Portland Trail Blazers Rely on Solid State Logic C100 Console for HD Future

“To complete our move into HD, we needed to produce 5.1 surround audio mixes for our partner, Comcast SportsNet, and for our terrestrial broadcast partners and this necessitated getting a digital console,” says Mike Janes, director of engineering for the Portland Trail Blazers. “We looked at various manufacturers who make digital consoles and the SSL C100 HDS was our choice on many levels. We wanted a company able to deliver a console that was state-of-the art, has a processing core that still has room for system growth, has a proven track record for reliability and ease of use, offers a long service life and sounds great. The SSL C100 HDS was the perfect fit for our application.”

The audio feeds for the High Post Studio control room are connected via SSL’s Alpha-Link Live and Alpha-Link 8-RMP units. The flexibility these units offer was another deciding factor for the purchase of the C100.

“We wanted a lot of I/O flexibility and did not want to be tied to a fixed installation system,” Janes states. “With the Alpha Link I/O packages, we have the flexibility to connect these units through our extensive camera cabling system allowing us to easily put I/O in our truck docks, in our studio areas and in a remote case for the stadium floor.”

The Portland Trail Blazers’ C100 includes the Dialogue Automix and 5.1 Upmix options to cover the many different types of applications encountered in broadcasting a live basketball game. For the pre- and post-game shows, SSL’s Dialogue Automix allows the engineer to concentrate on honing the audio rather than attending to faders and channel on and off buttons. The powerful 5.1 implementation, however, was a major factor for the purchase.

“We were very concerned about having a board that would address all our 5.1 needs,” explains Janes. “We get all kinds of audio feeds from remote trucks covering a road game. A feed might come in from a remote truck where the engineer may not be in a good 5.1 monitoring situation. We might get in a feed where the rear speaker levels are too loud. The C100 gives us the power to reconvene the channels so our audio is consistent. The C100 also allows us to take traditional stereo elements and control the upmix into the 5.1 space. This is a much different process then just hanging an upmix box on the end of your stereo board.”

“The C100 does everything that the Trail Blazers organization needed to do and more, without the complexity of other consoles,” says Adam Salkin, engineering manager for Diversified Systems, the systems integrators for the Portland Trail Blazers installation. “The C100 is simple to understand and use, yet offers incredible power and flexibility. The C100 became the only choice.”

About Solid State Logic

Solid State Logic is a world leading manufacturer of analogue and digital audio consoles and provider of creative tools for music, broadcast and post production professionals.