HOUSTON—Regional sports network Space City Home Network has upgraded its audio control room with a Solid State Logic System T S300-32 audio console as part of the broadcaster ongoing buildout of Dante network infrastructure.
SCHN is a regional sports network that provides coverage of Houston Astros MLB and Houston Rockets NBA games across a five-state area via satellite, cable and OTT providers.
“I’ve always been impressed by Solid State Logic and the System T was the natural progression from the C10 [from Solid State Logic] that we had previously,” Chris Frazier, chief broadcast engineer, said. “When you're on a C10 you have already bought into how well Solid State Logic builds their desks.”
SCHN’s C10 came from NBC News in Los Angeles when the Houston facility was under different ownership. “We continued to use a C10 that was manufactured in 2011 all the way until this year, so we got a good 13 years out of it,” he commented. “The fact is, SSL builds good stuff.”
SCHN’s production facility is connected to the teams’ local sports venues via dark fibre. Video and audio feeds are taken directly from the respective venues, with the production team located at SCHN’s facility. Road games for both teams are produced from the SCHN studio. Following the installation of the System T, Frazier said, “we've already extended our network so we're now doing our pre- and post-game shows with Dante across the dark fiber network.”
The System T S300 32-fader control surface at SCHN is controlling a TE2 Tempest Engine. To interface with the control room’s new and legacy audio equipment, the System T is connected to two Net I/O D64 AES to Dante converters, a pair of Net I/O A32 SSL SuperAnalogue line level I/O to Dante and AES 67-based IP network interfaces, and a Net I/O SB i16 SuperAnalogue mic/line to Dante stage box, the two companies explained.
System T’s market-leading Dante integration was a critical factor in SCHN’s purchase decision. Through previous capital expenditure projects, Frazier said, SCHN had already installed a variety of Dante-enabled audio signal distribution equipment. “We had a lot of the appliances that we needed but we weren't ready to develop our Dante network until we had the desk here, because it's central to all of what we do. The ability to manage the entire Dante network from the desk is crucial. System T’s inbuilt Dante routing control determines 90% of our routes.”
San Francisco-based Advanced Systems Group LLC (ASG), which is headquartered in the Bay Area with an office in London, supplied and integrated the new System T platform, having provided asset management, archive and broadcast equipment to SCHN’s previous owner’s regional sports network facilities around the country. The decommissioning of the C10 and the commissioning of the new System T were scheduled during a four-day break from live productions.
“I’ve had the privilege of working with Chris and his team for nearly a decade, and this solution was a great fit,” said Tyler Berry of ASG. “We deployed System T at a former owner’s facility with seamless results. When SCHN needed to replace the C10, System T was the clear choice for its flexibility and SSL's outstanding support. Thanks to Chris, SSL, and ASG’s systems integration team lead by Michele Ferreira, the project was a resounding success."
Decommissioning started on a Saturday, Frazier reported. “The System T configuration process started Monday morning, by Wednesday morning we were capable of doing a complete show and by Thursday afternoon we were trained and fully operational,” he said. “SSL’s Support Manager Richard Wand was awesome. We really enjoyed his leadership and his ability to get us up to speed. He was a great resource.”
Frazier said he also appreciated the support of Jason Martin, a provider of A1 broadcast remote audio services who works in the broadcast truck at Houston home games, and who has had extensive experience with System T. “System T came highly recommended from Jason; he was a huge advocate for it. He was already familiar with the System T from a previous installation he had done where he mixed, so his level of expertise came in handy,” he said.
Space City Home Network, which re-launched under its new name and new ownership in October 2023, broadcasts about 250 games annually “We don't have a lot of downtime here,” Frazier says. “On average, we do six games a week during baseball season, and an average of three to four during the basketball season.“
SCHN is available through a variety of providers in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and eastern New Mexico.
More information is available at www.solidstatelogic.com.
