Group Number:_________ Grade & Section:_______

Leader: Presenters: ______________________

Secretary: ____________________
Members:
______________________ ____________________
____________________ ____________________
____________________ ______________________
______________________ ____________________
____________________ ____________________

Activity 1
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.

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?
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Q2. How many of the devices you identified inside the control room need magnetism to operate?
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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.
 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?
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Q4. How many of the devices you identified inside the live audio room need magnetism to operate?
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Q5. What other devices not shown in the photo may be used inside the live audio room?
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KEY CONCEPTS
• A typical broadcast studio consists of an audio console, microphones, computers,
studio monitors, and disc players.
• The audio console converts analog audio (voice via microphone) and phone calls to
a digital output. It also allows for the mixing of all sound sources from CDs, computers,
and other digital sources before being sent to the transmitter. A slider controls the volume
of each sound source.
• The live audio and control rooms are connected by cables for the exchange of
audio and digital data signal during recording, mixing, and even editing of all audio-video
elements digitally stored on hard drives.

More Reading Support on Recording Technology:

What devices did recording technicians use in the past to record sound?
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
Coded
Device
Picture Answer Function
Name
I. Used for playing some digital instruments, recording,
adding effects, and mixing different sources of sound
1 A.headphone signals
1.

II. Microphones and musical instruments are plugged

B. studio into this, which in turn is connected to the computer
2. 2
monitor
 III. Processor should be reasonably fast enough to
C. audio record, edit, mix, store, and master a copy of the
3. 3 interface record.

D. digital
4 audio IV. Converts sound into
4. software electrical signal
(DAW)

V. Used for “referencing” or for checking what the mix

E. computer
5. 5 would sound like on the equipment
unit

VI. Used for connecting

6 F. condenser
audio interface, microphones, studio monitors, and
6. or dynamic
different instruments
microphone

VII. Commonly known as speakers but these give a

sound close enough to the real sound input
7. G. cables
7

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?

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)?
________________________________________________________________________________
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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.

To understand electromagnetic induction and its applications especially on electric motors and
generators, the next set of activities will help you revisit concepts about magnets and forces associated with it,
checking polarities, and analyzing magnetic fields