbon microphones such as RCA 44 Bx. This effect should be normally avoided by placing the microphones fairly away (30-45 cm) from the source of sound. However, proximity effect can be used to advantage for special sound effects (warmth, intimacy, etc.) by placing the microphones closer to the sound source. It may however, be noted that some of the directional microphones such as AKG type D200, D202, D222 and D224 do not exhibit the above proximity effect and hence these can be used closer to the source of sound . In outdoor locations because of the higher ambient noise level, the working distance must be kept less than the corresponding distance when working indoors. d) Balancing There are two aspects of balancing in microphones : - When single microphone is used for more than one source of sound, distance between the microphone and different sources of sound be adjusted suitably so that the desired sound levels are achieved from all sources. - When a microphone is used in an enclosed space (as in studios) reverberant energy or indirect sound plays an important role in the quality of the output of the microphone. When the microphone is placed close to the sound source, direct sound is predominant and the output appears to be dry. On the other hand when the microphones is far away from the sound source the reverberant (indirect) sound is predominant and the output lacks in clarity. Hence for proper balancing of direct to indirect sound pick up the microphone should be kept at an optimum distance.
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In an acoustically treated room like a studio, a normal distance of 30-45 cms, is found to be satisfactory. An important Note : Balancing should always be judged by monitoring the microphone output at a location outside the studio (say from the attached announcers both or recording room etc.) Recording of a programme should not be started till a proper balance is achieved. e) Microphone should not be placed very close to a reflecting surface such as announcer table top or bare walls of a studio. f) A talker should not hold the script between his face and the microphone otherwise shadowing effect will occur at high frequencies. g) For placement of microphone for pick up of musical instruments following guidelines may be kept in view : - For stringed instruments (violin, sitar, sarangi, etc.) 0o axis of the microphone should be preferably placed normal to the front face of the instrument. - For instruments with large sound output (like drums and other percussion and bass instruments) the microphone should be placed well away from the source of sound. - For wood wind instruments where the instrument is not particularly directional (such as flute) the microphone may be placed about 60 cms. away so that instrument does not speak straight at it. h) If a source of sound is placed on the dead axis of a microphone it sounds as if this source of sound is placed at a considerable distance from the microphone. This effect could be made use of in a drama production. i) Talking very close to a microphone may cause blasting on explosive consonants such as P. Hence it should be avoided.

4.7 Care of Microphones

Microphone needs a very careful handling as it is a delicate equipment. Some important precautions in handling microphones are listed below : - Do not allow it to fall or get any type of knock.

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- If microphones are to be carried, pack each one of them separately in a cushioned box and keep them apart. Do not pack any tools, magnetic substances or types in the same box. - Do not open a microphone nor test the continuity of the microphone or its transformer. If the microphone is connected to the mike cable, test the mike cable continuity only after isolating the mike. Multimeter current is enough to disturb the ribbon or diaphragm resulting in major damage. - While testing the mike in a studio do not speak very loud nor blow into it. Speak gently, rubbing the mike on its side in a gentle manner and announce its type, the stand on which it is resting and the channel to which it is connected, so that the control engineer may know the complete details of the test being given. He may verify that the sound picked up and the rubbing noise are both from the same microphone under test. - If there are folk singers or loud instruments like Nagaswaram/drums etc. present, keep sensitive mikes at a distance from the source of sound. - Do not allow the microphones to get wet during rain. Use a wind shield or PVC coverings depending upon the situation. A list of different types of microphones used in All India Radio & Doordarshan is given in table 1. Table 1 Different Types of Microphones

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CHAPTER 5 THE DOORDARSHAN KENDRA DELHI

5.1 AN OVERVIEW
Doordarshan Kendra DELHI is part of the DD India, the largest television network in the world. Doordarshan with over 5 high power Terrestrial Transmitters,62 low power,5 very low power transmitter and 3 production centers serve DELHI Inaugurated on 28th may 2000 by the then broadcast minister mr. ARUN JATELY. Doordarshan Kendra delhi currently produces and telecasts 168 hrs of local programmes per week. Now more than 85 per cent of the 60,385,118 populations of M.P., With the introduction of DTH almost cent percent of the population can now receive DDK delhi programmes without cable connection. Doordarshan studios have been established at Gwalior, Bhopal and Indore to foster regional diversity. People all over India are watching Doordarshans programmes. It is also received in 64 countries spread over the continents of Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia and America.

5.2 TV Scenario in Delhi.

As per the 2001 census there are 60,385,118(5.5 million) house holds in M.P., 74.9 per cent of them are in the rural sector (44,42550) the remaining 25.1 per cent (13,52656) are in the urban sector. In 2001, 38.8 per cent of the households owned TV sets . Of these 62.3 per cent were in rural areas and the remaining 37.7 per cent in urban areas. Even if we estimate 10 15 per cent growth per annum. Of these estimated 3 million TV households 40 45 per cent is estimated to have cable connection i.e., 1.3 million and the remaining 1.7 million are without cable connection, and totally depend on DDK Bhopal for their TV viewing. The introduction of DTH, DD Direct Plus has

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considerably increased DD viewership in MP. From the available sales estimates of set top boxes and receivers it is estimated that MP has 3 to 4 lakh DTH households.

5.3 TECHNICAL INFORMATION OF TRANSMITTING FACILITIES AT DDK, DELHI:

Doordarshan Kendra, delhi is equipped with studio, two terrestrial transmitters and one digital up-link station. The two terrestrial transmitters are of 10 KW power each. One is for DD-National and the other is for DD-News telecasting.

5.4 TERRESTRIAL TRANSMITTER PARAMETERS:

DD-NEWS MHz :CH #31 (VHF-Band-III) Pictures IF: 551.25 MHz, Sound IF: 556.75

DOWNLINK PARAMETERS OF DD-NEWS SATELLITE PROGRAMMES

Latitude Co-ordinates Longitude Co-ordinates Main Sea Level Antenna Hight Effective height of the antenna above sea level Peak power (Both DD-I & DD-II) Black power Antenna gainArt Direction 23 1425 ( North ) 77 2320 ( East) 300 Mtrs. 100 Mtrs. 400 Mtrs. 10 KW each 06 KW each 8 Db wide band, Jampro Antenna.

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FREQUENCY OF OPERATION Band Band Channel Video carrier Audio carrier DD-II III 31(.) 551.25 MHz 556.75 MHz

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CHAPTER 6 SYSTEM FUNDAMENTAL OF MONOCHROME AND COLOUR TV

6.1Picture formation
A picture can be considered to contain a number of small elementary areas of light or shade which are called PICTURE ELEMENTS. The elements thus contain the visual image of the scene. In the case of a TV camera the scene is focused on the photosensitive surface of pick up device and a optical image is formed. The photoelectric properties of the pick up device convert the optical image to a electric charge image depending on the light and shade of the scene (picture elements). Now it is necessary to pick up this information and transmit it. For this purpose scanning is employed. Electron beam scans the charge image and produces optical image. The electron beam scans the image line by line and field by field to provide signal variations in a successive order. The scanning is both in horizontal and vertical direction simultaneously. The horizontal scanning frequency is 15,625 Hertz. The vertical scanning frequency is 50 Hz. The frame is divided in two fields. Odd lines are scanned first and then the even lines. The odd and even lines are interlaced. Since the frame is divided into 2 fields the flicker reduces. The field rate is 50 Hertz. The frame rate is 25 Hertz (Field rate is the same as power supply frequency)

6.2 Number of TV Lines per Frame

If the number of TV lines is high larger bandwidth of video and hence larger R.F. channel width is required. If we go for larger RF channel width the number of channels in the R.F. spectrum will be reduced. However, with more no. of TV lines on the
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screen the clarity of the picture i.e. resolution improves. With lesser number of TV lines per frame the clarity (quality) is poor. The capability of the system to resolve maximum number of picture elements along scanning lines determines the horizontal resolution. It means how many alternate black and white elements can be there in a line. Let us also take another factor. It is realistic to aim at equal vertical and horizontal resolution. Therefore, the number of alternate black and white dots on line can be 575 x 0.69 x 4/3 which is equal to 528. It means there are 528 divided by 2 cyclic changes i.e. 264 cycles. These 264 cycles are there during 52 micro seconds. Hence the highest frequency is 5 MHz.
fhighest = 264 10 6 52 = 5 MHz

Therefore the horizontal resolution of the system is 5 MHz.A similar calculation for 525 lines system limits the highest frequency to 4 MHz and hence the horizontal resolution of same value. In view of the above the horizontal bandwidth of signal in 625 lines system is 5 MHz.

6.3The PAL Colour Television System

5.3.1 The Colour Television It is possible to obtain any desired colour by mixing three primary colours i.e. Red, Blue and green in a suitable proportion. 6.3.1 Additive Colour Mixing The figure 10 shows the effect of projecting red, green, blue beams of light so that they overlap on screen.

Y=

0.3 Red + 0.59 Green + 0.11 Blue

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Fig. 6.1 Additive Colour Mixing

6.4 The Colour Television

It is possible to obtain any desired colour by mixing three primary colours i.e., red, blue and green in suitable proportion. Thus it is only required to convert optical information of these three colours to electrical signals and transmit it on different carriers to be decoded by the receiver. This can then be converted back to the optical image at the picture tube. The phosphors for all the three colours i.e. R, G and B are easily available to the manufacturers of the picture tube. So the pick up from the cameras and output for the picture tube should consists of three signals i.e. R, G and B. It is only in between the camera and the picture tube of the receiver we need a system to transmit this information.

Fig 6.2 Colour TV Colour television has the constraint of compatibility and reverse compatibility with the monochrome television system which makes it slightly complicated. Compatibility means that when colour TV signal is radiated the monochrome TV sets should also

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display Black & White pictures. This is achieved by sending Y as monochrome information along with the chroma signal. Y is obtained by mixing R,G & B as per the well known equation : Y = 0.3 R + 0.59 G + 0.11 B

Reverse compatibility means that when Black & White TV signal is radiated the colour TV sets should display the Black & White pictures. If we transmit R, G, B, the reverse compatibility cannot be achieved. Let us see how If we transmit Y, R & B and derive G then : Since Y G = = 0.3R + 0.59G + 0.11 B 1.7Y - 0.51 R - 0.19 B

In such a case what happens with a colour TV set when we transmit black and white signal. R and B are zero, but G gun gets 1.7 Y. The net result is black & white pictures on a colour TV screen appear as Green pictures. So reverse compatibility is not achieved.

6.5 Colour Difference Signals

To achieve reverse compatibility, when we transmit Y, R-Y and B-Y instead of Y, R & B, we do not take G-Y as this will always be much lower than R-Y and B-Y and hence will needs more amplification and will cause more noise into the system. G-Y can be derived electronically in the TV receiver. In the previous paragraph we have seen G So G-Y = = 1.7 Y - 0.51 R - 0.19 B -0.51 (R-Y) - 0.19 (B-Y)

Thus, colour difference signals fulfill the compatibility and reverse compatibility. Because in this case the colour difference signals are zero if the original signal is monochrome (i.e. R = B = G)

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So if we take R - Y R - Y = R - (0.3 R + 0.59 R + 0.11 R) = 0 Similarly B - Y = 0 As such colour difference signals are zero for white or any shade of gray whereas, Y carries the entire Luminance information. It is to be noted while R, G, B signals always have positive value R-Y, B-Y and G-Y signals can either be positive or negative or even zero. The R-Y and B - Y chrominance signals may be recovered at the television receiver by suitable synchronous demodulation. But sub-carrier is to be generated by a local oscillator. This generated sub-carrier in the receiver must have same frequency as that of transmitted sub-carrier and also the same phase. This is achieved by transmitting 10 cycles of sub-carrier frequency on the back porch of H synchronizing pulse. This 10 cycles sub-carrier signal is known as BURST or colour BURST.

Fig 6.3 Colour Difference Signal

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Fig 6..4 Block Digram of PAL Encoder

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CHAPTER 7 VIDEO CHAIN IN A TYPICAL DOORDARSHAN STUDIO

7.1 STUDIO CENTRE

A Studio centre of Doordarshan has the following objectives: 1) 2) To originate programmes from studios either for live telecast or for recording on a video tape. To knit various other sources of programs available at the production desk i.e., camera output from studios, feed from other kendras, outdoor, playback from pre recorded tape, film based programs slides, video graphics and characters generator etc. This knitting or live editing includes generation of special effects and desired transitions between various sources. 3) 4) Processing/distribution of different sources to various destinations in technical areas. Routing of mixed programme for recording/transmission via master switching room and Micro Wave to the transmitter or any other desired destinations. Activities in a television studio can be divided into three major areas such as : 1) Action area, 2) Production control room, and 3) Central apparatus room,

7.1.1 Action area This place requires large space and ceiling as compared to any other technical area. Action in this area includes staging, lighting, performance by artists, and arrangement to pick up picture and sound. Hardware required for these activities in a studio (typical size 20 x20x8.5 cubic meters) are:

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1.

Very efficient air conditioning because of lot of heat dissipation by studio light and presence of large number of persons including invited audience performing artists and operational crew.

2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Uniform and even flooring for smooth operation of camera dollies and boom microphone etc. Acoustic treatment Keeping in mind that a television studio is a multi purpose studio with lot of moving person and equipment during a production. Supporting facilities like properties, wardrobe, and makeup etc. Effective communication facilities for the floor crew with the production control area. Studio cameras (three to four) with one of the cameras fitted with teleprompter system and pressure dolly. Luminaires and suspension system having grids or battens (hand/motorised operation).

8. Pick up wall sockets for audio operations. 9. Tie lines box for video and audio lines from control room

10. Cyclorama and curtain tracks for blue and black curtain for chroma keying and limbo lighting respectively. 11. Audio and video monitoring facilities. 12. Studio warning light and safety devices like fire alarm system and fire fighting equipments etc. 13. Digital clock display. Operational requirement from the technical crew may vary from programme to programme. These requirements for lighting, audio pick up and special effects etc. depends upon the programme requirement such as establishing a period, time, formal or informal situation. 7.1.2 Production control area Activities in this area are:1. Direction to the production crew by the producer of the programme.

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2. Timing a production/telecast. 3. Editing of different sources available at the production desk. 4. Monitoring of output/off air signal. Hardware provided in this area include: 1. Monitoring facilities for all the input and output sources(audio/video). 2. Remote control for video mixer, telecine and library store and special effect (ADO) etc. 3. Communication facilities with technical areas and studio floor. 7.1.3 Vision mixing and switching Unlike films, television media allows switching between different sources simultaneously at the video switcher in Production control room operated by the Vision Mixer on the direction of the program producer. The producer directs the cameramen for proper shots on various cameras through intercom and the vision mixer (also called VM engineer) switches shots from the selected camera/cameras with split second accuracy, in close cooperation with the producer. The shots can be switched from one video source to another video source, superimposed, cross faded, faded in or faded out electronically with actual switching being done during the vertical intervals between the picture frames. Electronics special effects are also used now days as a transition between the two sources.
7.1.4 Vision Mixer (or Video Switcher)

Though the video switching is done by the VM at the remote panel, the electronics is located in CAR. The vision mixer is typically a 10 x 6 or 20 x 10 cross bar switcher selecting anyone of the 10 or 20 input sources to 6 or 10 different output lines. The input sources include: Camera 1, camera 2, camera 3, VTR1, VTR2, Telecine 1, Telecine 2, Test signal etc. The vision mixer provides for the following operational facilities for editing of TV programs:(i) Take: Selection of any input source or Cut: (ii) switching clearly from one source to another. DISSOLVE: Fading out of one source of video and fading in another
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source of video. (iii) (iv) SUPERPOSITION OF TWO SOURCES: Keyed caption when selected inlay is superimposed on the background picture. SPECIAL EFFECTS: A choice of a number of wipe patterns for split screen or wipe effects. The selected output can be monitored in the corresponding pre-view monitor. All the picture sources are available on the monitors. The preview monitors can be used for previewing the telecine, VTR; test signals etc. with any desired special effect, prior to its actual switching. The switcher also provides cue facilities to switch camera tally lights as an indication to the cameraman whether his camera is on output of the switcher.

7.2 Present day PCRs have

24 input video special effects switchers

(CD 680 or CD 682-SP) Character generators Telecine/DLS remote controls Adequate monitoring equipment

7.2.1 Character Generator(CG) Character Generator provides titles and credit captions during production in Roman script. It provides high resolution characters, different colours for colorizing characters, background, edges etc. At present bilingual and trilingual C.G are also being used by Doordarshan. Character Generator is a microcomputer with Texts along instructions when typed in at the keyboard is stored on a floppy or a Hard disk. Many pages of scripts can be stored on the disk and recalled when needed, by typing the addresses for the stored pages, to appear as one of the video sources.

7.2.2 Sync Pulse-Generator(SPG)

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It is essential that all the video sources as input to the switcher are in synchronism i.e., start and end of each line or all the frames of video sources is concurrent. This requirement is ensured by the sync pulse generator (SPG). SPG consists of highly stable crystal oscillator. Various pulses of standard width and frequency are derived from this crystal electronically which form clock for the generation of video signal. These pulses are fed to all the video generating equipment to achieve this objective of synchronism. Because of its importance, SPG is normally duplicated for change over in case of failure. It provide the following outputs: Line drive Field drive Mixed blanking Mixed sync colour subcarrier A burst insertion pulse PAL phase Indent pulses

7.2.3Camera Control Unit (CCU)

The television cameras which include camera head with its optical focusing lens, pan and tilt head, video signal pre-amplifier view finder and other associated electronic circuitry are mounted on cameras trolleys and operate inside the studios. The output of cameras is pre-amplified in the head and then connected to the camera control unit (CCU) through long multi-core cable (35 to 40 cores), or triax cable. All the camera control voltages are fed from the CCU to the camera head over the multi-core camera cable. The view-finder signal is also sent over the camera cable to the camera head view-finder for helping the cameraman in proper focusing, adjusting and composing the shots. The video signal so obtained is amplified, H.F. corrected, equalized for cable delays, D.C. clamped, horizontal, and vertical blanking pulses are added to it. The peak white level is also clipped to avoid overloading of the following stages and avoiding over modulation in the transmitter. The composite sync signals are then added and these

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video signals are fed to a distribution amplifier, which normally gives multiple outputs for monitoring etc.

7.2.3 Light Control

The scene to be televised must be well illuminated to produce a clear and noise free picture. The lighting should also give the depth, the correct contrast and artistic display of various shades without multiple shadows. The lighting arrangements in a TV studio have to be very elaborate. A large number of lights are used to meet the needs of key, fill, and back lights etc. Lights are classified as spot and soft lights. These are suspended from motorized hoists and telescopes. The up and down movement is remotely controlled. The switching on and off the lights at the required time and their dimming is controlled from the light control panel inside a lighting control room using SCR dimmer controls. These remotely control various lights are inside the studios.

7.3 Sound mixing and control

As a rule, in television, sound accompanies the picture. Several microphones are generally required for production of complex television programs besides other audio sources also called marred sound from telecine, VTR, and audio tape/disc replays. All these audio sources are connected to the sound control console. The sounds from different sources are controlled and mixed in accordance with the requirement of the program. Split second accuracy is required for providing the correct audio source in synchronisation with the picture thus requiring lot of skill from the engineer. Even the level of sound sometimes is varied in accordance with the shot composition called prospective.

7.3.1 Audio facilities

An audio mixing console, with a number of inputs, say about 32 inputs is provided in major studio. This includes special facilities such as equalisation, PFL, phase reversal, echo send/receive and digital reverberation units at some places Meltron console tape recorders and EMI 938 disc reproducers are provided for playing back/creating audio effects as independent sources (Unmarried) to the switcher.

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7.3.2Video Tape recorders

VTR room is provided at each studio center. It houses a few Broadcast standard Videocassette recorders (VCRs). In these recorders, sound and video signals are recorded simultaneously on the same tape. Most of the TV centers have professional quality B-Format BCN-51 One inch VTRs. For broadcast quality playback it is equipped with correction electronics i.e. a processor which comprises velocity error compensation, drop-out compensation and time base correction. It also comprises a digital variable motion unit enabling still reproduction, slow motion and visible search operation. New centers are being supplied with Sony U-matic high band VCRs along with Sony Betacam SP VCRs, DVC Pro.

7.3.3Post Production Suites

Modern videotape editing has revolutionised the production of television programs over the years. The latest trend all over the world is to have more of fully equipped post production suites than number of studios. Most of the present day shootings are done on locations using single camera. The actual production is done in these suites. The job for a post production suites is:a. b. c. d. e. To knit program available on various sources. While doing editing with multiple sources, it should be possible to have any kind of transition. Adding/Mixing sound tracks. Voice over facilities. Creating special effects.

The concept of live editing on vision mixer is being replaced by to do it at leisure in post production suites. A well equipped post production suite will have:1. 2. 3. Five VTRs/VCRs, may be of different format remotely controlled by the editor. Vision mixing with special effect and wipes etc. with control from a remote editor panel. Ampex Digital Optics (ADO) for special effects.
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4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Audio mixer with remote control from the editor remote panel. Multi-track audio recorder with time code facilities and remote operation. Character generator for titles. Adequate monitoring facilities. Supported by Offline editing systems to save time in post production suites. One man operation.

7.4 Coverage of Outside events

Outside broadcasts(or OBs) provide an important part of the television programs. Major events like sports, important functions and performances are covered with an O.B. van which contains all the essential production facilities.

7.4.1 Video Chain :

The block diagram on facing page connects all these sections and it can be observed that the CAR is the nodal area. Now let us follow a CAM-I signal. CAM-I first goes to a Camera electronics in CAR via a multi-core cable, the signal is then matched/adjusted for quality in CCU and then like any other sources it goes to video switcher via PP (Patch Panel) and respective VDAs(Video Distribution Amplifiers) and optional Hum compensator/Cable equilizers. Output from the switcher goes to stabilizing amplifier via PP and VDAs. Output from the stab. Is further distributed to various destinations.

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Fig 7.1 video chain

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7.5 TV LIGHTING 7.5.1 GENERAL PRINCIPLES

Lighting for television is very exciting and needs creative talent. There is always a tremendous scope for doing experiments to achieve the required effect. Light is a kind of electromagnetic radiation with a visible spectrum from red to violet i.e. wave length from 700 nm to 380 nm respectively. However to effectively use the hardware and software connected with lighting it is important to know more about this energy.

7.5.2 Light Source

Any light source has a Luminance intensity (I) which is measured in Candelas. Candela is equivalent to an intensity released by standard one candle source of light.

7.5.3 Basic Three Point Lighting

a) Key light : This is the principal light source of illumination. It gives shape and modeling by casting shadows. It is treated like "sun" in the sky and it should cast only one shadow. Normally it is a hard source. b) Fill Light : Controls the lighting contrast by filling in shadows. It can also provide catch lights in the eyes. Normally it is a soft source. c) Back light : Separates the body from the background, gives roundness to the subject and reveals texture. Normally it is hard source. d) Background Light : Separates the person from the background, reveals background interest and shape. Normally it is a hard source.In three point lighting the ratio of 3/2/1 (Back/Key/Fill) for mono and 3/2/2 for colour provides good portrait lighting.

7.6 TV CAMERA 7.6.1 Introduction

A TV Camera consists of three sections : a) A Camera lens and optics : To form optical image on the face
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plate of a pick up device. b) A transducer or pick up device : To convert optical image into an electrical signal. c) Electronics : To process output of a transducer to get a CCVS signal.

7.6 .2 CCD CAMERAS 7.6.2.a Introduction

Any 7.6 TV CAMERA convert the light information on it to a charge signal. All we need now is to have an arrangement to collect this charge and convert it to voltage. This is the basic principle on which CCD cameras are based.

7.6.3 Latest CCD Cameras

CCD were launched in 1983 for broadcasting with pixel count from a mere 2,50,000 which increased to 20,00,000 in 1994 for HDTV application. Noise and aliasing has been reduced to negligible level. CCD cameras now offers fully modulated video output at light level as low as 6.0 lumens. A typical specification for a studio camera now available in market are some thing like 2/3 inch, FIT, lens on chip CCD with 6,00,000 pixel, 850 lines H resolution, S/N more than 60 dB, sensitivity F-8 (2000 lux) etc.

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Fig 7.2Block Diagram of a typical Camera

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CHAPTER 8 HIGH POWER TV TRANSMITTER 8.1 Design

All the TV transmitters have the same basic design. They consist of an exciter followed by power amplifiers which boost the exciter power to the required level. 8.1.1 Exciter The exciter stage determines the quality of a transmitter. It contains pre-corrector units both at base band as well as at IF stage, so that after passing through all subsequent transmitter stages, an acceptable signal is available. Since the number and type of amplifier stages, may differ according to the required output power, the characteristics of the pre-correction circuits can be varied over a wide range. 8.1.2 Vision and Sound Signal Amplification In HPTs the vision and sound carriers can be generated, modulated and amplified separately and then combined in the diplexer at the transmitter output. In LPTs, on the other hand, sound and vision are modulated separately but amplified jointly. This is common vision and aural amplification.A special group delay equalization circuit is needed in the first case because of errors caused by TV diplexer. In the second case the intermodulation products are more prominent and special filters for suppressing them is required.As it is difficult to meet the intermodulation requirements particularly at higher power ratings, separate amplification is used in HPTs though combined amplification requires fewer amplifier stages. 8.1.3 Power Amplifier Stages

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In BEL mark I & II transmitters three valve stages (BEL 450 CX, BEL 4500 CX and BEL 15000 CX) are used in vision transmitter chain and two valves (BEL 450 CX and BEL 4500 CX) in aural transmitter chain. In BEL mark III transmitter only two valve stages (BEL 4500 CX and BEL 15000 CX) are used in vision transmitter chain. Aural transmitter chain is fully solid state in Mark III transmitter.

BEL 10 kW TV TRANSMITTER
A block diagram of BEL 10 kW TV Transmitter is shown in Fig. 10. It consists of : Monitoring Equipment Rack Control Console Input Equipment Rack Indoor Co-axial Equipment comprising of : U-link Rack with U-link panel A and B, T-Transformer and 10 kW Aural Harmonic Filter. CIN Diplexer Aural Notch Filter and Band Pass Filter.

Dummy Load.

Antenna system with junction box, feeder cables etc.

Fig 8.1 lock Diagram of 10kW TV Transmitter

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8.1.4 SOLID STATE POWER AMPLIFIERS 1) 2) 3) 4)

5)

Has got two identical sections. Each capable of delivering 10 W. Gets 28 V power supply through relay in 80 W AMP. Sample of output is available at front panel for RF monitoring. Provides A DC output corresponding to sync peak out put for vision monitoring unit. Thermostat on heat sink is connected in series with thermostat or 80 W AMP and provides thermal protection. (Operating temp. 70oC.)

Fig. 8.2 TX. Block Diagram

Fig 8.3 Vision Chain of Exciter

8.2TRANSMITTER CONTROL SYSTEM

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The transmitter control unit performs the task of transmitter interlocking and control. Also it supports operation from control console. The XTR control unit (TCU) has two independent system viz. 1. 2. Main control system. (MCS) Back-up Control System (BCS)

8.2.1 System Description of Exciter

Fig 8.4 Block Diagram of TV Exciter

8.2.2 Video Chain The input video signal is fed to a video processor. In VHF transmitters LPF, Delay equalizer and receiver pre-corrector precede the video processor. 8.2.2.a Low Pass Filter : Limits incoming video signal to 5 MHz. 8.2.2.b Delay Equalizer : Group delay introduced by LPF is corrected. It also predistorts the video for compensating group delay errors introduced in the subsequent stages and diplexer. 8.2.2.c Receiver pre-corrector : Pre-distorts the signal providing partial compensation of GD which occurs in domestic receivers.Both the delay equaliser and receiver precorrector are combined in the delay equaliser module in Mark III version.

8.3 DP/DG Corrector

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This is also used in the exciter preceding LPF (mark III) for pre-correcting the differential gain and differential phase errors occurring in the transmitter. 8.3.1 Video Processor The block diagram of video processor is given in fig. 3. Functions Amplification of Video signal Clamping at back porch of video signal.

Clamping gives constant peak power. Zero volt reference line is steady irrespective of video signal pattern when clamping takes place otherwise the base line starts an excursion about the zero reference depending on the video signal.

Fig 8.5 Block Diagram of Video Processor 8.3.2 Vision Modulator The block diagram of Vision modulator is given in fig. 4 and schematic diagram is shown in fig. Functions Amplification of Vision IF at 38.9 MHz. Linear amplitude modulation of Vision IF by video from the video processor in a balanced modulator.

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8.4 IF Amplifier
IF is amplified to provide sufficient level to the modulator. It operates as an amplitude limiter for maintaining constant output. 8.4.1 Modulator A balanced modulator using two IS-1993 diodes is used in the modulator. 8.4.2 Band pass amplifier
Modulated signal is amplified to 10 mW in double tuned amplifier which provides a flat response within 0.5 dB in 7 MHz band.

Fig 8.6 Block Diagram of Vision Modulator

Fig 8.7 Schematic Diagram of Vision Modulator

8.5 VSBF and Mixer

The block diagram of VSBF and Mixer is given in fig. 6. It consists of

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following stages :

VSB filter ALC amplifier Mixer Helical Filter Mixer Amplfier

Fig 8.8 Block Diagram of VSBF Mixer 8.5.1 VSB Filter Surface Acoustic wave (SAW) filter provide a very steep side band response with high attenuation outside designated channel. It has a linear phase characteristic with a low amplitude and group delay ripple. (Fig. 7.)

Fig 8.9 Block Diagram of V.S.B.Filter

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8.5.2 Local Oscillator The block diagram of Local Oscillator is given in fig. 8. It supplies three equal outputs of + 8 dBm each at a frequency of fv + fvif. This unit has 3 sub units. (1) (2) fc/4 oscillator : Generates frequency which is 1/4 of desired channel frequency. Fine freq. control is done by VC1. LO Mixer/Power divider : Here the above fc/4 frequency is multiplied by four to obtain channel frequency of fc and then mixed with fvif. Power divider is also incorporated to provide three isolated outputs of equal level.

Fig 8.10 Block Diagram of Local Oscillator

8.5.3 AUDIO CHAIN 8.5.3.a Aural Modulator The aural modulator unit consists of audio amplifier, VCO, mixer and APC. The block diagram of Aural modulator is given in fig. 9.

Fig 8.11 Block Diagram of Aural Modulator

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8.5.4 Audio Amplifier A balanced audio signal at + 10 dBm from studio is converted to unbalanced signal by audio transformer T4. The output of this is taken through potentiometer to the input of Hybrid Audio Amp BMC 1003. A 50 micro second pre-emphasis is also provided. 8.5.5 VCO This is a varactor tuned oscillator. Its frequency can be varied by coil L4. Transistor TR-17 forms the oscillator. VCO output is frequency modulated by the audio signal. Output level is 0 dBm

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CHAPTER 9 TV TRANSMITTER ANTENNA SYSTEM

TV Antenna System is that part of the Broadcasting Network which accepts RF Energy from transmitter and launches electromagnetic waves in space. The polarization of the radiation as adopted by Doordarshan is linear horizontal. The system is installed on a supporting tower and consists of antenna panels, power dividers, baluns, branch feeder cable, junction boxes and main feeder cables. Dipole antenna elements, in one or the other form are common at VHF frequencies where as slot antennae are mostly used at UHF frequencies. Omni directional radiation pattern is obtained by arranging the dipoles in the form of turnstile and exciting the same in quadrature phase. Desired gain is obtained by stacking the dipoles in vertical plane. As a result of stacking, most of the RF energy is directed in the horizontal plane. Radiation in vertical plane is minimized. The installed antenna system should fulfil the following requirements : a) b) It should have required gain and provide desired field strength at the point of reception. It should have desired horizontal radiation pattern and directivity for serving the planned area of interest. The radiation pattern should be omni directional if the location of the transmitting station is at the center of the service area and directional one, if the location is otherwise. c) It should offer proper impedance to the main feeder cable and thereby to the transmitter so that optimum RF energy is transferred into space. Impedance mismatch results into reflection of power and formation of standing waves. The standard RF impedance at VHF/UHF is 50 ohms.

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Fig 9.1Turnstile Antenna and its Horizontal Pattern

9.1 Radiation Pattern and Gain

The horizontal and vertical radiation pattern are shown in fig. 9.1 and 9.2. The total gain depends upon the type of the antenna panel and no. of stacks as given in table-1.

Fig. 9.2 Typical Horizontal radiation pattern

9.2 VESTIGIAL SIDE BAND TRANSMISSION

Another feature of present day TV Transmitters is vestigial side band transmission. If normal amplitude modulation technique is used for picture transmission, the minimum transmission channel bandwidth should be around 11 MHz taking into account the space for sound carrier and a small guard band of around 0.25 MHz. Using such large transmission BW will limit the number of channels in the spectrum allotted for TV transmission. To accommodate large number of channels in the allotted spectrum, reduction in transmission BW was considered necessary. The transmission BW could
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be reduced to around 5.75 MHz by using single side band (SSB) AM technique, because in principle one side band of the double side band (DSB) AM could be suppressed, since the two side bands have the same signal content. It was not considered feasible to suppress one complete side band in the case of TV signal as most of the energy is contained in lower frequencies and these frequencies contain the most important information of the picture. If these frequencies are removed, it causes objectionable phase distortion at these frequencies which will affect picture quality. Thus as a compromise only a part of lower side band is suppressed while taking full advantage of the fact that: i) ii) Visual disturbance due to phase errors are severe and unacceptable where large picture areas are concerned (i.e. at LF) but Phase errors become difficult to see on small details (i.e. in HF region) in the picture. Thus low modulating frequencies must minimize phase distortion where as high frequencies are tolerant of phase distortions as they are very difficult to see. The radiated signal thus contains full upper side band together with carrier and the vestige (remaining part) of the partially suppressed LSB. The lower side band contains frequencies up to 0.75 MHz with a slope of 0.5 MHz so that the final cut off is at 1.25 MHz.

9.3 Standards
The characteristics of the TV signal is sections 1 and 2 refer to CCIR B/G standards. Various other standards are given in Table 1. Table 1 Frequency Range Vision sound carrier spacing Channel width Sound Modulation FM deviation (maximum) Vision/sound carrier spacing channel width 5.5 MHz 7 MHz (B) in VHF OR 8 MHz (G) in UHF FM + 50 kHz

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CONCLUSION

The practical training has proved to be knowledge buster for me and I have acquired a good practical knowledge of the field which cant be gained nearly by reading books. During my training atPARSHAR BHARTI A.I.R and DD, kingsways Delhi 11ooo9 was really very surprised and delighted to see the system configuration and interconnections to such a large extent. I came to know and learn practical about various stages and equipment involved right from the production of program to its transmission; about which I heard or read only in text books. I also visited workshop where, beside my training program, I also learnt various basic things about diodes, capacitor, power supplies, multimeter, digital C.R.O. etc. which has a remarkable experience. I really feel that my training at A.I.R and DD was very beneficial for me.The training has proved me with a good knowledge of working of PARSHAR BHARTI A.I.R and DD base for relating the theoretical knowledge with the practical one. It was a very exciting, adventurous and exhaustive training which has raised my practical skills to a great extent.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

The documents which were a help to me in completion of my report are being obtained from the following sources: I. Sites :

1. Tcil-india.com 2. Google.com 3. Winkipedia.com 4. Emory.edu 5. Tycotelecom.com 6. Technologyforall.com

II.

White Papers from different sites. Books :

1. William Stallings, Wireless Communication & Networks, Pearson

III.

Education, 2007.
2. Sanjay Sharma, Analog & Digital Communication System, Laxmi

Publication, 2009.

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