John Grove - Broadcast

I've been involved in broadcast radio and TV since 1975, when I joined the BBC. In 1983 I moved to London and became a sound recordist, becoming freelance in 1987.

More info & CVs here

Some while ago - when I was feeling a little despondent about the way sound often seems to take second place in television - I discovered the Institute of Broadcast Sound.

The IBS was formed in 1977, to allow like minded operational staff working in broadcast sound to discuss equipment, practises and generally disseminate knowledge gained within our industry. We are a group of largely operational sound balancers, mixers, and recordists having at some time in our careers attained a supervisory level.

Members of the IBS are to be found in Radio and Television around the world, centred on the UK. We number around 700, and our highly-praised magazine, Line Up, is distributed every other month free to all members, with a tightly controlled subscription list bringing the total circulation to over 6000.

The aim of the IBS is to promote discussion in the professional aspects of broadcast sound engineering, and to assist in maintaining standards through training and discussions. We regularly hold meetings with manufacturers and suppliers in the UK. In the past few years meetings have included lectures by Nagra, Dolby, and AVID, we've visited the BBC Research Centre in Kingswood Warren, the Soundcraft factory and HHB, and have had open workshops on stereo and timecode techniques.

I spent 10 years as an active IBS committee member. In 2004 I moved over to spend more time running the IBS internet discussion group IBSNET.

Begun in June 1995, IBSNET is a discussion group linking nearly 500 broadcast sound engineers world-wide. Participants are largely members of IBS, though we do invite sponsor manufacturers and suppliers as guests to discuss their products with us.

Discussions on IBSNET cover all areas of broadcast sound, techniques, equipment, and working practice. Topics have included Location mixers, Flight cases, ISDN, Surround sound, Editing Software, Insurance, Rates of pay, CD-R, M&S microphone techniques, Digital compression and Time code for separate sound on video.

I'm pleased to say that many have told me they now depend on IBSNET as an important source of information.

Members of the IBSNET conference include - Heads of Sound, Consultants, Lecturers, Design Engineers, Manufacturers and of course those who use the equipment - the Recordists, Sound Supervisors, Editors & Dubbing Engineers and the scores of other disciplines within Broadcast Sound.

Though there are still the larger organisations such as the BBC and ITV stations in the UK, our industry is becoming very fragmented. IBS members are located in all areas of the world, and work irregular hours because of the nature of our business. There was seen to be a need to connect all these engineers on a regular and accessible basis - the internet solves this problem.

IBSNET is available as one of the many benefits of membership to the IBS. As a closed conference, IBSNET can be joined only by request.

email IBSNET if you want to know more about the IBS or IBSNET.

More info & CVs here