Maple Leaf Sports + Entertainment (MLSE) recently upgraded its audio production control room with a Solid State LogicC10 HD Compact Broadcast Console. MLSE is a major force in Canadian sports through owning the Toronto Maple Leafs (NHL), the Toronto Raptors (NBA), the Toronto FC (MLS) and the Toronto Marlies (AHL), along with the Air Canada Center, BMO Field and Richo Coliseum sports venues and LEAFS TV, NBA TV Canada and GOLTV (soccer) Canada. The C10 is primarily used for live pre- and post-game shows for the different sports teams, as well as in-house productions that are pre-taped for later broadcast. The C10 brings with it advanced design and reliability for consistent live to air performance and SSL’s industry wide reputation for quality products and support.
“We have a dark fiber connection between the Air Canada Center, which houses the live show sets, and our production control room here, a distance of nearly three miles,” says Ed Holmes, director of engineering for MLSE. “Because of the compatibility between the C10 and our Optocore network installed at the stadium, we can route all 56 of our mic signals at the Air Canada center back to the SSL. This way we can control show production from the console and easily route signals back and forth between our facility and the Air Canada Center studios. On game days we share a lot of production assets with the scoreboard, the control room, the mobile production trucks and the pre- and post-game show that we produce with the SSL console. The Optocore compatibility made the C10 very attractive for our operations.”
Two of SSL’s Production Assistant software enhancements that influenced the C10 purchase were the Dialogue Automix and the 5.1 Upmix options. Both help to streamline workflow and improve consistency.
“With the Dialogue Automix option for our panel shows, each person’s level is now very consistent,” says Alain Siodlowski, broadcast engineer for MLSE. “We do not worry about missed upcuts, because the transition between speakers is remarkably seamless. Also, a lot of our program material is still legacy stereo, and, while we’re moving into 5.1, our current music and show segments are edited in stereo. The 5.1 Upmix option helps us transition to 5.1 surround without having to spend a lot of money upgrading each and every editing room and re-wiring our video servers.”
The engineering staff at MLSE has used C100 consoles in OB vans hired for live game coverage with great success and they like that the interface and feature set has carried over to the C10.
“We feel the user interface is the best in the industry – simply phenomenal – and the audio quality is excellent,” explains Holmes. “Another thing that sold us on the C10 is that with the MADI I/O built into the console we can easily distribute our audio, so we can actually put modules where they need to be, as opposed to having to centralize everything and run miles of cables to one location. Now we simply run one fiber cable, making expansion to a second or third console easy to install.”
Solid State Logic is the world’s leading manufacturer of analogue and digital audio consoles and provider of creative tools for music, broadcast and post production professionals. For more information about our award-winning products, please visit: www.solidstatelogic.com.
