Sweetwater Digital likes taste of Studer for new HD truck

Los Angeles-based Sweetwater Digital Productions is currently in the process of outfitting a new HDTV production truck designed to accommodate large-scale concerts, awards ceremonies and other high-profile entertainment events.

Although some of the equipment choices for the 53-foot, double-expando unit are still being finalised, the Sweetwater team knew right from the start which digital mixing console would be residing in the truck s generously sized audio suite a Studer Vista 8.

The Vista 8 was actually one of the first product decisions we made, says Sweetwater Chief Engineer Mark Hale. Aside from the fact that many of the top end audio mixers here in LA. have been saying very complimentary things about the desk s operation, I was impressed with it from an engineering perspective. I particularly liked the way that the I/O system is structured and how it uses MADI lines for routing signals out to various places. It was immediately apparent how that would cut down on a lot of integration time and cabling for us.

Hale further cites Studer s willingness to tailor a solution to meet Sweetwater s needs as another key factor in choosing the console. Studer has been extremely accommodating and wonderful to work with, he says. As an example, they spent a lot of time helping us interface the Vista 8 with our Philips Jupiter system, which will permit us to control all of our audio crosspoints through Jupiter s software. And with 256 tie-lines between the console and router, we ll be able to very easily route any microphone or crosspoint to any tape machine without having to even think about leaving the internal I/O.

Employing an unprecedented 20 rack-mounted Studer D21m I/O frames and two new SCore Live DSP cores one for the console and another for the massive 1024 x 816 router Sweetwater Digital Productions new desk goes on record as the largest Vista 8 ever manufactured in terms of sheer input and output size.

According to Studer USA Western Regional Sales Manager Jamie Dunn, We are thrilled and excited that Sweetwater has chosen Studer console and router technology as the heart of this impressive HDTV truck. The feedback from the US freelance mixer community was clearly a major factor in Sweetwater s decision to install a Vista 8 and underlines the simplicity and growing popularity of the Vistonics user interface.

Aside from its mobile production services, Sweetwater is also known and respected for its complete custom control room installations for many current and former television shows, including Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, On-Air with Ryan Seacrest, TV Guide Channel, NFL Network, and Last Call with Carson Daly.