Solid State Logic will debut the new S400 console and a variety of enhancements for its System T broadcast audio production platform as part of its V4.1 software update during IBC 2024, Sept. 13-16, at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Center.

Featuring flagship control for live-to-air broadcast applications in a compact and cost-effective format, the new S400 is well-suited for OB, event space and music applications, or anywhere premium control features are required but space is a consideration, the company said.

The S400 console offers the same high-quality fader experience as the S500, featuring premium 100mm touch-sense faders and a dedicated OLED display for every fader. Level metering and status LEDs covering dynamics, auto mix and external control are also present by every fader to further enhance visual feedback for operators, it said.

The V4.1 software update, which is available across all System T consoles and DSP engines (including virtual), delivers immersive 9.1.2, 9.1.4 and 9.1.6 channel paths and buses, in addition to existing 9.1.2, 9.1.4 and 9.1.6 monitoring capabilities, it said.

These join advanced immersive panning tools, a range of multichannel FX, including the SSL Bus Compressor, multiband compression, Dynamic EQ and delays as well as sophisticated Link Bus architecture for dynamics processing across objects and beds. 

Additional studio-quality FXs are added to the System T FX rack, including SSL's highly regarded Blitzer vibe compressor and Sourcerer isolator. Parallel compression on every audio path is also now available, with each channel dynamics section now featuring a wet/dry control, it said.

The company also will make the European debut of System T Cloud, q virtualized audio mixing solution for live-to-air broadcast. Delivering new workflows and production agility, System T Cloud is an innovative platform offering flexibility and scalability for seamless management of live productions from multiple venues via the cloud, it said.

System T Cloud features:

• Cloud instances of the Virtual Tempest DSP Engine and Tempest Control App. 
• 256 processing paths.
• Full immersive formats up to 9.1.6
• Dante Connect cloud audio transport and routing.
• 256x256 Dante Connect connectivity on Virtual Tempest Engine.
• NDI conversion options.
• Hardware and/or software control positions located anywhere.
• Control positions in multiple locations simultaneously. 

More information is available on the company’s website.

See SSL at IBC 2024 Stand 8.B73.

AUTIN, Texas—Austin City Limits—now in its 49th season—is the longest-running music television show in history. We broadcast on PBS stations nationwide and host approximately 20 shows per year. We are proud of the contribution we have made over the years, not only to the city of Austin, but to American music culture at large. 

One of the things that makes us unique is that we have always let the artist choose the songs, giving them full artistic control. In my experience, this is highly unusual, and certainly welcomed by the artists we work with. Something else that makes us unique is we have recorded every performance in-house for all 49 years. These performances are then edited down to 13 one-hour episodes that run internationally. Some of the artists we have worked with include Paul Simon, Foo Fighters, Billie Eilish, Steve Miller and Lyle Lovett, among others. 

Maintain the Audio Vibe
We recently acquired a new Solid State Logic System T broadcast audio production platform, which is housed in the audio control room at the ACL Live at the Moody Theatre, where the show is produced. This is our permanent home and has a seating capacity of 2,750. The System T platform, which in our case comprises a 48-fader S500m console and dual TE1 Tempest Engines and a variety of SSL’s Network I/O interfaces, provides a comprehensive end-to-end solution for recording, mixing and broadcast applications. 

Since we are in an “all-analog” theater, it was important for us to have Dante/MADI capability out of the gate to meet our clients needs and the array of interfaces we see each season. We want to keep the vibe of what the band is presenting, but we also broadcast video both internally and to the public. We were presented with several options, but once Audio Director David Hough and I saw the Solid State Logic S500 console, we both agreed it was the perfect solution.

Gold Standard
Some of the features that drew us closer to the System T included the SuperAnalogue mic pres, and the on-board dynamics and effects—which are “gold standard” and very important to us. As far as the mic pres, from the very start you get the best signal possible, whether in a live or recording scenario and it is a sound that artists and bands can immediately connect with and appreciate. The powerful on-board DSP is great as well because we don’t want to have to rely on outboard gear, which we did in years prior. All of these features and more live within the S500 console, and it is great to have everything in one spot.

In addition to having the broadcast capability, networking capacity, high-quality mic pres and DSP functionality, we needed dynamic automation, which is not only key to the post side of our production but also a helpful tool with clients who want to hear a specific section or track after a rehearsal or performance. Using dual Tempest Engines, I love how we can go from one to the other seamlessly. On the SSL we can add processing or switch between primary or redundant engines without a drop in audio. It’s terrific!

Since we’ve installed it, everything has been very solid.  From a sound perspective, this really takes us to a more modern and next level place. SSL is a legacy brand, we are a legacy brand, it was a very easy match and we are very pleased. So far, we have done eight shows with the new console, and we’ve had nothing but success. 

For more information visit www.solidstatelogic.com.

BOSTON—Emerson College has upgraded broadcast audio capabilities at its downtown main campus, equipping four of its TV production control rooms with Dante-networked Solid State Logic T digital audio platforms.

Powered by a TE1 Tempest Engine, each SSL T platform provides up to 256-path capacity and is controlled by an S300 surface and Tempest Control Rack (TCR) with Fade Tile, the company said. 

Three of the upgraded control rooms originally were built in 2003 and underwent a previous update in 2010. That installation include SSL C10 HD digital broadcast desks. 

“We were so pleased with the C10 that we wanted to stick with SSL,” says Tim MacArthur, director of technical operations for media technologies and production, which oversees use of the college’s production and post-production technology.

The college replaced the C10 with an SSL System T S300 surface in its Audio A Studio in the Vin Di Bona Television Studio in the Tufte Performance and Production Center (PPC). “We wanted to increase the flexibility of pooled resources among our facilities, and this summer we embarked on a complete central machine room initiative,” said MacArthur. “Previously we had three disparate machine rooms for our facilities but wanted to consolidate, so we invested in new fiber to make that happen.” 

The Tufte Television Studios also are home to the Teaching Studio and Control Room B, a classroom inside a standard television control room, where the audio facilities now incorporate a System T TCR—a 3RU PC enclosure that runs System T control software—as well as a Fader Tile control interface.

The TV studios are now interconnected with the nearby Journalism Production Center, Emerson Television Channels, the Bobbi Brown and Steven Plofker Gym and Cutler Majestic Theatre.

The college also replaced its core Evertz router with a Dante hub. It enables embedding, de-embedding and other functions necessary to transport signals in a Dante environment and process them with System T. “Using Dante with multicast was just such an appealing promise to us; being able to grab a mic from a preamp in one studio and bring it to a control room in another,” said MacArthur.   

Besides the Dante workflow, the college was attracted to the solution because of the infrastructure flexibility the System T and Dante offer. “And logic is intuitive once you wrap your head around the new world of audio routing,” he said. “Plus, the power of the effects processing on every channel is just phenomenal.”

The college also deployed an SSL System T Fader Tile and TCR systems at the control room and studio facilities in the Journalism Production Center. “It’s largely instructional, so we’re teaching journalists and producing daily newscasts, whether they’re self-contained as a course resource or posted online,” he says.

A Fader Tile and TCR combination also was integrated into a control room in the nearby Bobbi Brown and Steven Plofker Gym to support live coverage of men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball games. The onsite mix control system is networked to its TE1 Tempest Engine in the central machine room in the Tufte PPC.

Students find the upgrades particularly appealing, said MacArthur. “What’s interesting for us, with the generation of students that we have now, and especially with the TCRs, is the touch screen option,” he said. “So many of our students will intuitively grab a ‘fader’ with their finger and slide it.  It’s a very elegant display.”

The physical controller also meets the college’s requirements for solutions that stand up to the wear and tear that can be expected in an educational setting. “The Fader Tiles are so well constructed. We’re optimistic about their durability with novice users,” he said.

Diversified provided system integration services for the upgrade.

More information is available on the company’s website.

BOSTON—WHDH, the Sunbeam Television Corp.-owned independent station in Boston, has deployed Solid State Logic’s System T broadcast audio production console to replace an SSL C100 console in continuous service for about 14 years, SSL announced.

“The C100 has been a fantastic workhorse, but it was time to replace it and get on SSL’s current platform, which is fully Dante-compatible,” says Jim Shultis, director of engineering at the station.

The new System T consists of a Tempest T25 256-path processing engine and a three-bay, 48-fader S500 control surface with a meter bridge.

At the end of 2016, the station announced it would begin airing more than 80 hours of news a week as it lost its NBC affiliation—up from the eight to nine hours per day it was producing. Solid State Logic’s System T, which makes it easy to create mix-minuses for IFBs to reporters in the field and talent on set, was a good choice for an SSL C100 replacement given the station’s news commitment, says Art Murphy, assistant engineering assistant at WHDH. 

“We have 24 mix-minuses going on,” he says. “We could wire more if we wanted to, but 24 is a good number for us.” Noting that setting up mix-minuses on the System T is different than on the C100, Murphy says that “once you get used to it, it’s a little bit more logical—a more direct process.”

At the same time WHDH installed its C100 console in 2006, it installed a new video switcher, which was swapped out two years ago for a new switcher. “But the C100 just kept going,” says Shultis, adding that it is more difficult to replace an audio console than a video switcher.

However, System T’s native support for Dante made its installation easier than installing the C100, says Murphy. “We put stage boxes in our newsroom, where all our main mics are,” he explains. “So all of our mic wiring became a lot easier, wiring right into those stage boxes. Then, we use Dante to bring those into the network switch. It really makes a much cleaner installation as well,” says Murphy, adding that a second studio is used for production.

System T is different operationally from the C100. It offers an assignable rotary encoder, which is quite different from the knob-per-function C100 strip. “It takes time to get used to, but once you do, it’s very flexible,” says Murphy. 

PLUS: Solid State Logic Focusing on AoIP

System T’s flexibility makes it easy to accommodate multiple operators at the station, each of whom can configure the console to meet individual needs.

“One thing we do like is that we have one show file and a bunch of scenes,” says Shultis. “The operator can load the main show file, but then everyone has their own scene. So it’s really easy for an operator to come in and load their scene up and have the board exactly the way he or she wants it. And they load really quick. That’s a nice feature.”

More information is available on the Solid State Logic website.

Solid State Logic’s spring product lineup will put the focus on new Audio over IP capabilities, as well as new features for its System T broadcast audio platform.

Many of the new developments for the System T platform are designed for advanced AoIP integrations or new immersive/Next Generation Audio (NGO) workflows. SSL will show how the System T architecture provides processing for multiple audio formats for immersive and three-dimensional audio. There is also a new partnership with Sennheiser AMBEO that adds on-board conversion support for the AMBEO VR mic, with a 360 transcoder. The platform also supports multiple formats, including ATSC 3.0, Dolby Atmos and MPEG-H.

Another technology that SSL plans to highlight is its Dante-based IP Network I/O portfolio, including the HC Bridge SRC. This I/O device provides 256 bi-directional channels of sample rate conversion for AoIP networks and also facilities connecting audio between devices running at different sample rates or in different clock domains on Dante, AES67 or ST 2110-30 networks. The network connections can be physically or virtually separate networks.

SSL also will feature the latest update for its range of console control surfaces. This covers the configurable S500 and S500m surface, as well as pre-configured surface options in the S300. The consoles run a Dante AoIP backbone and are compliant with AES67/2110 protocols. With System T, the consoles can integrate into an existing or future AoIP infrastructure. 

For more information, visit www.solidstatelogic.com. 

FORT MYERS, FLA.—Waterman Broadcasting has installed two identical Solid State Logic System T audio production consoles –one for its WBBH-TV NBC affiliate, the other for WZVN-TV, the Montclair Communications ABC affiliate it operates under a local marketing agreement, in twin control rooms with a Tempest Control Rack for backup and disaster recover.

“The primary role of the station is news and we do, depending on how you want to count them, 19 to 21 newscasts per day over the two stations,” said Waterman Broadcasting director of production Bob Hannon.

“The two stations are in one building, the news staffs are in one building, but the shows are produced completely separately. It’s like working in the Ark: we have two of everything.”

Each console system consists of a 32-fader S300 control surface with a T25 256 path engine and 512 channels of I/O. The Tempest Control Rack serves as a backup that can be controlled via a desktop touchscreen.

The setup ensures the broadcaster does not have a single point of failure, an important design consideration for Waterman given Fort Myers’ hurricane-prone location. During a hurricane, the stations begin simulcasting the same programming on both channels.

The system Waterman installed enables the broadcaster to “do everything from one spot,” said Hannon. The flexibility of the S300 allows operators in one control room to access every audio source in the facility.

“It also lets us use one control room for x amount of time, have the other control room fired up and ready, let them take over, and that gives us time to do any preventive maintenance or just let things breathe in the first control room for a little while,” he said.

Hannon also identified ease of use as an important factor contributing to the broadcaster’s decision to select the S300. Most of Hannon’s 42-member staff are in their first jobs and have been trained in-house, making ease of use especially important.

While the S300 is “a powerful board,” he said, “it’s simple in its design, and that’s what drew me to it,” said Hannon.

"I’m a firm believer that the simpler you keep it the more you can do, the better your productions are, and the better your product is. And that’s what System T allows us to do.”

OXFORD—Solid State Logic will spotlight the latest enhancements to its System T software architecture at the 2018 IBC Show, Sept. 13-17 at the RAI in Amsterdam.

The new S300-32 is a 32-fader compact broadcast console for SSL’s System T broadcast audio production platform, featuring a fixed layout control surface. The S300 integrates with SSL’s System T control, Network I/O and processing engines, or in standalone arrangements.

The System T S300 fully incorporates arbitrated radio and control resource sharing to SSL’s Network I/O range, for all Tempest platform-based consoles. This means the S300’s System T can bounce from one control room to another within the same facility, or be added on as a backup surface to the larger S500.

To add to that flexibility, SSL has also added more System T and I/O transport, routing and control devices to its suite. The TCM1 and Network I/O has GPIO 32 units that allow direct LTC, MIDI, and GPIO connectivity to System T’s Event Manager software. TCMI will thrive in music production and post production workflows due to its standard LTC (XLR) and MIDI (DIN) connections, along with two USB ports and 25-way GPIO ports. Each of these connects to System T through USB.

Also new is SSL’s immersive audio implementation for System T, with support for ATSC 3.0, Dolby Atmos and MPEG-H. To accommodate the emergence of 3-D audio immersive audio in film and broadcast, SSL offers new 3-axis coordinate panning for System T, which uses 2 and 4-channel overhead speakers for available channel and bus formats.

To compliment the channel and bus, SSL has a 12-channel monitoring system — with 49 inputs formed as one primary input and a 12-channel AFL monitor bus, together with a pair of 12-channel insert points for internal processing and “rendering engine returns.” These features work especially well within multilanguage productions, according to SSL.

SSL will be in Stand 8.D83.

LAS VEGAS—The 2018 NAB Show will serve as the official launch of Solid State Logic’s (SSL) System T v2.0 software, which puts immersive audio for ATSC 3.0, Dolby Atmos and MPEG-H at the heart of this IP-based broadcast audio production platform’s architecture.

With the emergence of 3D immersive audio in broadcast and film, System T’s new three-axis co-ordinate panning incorporates two- or four-channel overhead speakers into the available channel and bus formats; and positions mono and stereo sources in a 3D sound field. System T can also fine-tune spatial components as multichannel 3D sources are added to the mix.

Completing System T’s immersive feature set is a collection of processing tools and intelligent down-mixing. It also supports formats, such as 5.1.2, 5.1.4, 7.1.2 and 7.1.4 (with side channels and rear channels), as well as 4.0.4, which is designed for beds and stems to ensure that the center channel remains available for dialogue and commentary.

System T v2.0 also introduces “appified” software, whereby software interface components launch as separate applications that are available across multi-screen control surfaces and PC control stations.

SSL is also introducing the most comprehensive DAW control available in a broadcast console. It makes full use of System T touchscreen and hardware controls and includes a dedicated screen interface for control over the DAW mixer environment and transport controls. SSL will also demonstrate v2.0 with its S500, S300, Tempest Control Rack (TCR) systems,and complete network I/O range, with demos of its SSL Live console.

The 2018 NAB Show takes place in Las Vegas, April 9-12. Solid State Logic will be in booth C3026. For more information, visit www.nabshow.com.

Read up on all of TVT's NAB Show Sneak Peeks and other 2018 NAB Show news here.

LOS ANGELES—The ability to pass audio over IP between different brands of mixing consoles and other equipment potentially became somewhat easier with the publication of the AES67 standard in late 2013. AES67 may not be as comprehensively functional as other currently available audio networking protocols. Nevertheless, it offers a standardized method by which equipment can share signals, alongside those other networking protocols as well as transports such as AES3 and AES10, otherwise known as MADI.

Television broadcast appeared to reach something of a tipping point in 2015 with regard to the acceptance and adoption of IP-based audio and video workflows and infrastructures. But the industry’s wider AoIP adoption has lagged slightly behind other sectors such as live sound and radio broadcast, where audio networking has been in use for quite some time via various protocols, including AVB, CobraNet, Dante, EtherSound, Livewire, RAVENNA, WheatNet-IP and others.

INTEROPERABILITY TRANSPORT STANDARD
AES67 was not developed to supplant existing AoIP networking platforms; indeed, it lacks certain features found in other AoIP protocols, such as a specified method for channel or device discovery, signal routing and labelling, and system control. But AES67 is essentially a subset of RAVENNA and is supported by Dante and other audio networking protocols, enabling broadcast consoles of various brands to interoperate with a very wide variety of IP-enabled products and, potentially, with each other.

SSL’s System T broadcast audio production system environment, incorporates networked audio, control, and processing based around Dante networking technology. Paul MacDonald, spokesman for U.K.-based Solid State Logic, a Dante licensee, said “AES67 is an interoperability transport standard—control and discovery are intentionally not defined—and as such we don’t view it as a competing technology to Dante, but a complementary standard. However, we think there are developing standards, within the AES and beyond, that have the potential to provide future extensions to standards-based interoperability alongside AES67.”

SSL’s latest broadcast audio production environment, System T, incorporates networked audio, control, and processing based around Dante networking technology, according to MacDonald. “Dante is by far the most widely adopted and, we believe, the most complete and practical audio networking solution,” he said.

Wheatstone, whose Series Four, Dimension Three and other IP consoles route and control audio through the company’s proprietary WheatNet-IP Gigabit Ethernet network, values AES67 for its ability to bridge between its network and others. Phil Owens, head of Eastern U.S. Sales for the New Bern, N.C.-based company noted that AES67 “provides the common synchronization, clock identification and session description we can all share in order to transport audio between our various systems without jitter, delay and data dropout.”

Wheatstone was one of the first to add AES67 to its WheatNet-IP system as another way to “get in and out of our system,” alongside analog, AES, MADI and HD-SDI, Owens said, adding that AES67 is complimentary to WheatNet-IP’s full system approach.

A European plugfest held in October 2014—the first for AES67—led to revisions in the standard, published as AES67-2015, that included some minor updates. At the 2015 AES Convention in New York the Media Networking Alliance (MNA), founded by a group of manufacturers to promote awareness and uptake of AES67, held its first public display of audio networking using the interoperability standard. That demonstration included 22 products from 18 different companies.

Wheatstone products interconnect through the company’s proprietary WheatNet-IP Gigabit Ethernet network. Wheatstone Engineers Kelly Parker and Dave Breithaupt participated in the second AES67 plugfest, held recently in Washington, D.C., and reported on the event on the company’s website. AES67 requires support for both unicast and multicast streaming, the latter requiring SIP, the Session Initiation Protocol that is also behind Voice-over- IP (VoIP) communications, for connection management. According to the report, WheatNet-IP supports SIP, but SIP interoperability was not achieved by every product at the plugfest. It notes that a subsequent AES report “suggests that an SIP technical overview and recommendation be published prior to subsequent AES67 plugfests.” The next plugfest is currently planned for the U.K. during 2016.

Calrec, which has been refining its Hydra2 networking scheme for the past 15 years, is the only broadcast console manufacturer to support all current protocols, including RAVENNA, AVB, Dante, and AES67, according to Dave Letson, vice president of sales for the U.K.-based company. Hydra2 provides a layer of management over all those signals, he noted, providing a multitude of additional functionality like port protection, alias files, virtual patchbays, and access rights. “Uniquely, Hydra2 provides the ability to apply the same management functionality to any supported protocol, providing control and functionality irrespective of which protocol our customers choose for their facility,” Letson said.

A NEW ALLIANCE
An AES standards project, designated X210, is currently addressing an interoperable control protocol. Open Control Architecture (OCA), a technical descendent of AES24, first published in 1999, appears to be on track for ratification as a control and monitoring standard providing interoperability across audio—and, eventually, video— transports. A group of manufacturers has formed the OCA Alliance to actively promote the adoption and standardization of the architecture.

“The lack of an accepted standard is frustrating for both broadcasters and manufacturers alike, and so the main value of these alliances is to provide information and support so that we can all make informed choices for the future,” said Letson. “We are all coalescing protocols into a unified standard and there is still some cautiousness amongst broadcasters and manufacturers in committing to a single standard.”

Lawo has always been aligned to open standards, be it SMPTE 2022-6/-7 and TR-03 in video, AES3, MADI, RAVENNA, or AES67 in audio, or Ember+ in control, according to Andreas Hilmer, director marketing and communications with the German-based company. “We strongly believe in these standardized, open approaches in order to come to best possible solutions with a solid and secure long-term perspective for our clients,” said.

Lawo recently announced that it had joined AIMS, the Alliance for IP Media Solutions, “an independent trade association founded to ensure that all IP solutions brought to market offer complete interoperability and are based on open standards for seamless integration into media workflow environments,” according to an AIMS statement.

“AIMS’s support of open standards and technical recommendations such as TR-03, TR-04, and AES67 afford us an opportunity to eliminate the fragmentation of implementations that our industry has endured over the last 20 years. It’s our big chance to avoid repeating expensive and time-consuming mistakes of the past,” said Hilmer. “In order to support the transition to IP-based infrastructures, we encourage all manufacturers to come together and embrace interoperability and open standards as the best solution for our mutual customers.”