Re: "QUAD" Broadcasts......

[Rob Landry <umar@wcrb.com>]

> Someone on the list mentioned the old "Quad" broadcasts.  I think Rob
> Mentioned that WGBH and WWEL used to offer them occaisionally...simply
> by sending two channels to WWEL....and two channels to WGBH.  ergo QUAD!

I don't know about WWEL, but WGBH certainly did this with WCRB for two or
three years during the seventies.  
 
> I wondered if that situation would lead to phasing problems.....

It did, on occasion, or so I'm told.

> I know in the stereo world, engineers used to worry about "Out of phase" 
> patches...during the old 'patch bay' days... 

Any time the telephone company is involved, the potential for phase
problems increases dramatically.  The lines from Symphony Hall to WCRB are
necessarily of different length than those to WGBH, and I don't think the
phone company was capable of equalizing the delay through the two sets of
lines, even had they been asked to do so.

> Wouldn't the music be out of phase once it hit the other studio....and
> went thru their processing chain?

These were live Boston Symphony concerts.  Our station didn't use much in
the way of processing in those days -- even today we switch off most of
our processing for the BSO -- and I don't think WGBH did much processing,
either.

Rob Landry
umar@wcrb.com

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