STERLING & LANCASTER, MA.--Mixing sound for a town meeting broadcast may seem simple and even dry compared to, say, a rock concert, but it carries very real challenges: some attendees speak very softly while others hardly need a microphone. People stand up and speak from different locations in the room. Distributing enough mics to capture every situation can mean lots of cables or lots of wireless channels — either of which would require on-site management in a roomful of audio non-professionals.

Sterling-Lancaster Community Television, which provides public, educational, and government-access programming to the eponymous Massachusetts towns, found the perfect solution in a system based around the Yamaha TF-RACK digital mixer with the NY64-D Dante I/O option. It receives all needed audio channels via a single Cat 6 Ethernet connection, matches their levels automatically, and is remotely controlled from the nearby offices of SLC TV in a separate building.

“I first became aware of the TF-RACK when our Yamaha rep left one with us for a couple of weeks,” says Mike Berardinangelo of Access A/V, the systems integrator who worked with SLC TV on the installation. “I also knew the town of Lancaster had recently converted an old school into a town hall and was ready to start using it. Sterling-Lancaster TV wanted to broadcast all the meetings but run everything in real time from their control room about a block and a half away.

“We went with a Shure ceiling array that has eight aimable mics in one. That has a Cat 6 output, which plugs into a PoE [power over Ethernet] gigabit switch,” he explains. “The TF-RACK plugs into the switch as well. Its output is also configured via the Dante standard for audio-over-network, then run over fiber optics between the two buildings.”

“In the control room, we have the TF Editor software running on a Mac desktop computer,” says Chris Detsikas, executive director of SLC TV. “The eight channels show up there, and we can mix everything remotely. All anyone in the town hall meeting room has to do is turn on the power for the rack that the TF lives in. There are no other cables in the room besides that one Cat 6, and it’s out of sight.”

To handle the matter of different voices, Detsikas relies on the Dan Dugan Speech System automated mixing capability of the TF-RACK.

“That’s really just an awesome feature to have when some people in a meeting are very soft-spoken and others are just booming. You can set up different scenes for different applications, of course, but I have simple scene that basically says, ‘Make everyone the same volume.’ It just keeps the gain structure for every channel perfect, where usually you’d need someone riding faders on a console for this. The TF-RACK has incredible EQ of its own, but I find I can run everything pretty flat and only reach for the EQ if someone’s voice is very unusual.”

One would think that leaving the on-site system unattended might be a recipe for disaster, but Detsikas finds that the automation and ease of use of the TF-RACK not only saves him the worry, but even helps balance his budget. “In the past, we always had to hire extra people to go into the meetings and manage the sound and video,” he says. “Now we can do it all remotely, and I only need a couple of people to do a meeting, not three or four. The TF-RACK is very ‘set it and forget it,’ and once we set it, it doesn’t matter who stands up, what they sound like, and where they’re speaking from in the room — we gotcha!”

Despite the TF-RACK being very feature-rich, Detsikas considers its best feature to be that he can essentially forget it’s there: “I have broadcast levels I have to think about on the outgoing end. I don’t want to babysit my production mix, and with the TF-RACK I don’t have to. It just gets out of my way.”

In the near future, Detsikas plans to construct a similar setup for the town of Sterling, as well as bring another Lancaster meeting room through the same mixer. “We have two other rooms that feed into this control room. I’m hoping to patch one into that TF-RACK — say, channels 9 through 16 — so I can keep mixing this room on 1 through 8. With all the busing the TF can do, I could be mixing both at the same time and send separate stereo feeds to separate video switchers for broadcast.”

Whatever else Detsikas’ plans may be for the TF-RACK, he knows he has plenty of time to make them: “If Yamaha comes out with a board, people are going to use it for 10 or 15 years or more. You know it’s a rock.”

Top picture: (L to R): Sterling-Lancaster's Community Television Crew: Matt Downing, Production & Outreach Manager; Emmanuel Ortiz, Studio Coordinator; Chris Detsikas, Executive Director & Melissa Jellie, Access Coordinator

LAS VEGAS—At the 2018 NAB Show, Yamaha will exhibit its new Rivage PM7 digital mixing system, which consists of the CSD-R7 digital mixing console and TWINLANe-based RPio622 and RPio222 I/O racks, as well as new Dante-based Rio3224-D2 and Rio1608-D2 I/O racks.

Rivage PM7

With 120 input channels, 60 mix buses, 24 matrices and 48 top-quality plug-ins, the PM7 provides a comparable user experience and mixing capacity to the Rivage PM10, which has 144 input channels, 72 mix buses, 36 matrices and 50 plug-ins.

With an emphasis on preserving workflow, the CSD-R7’s DSP engine is built into the console for greater portability and flexibility. A dual console function allows the CSD-R7 to be connected to one of the Rivage PM10 system control surfaces (CS-R10 or CS-R10-S). For example, a CS-R10-S can be used at front of house, for monitors or as a sidecar expansion console for the CSD-R7, depending on space and system scale requirements.

The CSD-R7 connects with two types of audio networks, allowing flexible connection and control of RPio622 and/or RPio222 I/O rack units. The dedicated TWINLANe network uses optical cable to handle up 400 channels of audio.

The company will also unveil new Rio3224-D2 and Rio1608-D2 I/O racks, which are components of the Rivage PM Series, including the new PM7. They can also be used with CL and QL Series digital mixing consoles.

Coming soon, Version 4.5 firmware for CL and QL Series digital mixing consoles will support Audinate Dante Domain Manager, which provides efficient Dante network management, with user authentication and role-based security. This enables seamless Dante system expansion on virtually any network infrastructure.

Another firmware update, Version 2.0 of the Rivage PM series, will include new features, such as 5.1 surround and broadcast mix minus capability, a Rupert Neve Designs Portico 5045 primary source enhancer, dual console function, and DSP mirroring (Rivage PM10 only).

The 2018 NAB Show takes place in Las Vegas, April 9-12. Yamahawill be in boothC1725. 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. 

LAS VEGAS—Yamaha will have a new CS-R10-S control surface as wellas firmware updates for its RIVAGE PM10 and TF Series digital mixing systems at the 2017 NAB Show. The new CS-R10-S control surface offers the same functionality of the existing CS-R10, at two-thirds the size.

With a dual console function, to be supported in a future update, two CS-R10 and/or CS-R10-S control surfaces can be connected to a single DSP-R10 DSP engine enabling separate CS-R10-S control surfaces to be used at front of house and monitor mix positions.

The Yamaha Rivage PM10 firmware update V1.5 includes an Eventide H3000 Live Ultra-Harmonizer plug-in and Dan Dugan Sound Design automatic mixer plug-in, which provide outstanding effect quality, while optimizing live-sound operations.

Yamaha is also releasing firmware update v3.5, which adds Dugan Speech System automixing to Yamaha TF Series digital mixers. Developed with Dan Dugan Sound Design Inc., the update includes the original automatic microphone-mixing algorithm that helps professional audio engineers cue multiple live mics in situations with unpredictable dialogue.

The Dugan automixer can be applied to up to eight channels in the TF Series, automatically raising the gain of mic inputs that are active, while lowering the gain of inactive mic inputs, and adjusting each to create a consistent overall mix level. This capability, which eliminates the need for complex fader operation, is also included in Yamaha QL and CL Series consoles.

The 2017 NAB Show takes place in Las Vegas, April 24-27. Yamaha will be in boothC1725. For more information, visit www.nabshow.com.

SHIZUOKA, JAPAN—Users of Yamaha’s CL and QL Series consoles now have the ability to control and monitor the ULX-D digital wireless system from Shure, the companies announced. This integration reportedly provides audio professionals tools for sound reinforcement applications.

The ULX-D digital wireless systems include the Dante-enabled ULXD4D dual channel digital wireless receivers and the ULXD4Q quad channel digital wireless receivers, both of which offer 24-bit audio clarity and RF performance. With these new control parameters, users will be able to monitor the battery, RF reception strength, antenna status, frequency and audio level, and full control of gain, mute and channel name assignment.

This is the third stage of the Shure/Yamaha collaboration, according to the press release, with the control and monitoring of Shure’s ULXD4D and ULXD4Q receivers from the Yamaha CL and QL series console touch panels becoming available in at the end of April as part of the V4.0 firmware update.