Sound Devices 970 Audio Recorder Gives Knock-Out Performance for Season 2 of White Collar Brawlers

When Authentic Entertainment started production on the second season of the Esquire Network’s White Collar Brawlers, a hit competition-style reality show, it knew that to capture the energetic back-and-forth dialogue between the cast on the program, it needed an audio system that could reliably capture high volumes of tracks while maintaining a small footprint. The company found this solution in Sound Devices 970 audio recorder.

The network-connected, rack-mount 970 boasts an impressive 64 channels of Dante and MADI with FileSafe, a technology that recovers audio files if, during recording, drives are unintentionally disconnected or power is lost.

Since Authentic Entertainment has been using Sound Devices products for years, the decision to incorporate the 970 was an easy one. “For White Collar Brawlers, the 970 allowed us to set up the audio station next to our video village, which gave our producers a more reliable audio feed to monitor,” says Paul Rials, Audio Coordinator, Authentic Entertainment. “On the show we have a large amount of talent and mics laid out. Being able to have those mics recorded to a single device, and then control and monitor them all at the same time, from the same location, makes a huge difference during production and post.”

The 970 also helped Rials and his crew improve their workflow. “The PIXNet and Dante capabilities are extremely useful features of the 970,” says Rials. “The PIX Caddy SSD, along with the ability to either hot-swap it out or use the network mounting function, helps to cut down file transfer times. Plus, with the new firmware, the added ability of a sound report is a big help in post. The FileSafe function is also a wonderful addition, helping protect files when power is lost. We haven’t had any power issues while recording, but we have tested it out during preps, and it is a great feature.”

The 970’s compact size and abundance of features has helped the Authentic Entertainment crew overcome challenges they have faced in the past. In addition to simplifying cable runs, the 970 has provided easy track routing via Dante, allowing for endless amount of tracks to be recorded in one place. Being able to build this out into a transit rack case helps make it more compact to fit into smaller spaces, which is very helpful on many of Rials’ field sets.

Peter Deutscher, Sound Supervisor on season two of White Collar Brawlers, echoes Rials’ sentiments. “Being able to record a high volume of tracks, and utilizing Dante for routing signals to and from the 970 made using it a no brainer,” he says. “What makes the 970 great is its ability to run only a few CAT-5 cables and yet route over 30 different signals, whether they be pre-fade ISOs, sub mixes or the PA feed. Dante allows for seamless routing and re-routing at the touch of a mouse. Having the 970 allows you to get out of the mindset of thinking just ‘analog in and  out.’ With just two cables, we can send 64 signals to and from the machine, allowing for endless routing possibilities. It’s impressive.”

Along with the 970, Deutscher outfitted his rig for season two of White Collar Brawlers with the brand-new Yamaha QL1 mixer and Yamaha Rio 1608 digital network remote, Lectrosonics wireless (paired with Sanken COS-11 lavaliers), Sennheiser 416s for spot mics, a Denecke GR-1 master clock and a Rosendahl Nanosync for TC and Word Clock Sync, and a PSC RF MultiMax antenna splitter to create a multi-zone wireless system. The crew also utilized Sound Devices 788Ts in their portable bags, for backup.

“So far, the 970 has exceeded my expectations in performance,” adds Rials. “We always use our Sound Devices equipment on all of our shows, and I am looking forward to deploying more 970 rigs as our shows’ demand for it grows.”

Sound Devices’ 970 records 64 channels of monophonic or polyphonic 24-bit WAV files from any of its 144 available inputs. Inputs available include 64 channels of Ethernet-based Dante, 64 channels of optical or coaxial MADI, eight channels of line-level analog and eight channels of AES digital. The half-rack, 2U device simplifies any application requiring high-quality, hightrack-count audio recording, including drama and reality production and live concert recording. The 970 records to any of four attached drives, which include two front-panel drive bays and two rear-panel e-SATA connected drives. Material can be recorded to multiple drives simultaneously or sequentially. With its built-in, rock-steady Ambient Recording Lockit time-code technology, the 970 is well-suited to operate as a master clock.

The Sound Devices 970 features an embedded Web-based control panel for machine transport and setup control over Ethernet-based networks as well as file transfer over the data network with SMB. Users can perform file metadata editing of scene name, take name, notes, track names and reel folders during before and after recording across all drives. In addition to RS-422 and GPIO control, the unit also allows for format conversion between analog, AES digital, MADI and Dante. Sound Devices’ 970 is designed with a large five-inch screen for metering of up to 64 tracks and for fast and intuitive menu control. It also features Sound Devices’ proprietary PowerSafe™ technology, a built-in UPS providing 10 seconds of power reserve allowing the system to intelligently stop recording in progress and close associated files before powering down.

Sound Devices 970 Earns Nomination for Cinema Audio Society Technical Achievement Award
Sound Devices, specialists in audio and video products for broadcast and film production, is pleased to announce that its 970 64-track Danteand MADI-equipped multi-track audio recorder has been nominated for a Cinema Audio Society (CAS) Technical Achievement Award in the Production category.

“We are grateful that such a prestigious industry organization has chosen to acknowledge us once again with a nomination for a CAS Technical Achievement Award,” says Matt Anderson, President of Sound Devices. “We continually look to advance our technology in order to better serve the art and science of sound in the motion picture and television industry. We couldn’t be happier that the 970, our first-ever dedicated rack-mount audio solution, is being recognized for doing so.”

Sound Devices’ 970 records 64 channels of monophonic or polyphonic 24-bit WAV files from any of its 144 available inputs, including 64 channels of Ethernet-based Dante, 64 channels of optical or coaxial MADI, eight channels of line-level analog and eight channels of AES digital. The half-rack, 2-U device simplifies any application requiring high-quality high-track-count audio recording, such as drama and reality productions, and live concert recording. The 970 records to any of four attached drives, two front-panel drive bays and two rear-panel e-SATAconnected drives. Material can be recorded to multiple drives simultaneously or sequentially. With its built-in, rock-steady Ambient Recording Lockit time-code technology, the 970 is wellsuited to operate as a master clock.

The 970 also features an embedded Web-based control panel for machine transport and setup control over Ethernet-based networks as well as file transfer over the data network with SMB. Users can perform file metadata editing of scene name, take name, notes, track names and reel folders before, during and after recording across all drives. In addition to RS-422 and GPIO control, the unit also allows for format conversion between analog, AES digital, MADI and Dante. Sound Devices’ 970 is designed with a large five-inch screen for metering of up to 64 tracks and for fast and intuitive menu control.

Additionally, Sound Devices 970 features the company’s proprietary PowerSafe technology, which has a built-in 10-second power reserve. In the event of a power loss, the unit continues to operate for up to 10 seconds to safely stop any file operation and then shuts down. This ensures that a complete power loss has no effect on the recording. The 970 also features FileSafe, which automatically detects and repairs corrupted file headers when drives are mounted. Should this occur when a drive is inadvertently removed during recording, the user can simply reinsert the drive and FileSafe will automatically repair the files.