In 2004, Nic Dugger founded Tennessee Digital Video. The Jacksonville, TN native has been working in television since he was 12 years old. TNDV owns an audio truck, dubbed the Vibration, that travels next to the company’s fleet of HD production trucks.
Dugger recently installed a Studer Vista 9 digital mixer and a redundant ProTools recording system in this truck.
Broadcast Engineering: Has the development of the MADI platform gone as far as it needs to go?
Nick Dugger: “I’d say yes. We thrive on MADI. When we go to a fixed venue-the Grand Ole Opry house, for example-we can request a MADI feed without any problems. If we’re talking to a touring band engineer, they always are able to provide us with a MADI connections. Engineers know that MADI is reliable. We just purchased a new Direct Out Technologies MADI router; it has more input/options than the one we had previously.”
BE: What projects has TNDV been working on recently?
ND: “We just finished season three of PBS Bluegrass Underground. That show tapes 1,000 feet underground! We won an Emmy last year for the lighting design work we did for that show.
“We we also involved with several MTV shows. “Rags To Riches” is a musical showcase that streams live, hosted by P Diddy. 'Live From Austin' is another MTV show we work on.”
BE: What made you decide to install a Studer Vista 9 board in your truck?
ND: “Nashville is an intense audio community. When we were considering which console to put into Vibration we sought out the opinions of some of the top engineers in town who work in television and asked them to give us a list of their top five consoles.
“No one had the same top five list, but the Vista 9 was in the top three of everyone’s list. We own three other trucks, and have Soundcraft boards in them. The Studer is a step up from the Soundcraft line, and that was a factor as well. We’re starting out with a 256 input configuration, but we can bump that number up if we need to.”
