SportsNet New York Picks Solid State Logic System T for New Audio-Control Rooms

As part of a recent move to new facilities located at the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan, regional sports network SportsNet New York (SNY) has refitted its broadcast studios and upgraded its technology. This includes two new audio-control rooms, both with Solid State Logic System T networked audio-broadcast–production systems, and a fully redundant Dante audio-over-IP Ethernet-based networking infrastructure.

SNY is the official television home of the MLB’s New York Mets, the NFL’s New York Jets, and the UConn Huskies men’s and women’s basketball programs. It televises more than 125 Mets games each season, along with pre/postgame programs, plus additional Mets entertainment programming airing throughout the calendar year. Annually, it delivers more than 300 hours of exclusive content devoted to the Jets, about 350 hours of UConn programming, and comprehensive access to all the Tri-State area’s professional and collegiate sports teams through five nightly sports and entertainment programs.

SSL System T networked audio-broadcast–production system in one of SportsNet NY’s new audio-control rooms.

Each new audio-control room features a three-bay, 48-fader System T S500 control surface with dual touchscreens and a pair of SSL Network I/O: SB 8.8 Dante stageboxes. Each controller is connected to a dual-redundant T80 Tempest audio engine.

Six SSL Network I/O: SDI Bridges connect the studio’s existing SDI production systems, and there are additional Network I/O: AES Dante units, as well as a selection of Dante stageboxes, including the Network I/O: SB i16 and SB 8.8s for studio connections.

According to SNY VP, Engineering, Alex Blanding one of the most powerful things about the network’s output and its production workflow is maintaining true 5.1 surround. “We don’t upmix from anything or synthesize anything,” he explains. “We mix in 5.1 from the get-go, and we maintain the 5.1 sound-field profile as we go in and out of live games and in and out of studio programming. We produce all the Mets games from a remote-production truck and patch that through, and, as we go seamlessly to our postgame or pregame shows, we maintain that 5.1 presence throughout. That prevents a big change in the quality or the character of the output. It’s important that the audience gets the best audio experience.”

He notes that the final decision to go with System T had several aspects, such as full production-automation support and the multigroup Automix system integrated into the system architecture and available on every path. “We use the Automix functionality in the console every day, on things like roundtable discussions and so on. That’s a very powerful feature for us.”

Depending on the schedule, the audio-control rooms operate with a mixture of hands-on and production-automated mixing. Because SNY has invested in extensive Ross Overdrive control of its production technology, it is important that System T speaks that language. Indeed, System T can also be integrated with Grass Valley Ignite, Sony ELC, and Viz Mosart production automation systems, as well as Ross Overdrive.

It was also vital to SNY that its Dante AoIP network — which incorporates System T, the studio I/O, and a Dante-based RTS-Omneo networked intercom system — had seamless interoperability with its existing SDI-based workflow. The broadcaster uses six SSL Network I/O: SDI Bridges to provide bidirectional bridging between embedded SDI audio and the Dante IP audio network. The SDI bridge features eight SDI circuits, each capable of embedding and de-embedding, as well as dual Dante and triple MADI connectivity. Internal channel-by-channel routing enables flexible routing among all three domains.

 

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