Brigham Young University Broadcast

BYU Broadcasting (BYUB) is home to Brigham Young University’s broadcast channels. From the Provo facility, four television and five radio entities – among them BYUtv, BYU Television International, KBYU Eleven, BYU Radio, Classical 89 KBYU-FM, and Create TV – are produced and distributed via broadcast, cable, satellite and the Internet.

BYUB now operates from a 100,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art HD production and distribution facility that consolidates the content creation and distribution operations which previously originated from two older, separate TV and radio facilities. RBDG helped design the radio and television broadcast spaces to achieve a level of acoustical and audio quality that would live up to BYU Broadcast’s global reputation.

The new BYUB facility features three television studios, three audio post production studios, a recording studio, four voice-over rooms, two on-air radio studios, 15 video editing rooms, and six master control (distribution) rooms where outgoing signals are monitored for quality. One of the television studios is a combination studio/auditorium/screening room with in-house audio mixing capability. In addition, there are two production control rooms, each with their own audio control room, for live and taped studio productions. Tie-lines between the TV audio network and radio network enable simulcast of events.

The diversity of technical spaces under one roof made this project particularly challenging. The acoustical design had to ensure there would be adequate sound isolation between rooms, quiet mechanical systems, and room acoustics that made it possible to accurately monitor audio programs. It required a lot of coordination, starting with the earliest design and continuing until construction was complete.

The RBDG team was faced with having air-handling equipment located on the second floor immediately adjacent to the studios, with huge ducts traveling overhead to feed the rooms beyond. Their solution was to create a separate interior concrete deck for the main studio, so the ducts could be routed through the interstitial space without having their breakout noise impact the production activity below. The result: background noise levels in Studio A are below a Noise Criterion rating of NC-15.

In addition to the technical and digital/online operations of the radio and television channels, the facility has offices and support spaces to provide for a staff of more than 300 full-time employees, part-time production crew, and students. RBDG helped ensure that the entire building would achieve BYU’s goal of improving its working environment for BYUB’s production team and the overall quality of programming for its viewers.