VOICE OF PARLIAMENT

Radio Record, 5 August 1938, Page 13

VOICE OF PARLIAMENT

IVE microphones in the Legislative Chamber, « radio technician ‘sitting quietly before o mixer panel in « chair on the floor of the House, am announcer speaking in muted tones . . . and so, quietly and without fuss, radio brings the voice of this New Zealand Parliament, arguing out the problems of the country, into the actual homes of listeners. How this twentieth century marvel is brought about is told in this article written for the

8 & Record" by 82577

JACK

DAW

HE = conversation had turned on , Parliamentary broadcasts in New Zealand. Somebody in the fireside circle had casually thrown out the question: "How many people listen-in

to farliaments’-the age-old question of broadcasting t» which officials, performers and advertisers would all like to know the answer, as far as their own sessions are concerned, and cannot be told. Even parliamentarians would like to know how many Lsten to THEIR sessions . .. those amateur radio trials that take place inside the building of grey stene in Wellington and are broadcast all over New Zealand, View of a Lady OW greatly the parliamentary broadcasts have ine fluenced listeners so far is hard to say. How greatly the broadcasts have influenced members of the House is easier to Say. The striking lady in the fireside circle had something to say about that. She thought the speeches in the House were longer than before the days of broadcasting. She had Hstened-in to the broadcast of a debate on the maternity services. ' "One member," she recalled, "spoke very fully. He spoke with emotion of the time he himself had first become a father. He described his feelings with faithful detail, and I must say they did him infinite credit, but I could not see that it was necessary. to describe them at such length. Members of all parties spoke of motherhood with great respect, and no doubt my sex should be grateful to them for their tribute, but I doubt ‘if this really advanced the business in hand. Isn’t broadcasting responsible for this?" It is difficult to think otherwise. . OW the debates are broadcast, on the other hand, is a matter that is quite definite. There are numerons ~theories about it. Some people think that the microphone slides on an overhead wire and Stops in front of each speaker as he rises to contribute to the debate. Others imagine a microphone on each desk. Some think one

microphone picks up» the speeches; from all parts of the House... — The manner "in | which it is done, however, is simple andeffective. There are five microphones ‘in the chamber.. Four of. them -are stationary.

micropnones, suspended at regular intervals from a wire that runs the length of the chamber. ‘These microphones are alive on the two sides that face the members in the -- benches. Besides these four, there is another microphone On a stand on the table in front of the Speaker. This ¢an o be passe] down to the Chairman of Committees (when: the Speaker is absent) on the seat just below. °° * ‘°°: In a corner of the chamber on ¢he floor of .the.. house, and just below the members’ benches, sit the ~ NBS announcer and the radio operator, The five ~ ° microphones in the House are all governed from ‘the ' mixer panel in front of the operator. . ee There are five dials on hig mixer, each one controlling its own particular one of the five microphones. By turneing dial 1 the operator can make the corresponding micro-._ Phone "come alive" or "go dead"; by tufning dial 2 he . governs microphone 2, and so on. To Conversation Pieces ORMALLY, only one microphone in the chamber is. fully: ..-. open; that is the microphone nearest the member who.. happens to be speaking. If ‘ll four main microphones were. left on, too much noise would .be picked. up, and, besides . this, private conversations of members conferring. at the ©, other end of the room while a member was talking would be picked up and broadcast to all the country, =... All the time, however, the Speaker’s. microphone. is . left slightly "open," so that his remarks to the, member. . addressing the House can be quickly brought up to:strength ‘. and clearly broadcast. te , The operator sits alertly at his controls. "While a>" member is speaking at one end of:the chamber there. may be a lengthy interjection from the other end. The operator ° immediately livens up the microphone opposite the mem. -' ber interjecting, so that his remarks may ‘be heard.-by. listene @ . . 7 ne Sometimes the interjection is brief and almost over... before the microphone at the ~. (Continued. on 40). "+

" Voice -Of Parliament

"+ owrme===> DEBATES ON-THE AIR oat \ (Continued from page 13). * jnterjector’s, and.ecan be livened -up. *. This. is ‘what-bas happened when ouly _ the tail-end of the interjection comes ' over the air. ‘If the interjector happens to be close to the member who is ‘ speaking, hig remarks go over the microphone already "alive," and are clearly and fully heard by the listeaers. . USUALLY, the operator is clearly : warned that a member is about to -.address the House, because the mem- . ber stands to catch the Speaker’s eye. The operator then immediately makes _"glive’ the microphone nearest that particular member. From the point of view of audibility over the air, it does not mat- . ter where the member is speaking from. Wherever he may be placed, the microphones are able to pick up his remarks. If those remarks are loud enough for the members in the House to hear them, they are loud enough for the mnicrophone to pick them up. ‘THE whole system was devised after * careful trial as being the best Suited. for. the House ard for the listeners. Two: things had to be considered together. How much. efficiency could be achieved in as unobtrusive a manner as possible? First there was the dignity of the House to be considered. Obviously, it was impossible to have an announcer moving a microphone about the floor of the House, near in turn to the members who were speaking. Movable microphones on wires overhead ‘would have needed a vast, and, possibly not . very silent, system of complicated wiring that would have looked all right in a draper’s shop carrying money to the ‘ eashier,. but decidedly. out of place in the legislative chamber. The system of havirg one microphone on each bench would have been a most costly installation, and would again nave add‘ed enormously to the responsibility .of ‘the operator, who would have had to govern each microphone at his-mixer * panel, and might easily have left one "alive" when it should have been dead, with the consequent: darger of- private ‘conversations in the House being wide_ly. broadcast. " . JMOREovER, the present system, be4 sides providing complete awtdihil-, ity, has another advantage. The ‘par? ticular microphone that is "alive" picks up just enough "stage noises off" to give a pleasant touch of colour and at':mosphere to the proceedings without doing ary harm. Listeners héar the smurmur of voices, the. interjections ‘and the rustlings of papers, as a: background to the voice of the speaking _ member. If the microphone were on bench directly in front of the ‘speaker, and solely for his use, listeners would lose much of the colour. of . the debates.