With an eye toward a major facility upgrade involving two separate buildings, MSG Media in New York has installed a Solid State Logic C100 HD Digital Console. The C100 streamlines the current production flow for shows on five different channels, while providing the flexibility to address the planned move into a new location near Madison Square Garden. The C140 HD, with 32 channels, additionally allows MSG Media to offer high-end recording and mixing capabilities to concert clients.
“We needed a console whose primary function would be audio for our HD production control room,” says Michael Mitchell, chief engineer for MSG Media. “We also wanted to position ourselves for 5.1 capabilities as we move into an all-digital production environment.”
The current studios at Madison Square Garden are located on the fourth floor and service three studios for on-air productions, primarily centered on sports events. The audio for live pre-, post-, half-time and intermission programs are produced on-site through the C100, while audio from Rainbow Network Communications in Bethpage, NY, is traded back and forth through fiber-optic lines, delivering live sound from road games and commercials. The trick for the engineering team was to get the entire production facility up and running in the current analog space in such a way that the move into the new facility across the street would be seamless and quick.
“SSL’s MORSE option will allow us to add stageboxes, connected via fiber, which can be remotely controlled by the C100 and deliver a fully digital audio stream,” Mitchell said. “Our intention is to retrofit these stageboxes in our three production studios and anywhere in the facility where we might need a pathway to the console. This capability will become paramount when we move the console into the new facility across the street. This is where the C100 becomes a real production tool as much for crafting audio for a show as allowing the flexibility for us to expand into any location and configuration we might need in the future.”
For more information, visit www.solid-state-logic.com.
