HEBDEN BRIDGE, U.K.— Maryland Public Television has won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Audio from the National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for its mix of “America’s Veterans: A Musical Tribute.”
The hour-long concert, broadcast live on MPT in Fall 2012, featured The United States Air Force Band and the Singing Sergeants with guest stars Ruben Studdard and Anthony Kearns, was mixed live to air using two Calrec Alpha digital consoles, while a Calrec Hydra box provided additional I/O.
“Our goal for the ‘America’s Veterans’ program was not only to produce a network-quality concert in HD, but also to produce superior audio for a tape of the concert that would be shown to our troops around the world,” said Jim Bigwood, MPT audio supervisor and co-winner of the Emmy Award, along with MPT staff mixer David Wainwright, freelance mixer Gordon Masters and USAF Band mixer Master Sgt. Jim De Vaughn. “This show is always technically challenging because there are so many musicians and voices to contend with. Our Calrec Alpha consoles and Hydra networking system made routing audio around our facility a snap. I prebuilt the show memories on each console, so setup and testing on load-in day was easy.”
MPT had to accommodate 56 mic inputs in the studio, and in total, there were more than 60 channels to mix. MPT used both of its Alpha 40-fader consoles, with two operators per console responsible for 20 faders each. One console handled all of the vocal tracks, while the other handled the instruments, tape rolls, host and a submix from the vocal console, which were mixed together to create the broadcast feed. In addition, MPT routed each channel out to the Studio A prefader (with no EQ or dynamics) for the front-of-house and monitor mixer.
Another challenge was that MPT's Hydra sound system had insufficient mic inputs for the show, so Calrec distributor Studio Consultants Inc. supplied an additional Hydra 24-input/eight-output box to augment MPT’s existing custom Hydra 32-input/16-output box in Studio A, enabling the required 56 mic inputs into the studio.
