Studer Vista 8 for "The Martha Stewart Show"

The Studer Vista 8's Vistonics™ user interface allows Silva to build a console that's precisely tailored

Continuing to apply its advanced design and innovative feature set to creating solutions for broadcast audio, HARMAN’s Studer Vista 8 Digital Live Production Console now in use for "The Martha Stewart Show" on the Hallmark Network provides Jorge Silva, the program's Head Audio Engineer, with the tools that he needs to keep the show's sound at the cutting edge.

Envisioning how the Vista 8 managed to anticipate every challenge large and small that a modern television production faces on a daily basis, Silva speculates, "When they designed the Vista 8, someone sat down and said, ‘How do we so this so that it makes sense to the operator that has to use the console under the time pressures of television production?’ Well, once you wrap your mind around it and see what television audio faces these days, you get the Vista 8."

Silva recalls having to work with other mixing and processing platforms before the Vista 8. "I remember having to piece things together to make them work, going on air with limited equipment and having to do hot switches during two-minute commercial breaks, crossing your fingers that it was going to work.”

With the arrival of the Vista 8, Silva says, "Now we have unlimited resources and you can tailor the console to be more friendly to what you are trying to do. You can build the console around each task. I do not want to go back to how it was before."

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Silva says that much of what is standard on the Vista 8 isn't offered even as options on other consoles. "You store your settings on snapshots and you can build a sequence that will literally follow the script of a show using time code, going from snapshot to snapshot and following the program cues," he says. "No one else can do that. Studer is the first manufacturer to get away from the concept that you have to call attention to a module to effect change to it."

The Vista 8's high degree of flexibility stems largely from the highly acclaimed Vistonics user interface, which provides unmatched analog console-like control and a clear, easily understandable display of all operating parameters along with fast, easy operation. The Vista 8 possesses powerful broadcast features to offer a highly sophisticated and flexible multipurpose live broadcast desk. For example, its unique Control Bay design offers rapid access to all faders in a small footprint, making it ideal for both fixed install broadcast and OB van applications. The Vista 8 offers additional advanced functionality, such as 7.1-channel surround-sound mixing capability, dynamic automation, a sophisticated snapshot system, dedicated mute groups and more.

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Silva understands that this high level of functionality and features is a result of an evolutionary process, one that offers both the reliability of proven design and the promise of continued innovation. "When you look under the beautiful work surface and the lights, you realize that the technology goes back to the original Studer 950 consoles," he says. "You understand that there's an evolutionary process of quality going on. So what you have here is a development of many years of engineering that brought this console to the operations and sound quality level that it's at. It's fantastic piece of work and a pleasure to work with."