Steve Cormier
LOS ANGELES—Video Equipment Rentals is a global audio and video equipment rental company that provides production systems for broadcast television.
IT’S A MADI, MADI WORLD
Recently, we’ve experienced a significant rise in demand for MADI-compliant audio monitoring systems. MADI is a neat and cost-effective way to transport as many as 64 channels of audio via a single coax or fiber cable. However, until quite recently the choice of monitoring devices for MADI signals has been limited.
We began to investigate the available monitoring systems, including TSL’s SAM1 MADI monitor. We were so pleased with the unit and its functionality that we decided to purchase several units to use with our flypack production outfits.
The first one was used by the Tennis Channel to cover the 2014 French Open Tennis at Roland Garros. The flypack was sent out to Paris as soon as everything was ready and checked out where it was put through its paces by the Tennis Channel.
While our flypack can be configured differently depending on the event, for the French Open, the Tennis Channel used a system that relied heavily on MADI. The production involved feeds from the host broadcaster, audio from six announce booths covering multiple courts, transmissions from a voice-over booth, audio from multiple video playback sources and more.
AES, SDI AND ANALOG TOO
We chose TSL Products’ SAM1 MADI specifically for its MADI capabilities and also because it includes SDI. The SAM1 is the only audio monitoring system on the market capable of combining MADI, SDI, AES and analog into a single unit. This enabled us to kit out our flypack systems with a common and dedicated confidence monitor that can handle a multitude of tasks and signal formats. Aside from simply monitoring whatever input signal is presented to it, the SAM1 MADI also allows our customers to see and hear audio activity from multiple simultaneous sources. Most other monitoring systems don’t provide this versatility, as they’re limited to selecting just one audio channel at a time.
We’re also very impressed by the monitor’s audio quality; for a compact device it's quite a sophisticated tool. It allows source monitoring of up to 20 audio channels from MADI, as well as embedded HD-SDI, AES and analog sources, and it also provides immediate access to any combination of formats.
The unit is ideal for a QC position, as it provides sound engineers with complete visual and audio feedback for confidence monitoring.
Our customers really appreciate the unit’s ability to create a tailor-made monitoring panel that gives them access to all the desired channels via a simple rotary control. They like the simplicity of setup and use also, with channels easily defined as mono, stereo or a 5.1 downmixed group via a single button press. In addition, they can mix multiple signals together and adjust individual mix levels to create a monitoring environment that meets their exact requirements.
Steve Cormier is the director of audio at Video Equipment Rentals. He can be contacted at scormier@verrents.com.
For additional information, contact TSL Products, USA at 310-559-7668 or visit www.tslproducts.com
