Television facilities company Roll to Record once again secured the contract to provide the complete technical installation for the Big Brother house's all-important audio-visual set up, with the task of specifying audio equipment going to chief sound engineer Oliver France. A freelance engineer who also worked on the earlier series with Roll to Record, France began to assemble the audio equipment as early as February, and was pleasantly surprised when it came to organizing microphones for project. "I was looking around to see what was available, and I wandered on to the Audio-Technica website. I was really surprised by the size of the range and identified a number of products which, from their specifications seemed absolutely ideal."
In fact, so impressed was France that he proceeded to specify Audio-Technica products to occupy every one of the 40 hard-wired microphone positions in the Big Brother House. A total of 23 AT933RXC suspension microphones hang from the ceilings, including the vital positions over the housemates beds. AT4073a shotgun microphones are hidden throughout the garden to cover the sound of the hot tub area and the all-important chicken pen, and a custom-built AT871RWR water resistant boundary microphone is placed above the shower cubicle to capture those steamier moments. The diary room and the voice of Big Brother are also taken care of by Audio-Technica, with an AT915QMRXC and an AT4047SV installed respectively.
