Installation Case
- category:
- Broadcasting
TV4 Sweden
— DME24N: Swedish TV Station’s Flexible Friend —
Overview
Launched in 1990, Swedish television station TV4 has gone on to become the country’s largest commercial TV channel.
Recently the channel’s edit suites in Stockholm have been undergoing a massive multi-million kronor technical refit, and six DME24Ns at the heart of the cutting edge installation prove that Yamaha Digital Mixing Engines are the perfect one-box solution for enhanced broadcast efficiency.
- Web site:
- http://www.tv4.se
Installed Products
- Processors:
- DME24N
Details
Doing the Work of Multiple Outboard Units
The DME24N units are fitted with MY8-ADDA96 AD/DA cards and replace a wide range of studio outboard devices, eliminating the many problems associated with using patch bays and equipment from a wide range of different manufacturers.
JMG Support AB of Bromma installed the system. “We chose the DME solution because, as a Yamaha dealer, we were familiar with the DME range and the many different ways it can be controlled,” says JMG Support’s Johan Küller. “Of course we also knew that the audio quality is excellent, so the customer would be very happy with the end result.”
Multitasking is Easy
Each DME system at TV4 is set up to control two edit suites and a recording/speaker booth that is shared between them.
The DME systems handle all monitoring, switching, and level control for the audio recording sources, which include a non-linear editing system, videotape recorders, and a microphone in the booth. The system also provides compression and limiting for the mic.
Another input comes from telephone hybrids, which allow viewers to call TV4 while their speech is recorded or broadcast. The DME system allows the outputs from the telephone hybrids to be monitored in the booth and both edit suites, as well as being fed to the inputs of the non-linear editing systems and to a PC located in the booth.
One-button Solutions for Common Scenarios
“Our biggest challenge was to create a very user friendly interface,” says Johan. “The client wanted one button solutions for the most common scenarios and, as we looked at all the different combinations of inputs and outputs, it became clear how complex the switching could become. In order to make the switching procedures as simple as was needed, digital signal processing was the only possible solution.”
“Because of the client’s requirement for simplicity of operation, we also realized that we would need to produce custom control panels. So the complexity of the system, plus the requirement for simple switching and custom panels, mean that the Yamaha DME was by far the best solution.”
Custom control panels are located in the booth and each control room, which are connected to the serial ports of the DME24Ns. In the booth the operator selects whether he wants to record via microphone or telephone hybrid, and whether he wants to route the signal to be recorded in the booth or in one of the edit suites.
In the edit suites the operator has a control panel via which he can select whether to monitor the output of the non-linear editing system or the mic/telephone hybrid. He can also select whether he wants to record from the booth or from VTR and set the recording level.
Adaptable and Intuitive with Superior Sound
“This was a challenging installation, because the system needed to be very adaptable, having complex switching functions controlled in a very straightforward, intuitive way,” says Johan. “This solution has provided TV4 with a straightforward, high fidelity network that offers vastly increased audio fidelity. But the best thing is the flexibility of the system. We can change things easily in software that in a non-DME installation would have required physical re-wiring, which would have taken much longer and caused problems. Now the potential for such problems simply doesn’t exist.”
