iZotope ANR-B at The 82nd Academy Awards
A1 Front of House Mix Engineer Patrick Baltzell chose iZotope's ANR-B for Adaptive Real-Time Noise Reduction

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We talked to Patrick after the Oscars and got his thoughts on using ANR-B during the show.

How did you incorporate ANR-B into your set up?

It was the first device in my chain. For the show I used iZotope’s ANR-B, a de-esser, a digital filter set, and finally the Dolby CAT-430. I was using one unit on loan for rehearsals and by the time the show aired I had already put in an order for two units.

What settings did you use during the show?

I let the unit run in adapt mode. I originally had it set in the 45/50 rage, but found it to be too aggressive at times. During instances when the audience would start clapping, it would filter out too much of the house noise. I turned it down to the 30s and was very pleased with how it reduced Varilight noise, LED screen fan noise, and other stage noise. With that background noise eliminated, I was amplifying just the spoken voice which significantly increased the intelligibility.

Were you able to use the unit on different set ups through out the show?

Since each unit has two channels which can be controlled separately, I was able to use the two units I purchased on four different set ups. The dialogue elements were divided into four categories which I processed separately. The first source was the microphone that popped up out of the floor downstage center, the second group was the two presenter microphone stands off on the sides, the third was the celebrities speaking from the stage on omnidirectional lavalier mics and the fourth was the celebrities who spoke from a satellite stage located out in the audience on cardioid lavaliere mics.

The presenter mics within the house must have been pretty tricky.

When each best picture nominee was presented, a celebrity from inside the house would say a few sentences about the particular nominated movie. The unit did a great job of reducing the house noise that occurs when the presenter is speaking out among the audience, instead of on the stage.

What’s next for your new ANR-B’s?

They are coming with me to Shanghai, China for the World Trade Fair. I am excited to use them on the opening ceremony for that event next month.

Visit http://izotope.com/products/audio/anrb to learn more about ANR-B.