One of three new Solid State Logic System T S300 Dante-native audio mixing platforms, a 48-fader S300 now resides in Control Room 3 at state’s public broadcasting network Iowa PBS. The control room is connected to a 300-seat studio theatre while Control Room 1 and the network’s mobile broadcast truck each now feature 32-fader S300 consoles. The three surfaces are each combined with a TE2 Tempest Engine supporting 256 processing paths and have access to a wide variety of local and shared Network I/O interfaces and SB stageboxes.

The integration at Iowa PBS HQ near Des Moines is the first step toward a wider Dante AoIP implementation at the facility. ‘This is the first time we’ve used Dante says Senior Audio Engineer/Production Technician Senior, David Feingold. ‘We only have two pieces ooutboard recorders that use Dante right now.’

While there are other digital consoles options available, Feingold cites System T’s Dante integration was a key consideration. ‘You don’t ever have to go out to the Dante Controller to route things, so that was a big draw,’ he says.

The System T platforms replace three SSL C100 HD digital desks that the network had been using for about 16 years, since the transition to HDTV transmission in the US. The C100s had served the network well, Feingold says, but Iowa PBS was ready to take advantage of the latest technology integrated into the System T platform.

‘SSL makes great sounding consoles and they’re very durable. SSL stand behind their consoles, too, and always provide good service support,’ says the 17-year Iowa PBS veteran. ‘We’d had a C100 HD in our mobile truck since 2008 and had no issues with it but it was just time to move up to the System T.’

The move marks a significant change for the network’s audio operators from the knobs and switches of the C100 worksurface, but there are also familiar features within, as the Tempest Engine’s processing allow them to continus using their established workflows. ‘For example,’ Feingold says, ‘right out of the gate, I’m using the compressors just like I did before.’

The System T consoles also offer a lot more features: ‘The de-esser is a huge thing for me,’ Feingold says. ‘You used to be able to sidechain a de-esser in the C100 but now it’s built into every channel in the System T. The Automixer is another huge thing for our roundtable shows. I use it subtly, not as a mixer, but more as a ducker. The way that System T integrates with Pro Tools through the HUI control is very cool, as well.’

System T’s DAW control enables operators to not only make level changes using the console faders but also adjust plug-in parameters from the worksurface.

Control Rooms 1 and 3 are networked through Dante. ‘They are two different systems, but they share the same I/O throughout the whole building, which makes us versatile. Plus, we can share all the same sources,’ Feingold says.

Between them, the S300-48 in Control Room 3 and the S300-32 in Control Room 1 are networked to SB 32.24, SB 16.12 and SB i16 SuperAnalogue mic/line Stageboxes. There are also two Network I/O D64 interfaces, which accommodate 32 AES I/O pairs; an A32, which interfaces 32 SuperAnalogue lines to and from the Dante network; an A16.D16, interfacing 16 SuperAnalogue plus 16 AES3 digital lines with Dante; and a Network I/O SDI eight-circuit embedder/de-embedder. The S300-48 uses a local Net I/O Madi Bridge to interface with Control Room 3’s Avid Pro Tools. As for the Iowa PBS mobile unit, it carries SB 32.24 and SB 16.12 Stageboxes to introduce lines over Dante into the truck’s S300-32 console.

Overall, Iowa PBS generates a wide variety of programming, from sports, arts and entertainment to agriculture and politics, including the caucuses each election cycle. Control Room 3’s S300-48 drives the audio for two weekly shows, including an agri-business programme, Market to Market. ‘Sometimes we take that show, and a show called Iowa Press, on the road. We also do a big music show, Studio 3 Live,’ Feingold reports, which features local, regional and national artists. ‘We’ve also had different outside shows, such as PBS News Hour, come in and produce stuff in the studio. So we are able to accommodate them, too.’

All six production technicians at the station handle everything from video editing to audio mixing. Feingold, the only one with a purely audio background, took the lead on building show files in the Control Room 3 console for its two regular shows. ‘Then we just build new show files for new shows,’ he says.

The remote truck handles a wider assortment of productions, and covers certain sports regularly, using show files built for these and other regular events.

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