SSL’s C10 Is Small in Size, Big on Performance

By Dan Daley

While explaining the ergonomics of the C10 HD Digital Broadcast audio console introduced by Solid State Logic at the NAB Show on Monday, SSL Group Commercial Director Piers Plaskitt slipped briefly into economics. “At about $100,000, that’s historically what a deposit on an SSL once was,” he quipped, a wry comment on the radically changed economics of large-audio-console technology.

However, the compact C10 HD delivers what the market’s demanding. The console comes in two frame sizes — 24+8 and 32+8 — with scalable DSP and I/O options. The simple control-surface layout is complemented by a clear graphical overview of all signals, augmented with SSL’s Eyeconix feature that presents thumbnail pictures of sources to be displayed for fast visual recognition and navigation.

The C10 HD integrates all DSP signal processing and operating hardware into a convection-cooled control surface. Full processing redundancy, also within the console surface, is available as an option.

The console offers four access levels to the console’s features — Admin, Certified, Express, and Lockdown — to provide the appropriate functionality to engineers and staff with different mixing skill levels. For example, the Production Automation interface enables unmanned operation for overnight or off-peak programming, but, if something needs to be changed, the console can be set for Express-level skills, enabling a junior engineer, for example, to make critical changes without the possibility of changing the entire setup.

The C10 HD provides the same full 5.1-surround mixing capabilities as the larger C100 HD console, along with a new 5.1 UpMix algorithm that generates surround imaging from stereo sources. This allows users to match their facility’s broadcast imaging to other 5.1 material from a network feed or create 5.1 elements from existing stereo material. The system is compatible with the C100 HD and MORSE products, enabling integration within a large facility and providing scalable and arbitrated resource sharing.

SSL also introduced its Alpha-Link Live and Alpha-Link 8RMP line of compact, cost-effective I/O options for broadcasters. The new Alpha-Link Live provides 24 channels of AES/EBU digital and 24 channels of balanced analog audio conversion to 64 channels of MADI Optical Fiber, which interfaces directly to the C10 HD. Alpha-Link Live comes standard with dual PSU functionality, essential in broadcast environments. Alpha-Link 8RMP provides an eight-channel remote mic pre solution, which can be remotely controlled from the C10 HD.