Offering a responsive view of business and financial news, BFM Business brings television and radio to France. With programming that includes panel-style examination of the news; live interviews; and expert summary of the political, financial and economic news of the day, it’s technical needs are both varied and demanding. The last word of the day includes a live feed from Times Square in New York City, covering the closing US markets.
Running with a Dalet Media Asset Management system, the broadcaster has installed a 32-channel, 24-fader Solid State Logic C10 HD Compact Broadcast Console was installed to meet the challenges of long hours of operation, and the variety of programming.
BFM Business programmes are broadcast to the city of Paris over terrestrial TV and for France over broadband internet, cable and satellite. They are also available over Business BFM Radio and through podcasts on iTunes.
‘We present live programming starting at 6am and ending at midnight seven days a week, providing 24/7 coverage with shows repeating overnight,’ says Philippe Espinet, CTO for NextRadioTV Group, the owner/operator of BFM Business. ‘When we looked at which console to use for our studio upgrade, the SSL C10 stood out by offering features not available on other consoles, great sound quality and industry-recognised reliability at a very favorable price point.
‘We really appreciate the feature set on the C10,’ he says. ‘For example, the console’s Dialogue Automix helps our engineers attain superior mixing results for live panel shows. In the past, handling these programmes was a daunting engineering challenge. Now, with the Dialogue Automix feature, our engineers can not only accomplish the basic mixing mission, but can now have time to refine the sound quality and pay more attention to the video aspects of the programme. This feature is like having an extra pair of expert hands helping out.’
Dialogue Automix allows the engineer sets the basic levels for up to 16 microphones, and the console then handles the mixing duties while maintaining a consistent ambient noise level.
‘The installation was straightforward and the console interfaces nicely with our Dalet Media Asset Management system we use for capture and playout,’ says Espinet. ‘The training was fast and handling the console on a day to day basis is very easy. With the C10, Business BFM now has all the necessary resources for live radio and TV productions. The multiple layers provide access to resources quickly and we are developing a set of console presets to make switching between programmes quick and easy.’
More: www.solidstatelogic.com
