Sound is everywhere around us: from blockbuster Hollywood films to live music events, from broadcasting the news to speaking with astronauts in space. For every broadcast, big or small, there are engineers and sound designers working behind the scenes to make sure you get the highest audio quality possible. Kim Chakanetsa explores the world of audio production with two of the best in this field.

Nina Hartstone is a supervising sound editor based in the UK. Over the course of her career Nina has received some of the industry’s highest awards - including an Oscar and a BAFTA Award for the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody in 2019. She is also known for her work on the films Gravity, Cats and An Education.

Alexandria Perryman is a live broadcast engineer at NASA's Johnson Space Center, where she supports astronauts with all-things audio: from helping them communicate with mission control to facilitating media interviews. She won an Emmy Award for her work on the coverage of SpaceX’s Demonstration Mission 1 – the first orbital test of the Dragon 2 spacecraft.

Produced by Alice Gioia. Sound editing by Sue Maillot.

(Image: (L) Alexandria Perryman, credit Norah Moran/NASA. (R) Nina Hartstone, credit Getty Images. The background image is the waveform of the opening six seconds of an episode of The Conversation.)