Activity

For the Record…

(Adapted from the EMI Teaching Sequence by Jenaro Guisasola and Kristina Zuza)

Objectives:
• Identify the basic recording equipment of a digital radio studio.
• Classify whether devices use electricity and/or magnetism when used in recording audio.
• Start a literature search on electromagnetic induction’s role in recording technology.
Materials:
• pictures of the radio studio control and audio room OR
• video clip on a radio station tour, video player, screen, and accessories
• pen and activity sheet/science notebook

Procedure:
PART A. Virtual Tour of a Radio Broadcasting Studio
1. Read the scenario and study the video clip or pictures selected by your teacher, similar to what is shown in
Figures 1 to 3.

Activity Scenario: During non-class hours, you frequently meet your friends playing and making music
together. One afternoon you decided to go to your local radio station to ask what equipment and software is
needed to start recording at home.
At the broadcast studio, with the radio technician out, the staff allowed you to take pictures inside the control
room and live audio room, similar to what is shown in Figures 1 to 3.

Figure 1. A control room of a local radio broadcast studio commonly known as the announcer’s booth. (Used with permission from the
RPN-DXKO Radio and Television Broadcast Station in Cagayan de Oro City.)

2. On your science activity notebook, make a table, similar to Table 1. List all the equipment that you can identify
in the photo shown in Figure 1. Indicate with a check mark whether the equipment/device needs electricity and/or
magnetism to operate.

Table 1. Radio Broadcast Studio Equipment (Control Room/Announcer’s Booth)

Equipment/Device Needs Electricity Needs Magnetism
Guide Questions:
Q1. How many of the devices you identified inside the control room need electricity to operate?
Q2. How many of the devices you identified inside the control room need magnetism to operate?

3. On your science activity notebook, make another table similar to Table 2. List also all the equipment that you
can identify in the pictures shown in Figures 2 and 3. Indicate with a check mark whether the equipment/device
needs electricity and/or magnetism to operate.

Figure 2. A live audio room, commonly known as the newsroom, which is usually separated from the control room via
glass partitions.

Figure 3. Back portion of a local newsroom

Table 2. Radio Broadcast Studio Equipment (Live Audio Room/Newsroom)

Equipment/Device Needs Electricity Needs Magnetism

Guide Questions:
Q3. How many of the devices you identified inside the live audio room need electricity to operate?
Q4. How many of the devices you identified inside the live audio room need magnetism to operate?
Q5. What other devices not shown in the photo may be used inside the live audio room?
PART B. My Own Home Recording Studio! For Life…
1. You could be an aspiring singer, a music artist, a student who needs to record audio presentations or simply
one planning to have a start-up home recording studio. Use Table 3 and extend your understanding of the
recording industry by matching the devices in Column B and their respective functions in Column C with the
items in Column A. Write the letter and number for coding your answer.

Table 3. A Home Recording Studio Start-Up Equipment

A B C
Picture Device Name Function
1. I. Used for playing some
digital instruments,
1 _____ _____ A. Headphone recording, adding effects,
and mixing different
sources of sound signals
2. II. Microphones and
musical instruments are
2 _____ _____ B. Studio Monitor plugged into this, which
in turn is connected to the
computer
3. III. Processor should be
3 _____ _____ C. Audio Interface reasonably fast enough to
record, edit, mix, store,
and master a copy of the
record.
4. IV. Converts sound into
4 _____ _____ D. digital audio software electrical signal
(DAW)
5. V. Used for “referencing”
or for checking what the
5 _____ _____ E. Computer unit mix would sound like on
the equipment
6. VI. Used for connecting
audio interface,
6 _____ _____ F. condenser or dynamic microphones, studio
microphone monitors, and different
instruments
7. VII. Commonly known
as speakers but these give
7 _____ _____ G. Cables a sound close enough to
the real sound input

Guide Question:
Q6. Which devices on Table 3 are powered, entirely or partially, by electromagnetic induction (the phenomenon
of a changing magnetic or electric field’s effect on electricity or magnetism)?

Extension Activity: Learn more about the basic audio-video recording devices and make a graphic organizer on
your science notebook. What parts inside these devices use electricity and magnetism to function as such?

More Reading Support on Recording Technology:

In the development of the recording and data storage technology, what questions might engineers ask?
Think of some questions by now about recording technology. Can handy mobile phones or digital cameras serve
as audio-visual recorder and producer?
How do these devices apply electromagnetic induction?

KEY CONCEPTS
• Many of the recording technology are founded entirely or partially on the relationship between electricity and
magnetism known as electromagnetic induction.
• Devices that detect and convert audio inputs to electric outputs or vice versa are called transducers. Most
transducers like microphones and speakers use the “generator effect” characterized by the production of forces
due to a changing electric signal within a magnetic field or a changing field near a current-carrying conductor.
A sample typical Recording Studio Set-up

A sample basic Home Studio Set-up