Johannesburg, South Africa (February 1, 2022)—South African commercial television station e.tv is on the air with two new Solid State Logic System T production platforms, which recently joined an SSL C10 HD digital audio broadcast desk previously installed in a third studio at the eMedia facility.
The two identical systems, each comprising an S300-32 control surface with redundant T25 Tempest engines, have been installed along with a variety of SSL Dante-networked interfaces. Two Network I/O A16.D16 units per console each provide a combination of SSL SuperAnalogue and AES3 digital I/O connections to the network. Two SB 8.8 Stageboxes support the introduction of an additional eight mic/line inputs with eight line-level outputs. Each of the two System Ts are also integrated with four SDI embedder/de-embedders that bridge SDI, MADI and Dante.
“The systems are networked in a redundant private Dante network within the same building,” says Lwazi November, e.tv studio manager and engineer. “To put the audio from the C10 on the Dante network we also have a MADI bridge and four SDI I/Os for the studio using that console.”
The eMedia head office building, which opened in Hyde Park in 2015, houses three multifunction studios. “Each studio has an acoustically treated, double volume studio floor, acoustically treated audio control booth, monitoring and a vision control room,” November says.
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The two System Ts, which are in separate control rooms associated with two of the studios, are primarily used for news broadcasts and shows such as The South African Morning and All Angles. The main studio is live for 18 hours a day.
SSL’s broadcast partner in South Africa, professional solutions company Hi-Tech Audio, supplied the System T components. UK-based broadcast systems specialist Megahertz Ltd., which has been working with e.tv for about two decades, including relocating the broadcaster’s production facilities in 2015 and integrated the new SSL systems at eMedia’s studios.
“Mojalefa Ramatladi and Lutendo Lambani, both e.tv broadcast engineers, were pivotal in the initial setup and overseeing training,” November adds. “Operational acceptance testing was done by audio mixers Sammy Musepa and Orefile Mmutlana.
