API columnist Toby Alington back on board for BRIT Awards

Toby Alington and his team at Richmond Studios Productions are once again making final preparations for recording The BRIT Awards.

Currently preparing for his 19th year of involvement with the event, Alington and his audio team will mix the music for the live-to-air show from Floating Earth, a state-of-the-art mobile recording unit equipped with an SSL C200 digital console linked to over 100 remote mic amps, which provide the feeds to be mixed and broadcast live on television. This will be parked alongside the picture outside broadcast trucks at the O2 Arena in London, where the event will be held for its third year in a row.

The BRIT Awards had originally been broadcast live until the memorable Samantha Fox and Mick Fleetwood show in 1989. From 1990, it was decided that the show would be recorded, edited and broadcast the following evening. With overnight music mixing, and a frantic audio visual post-production schedule through the day of its broadcast, the show was trimmed and tweaked whilst retaining its as-live feel.

With the reintroduction of live-to-air broadcast of the BRITs in 2007, the broadcast team returned to the pressures of live broadcast.

This year’s event is expected to feature performances from the likes of Beyoncé, Robbie Williams, Muse, Emeli Sandé, One Direction and Mumford & Sons.

Click here to browse through Alington’s monthly contributions to Audio Pro International.

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