Food Network recently completed a new corporate and production facility on 15th street between 9th and 10th Avenues in New York City. The “main ingredient” for audio is the Solid State Logic C100 Digital Broadcast Console that provides the flexibility and digital throughput specified for the all-digital production stream.
“The C100 meets all of our audio needs with the added bonus of streamlining our production throughput including change over time between different projects,” says Brian McNamee, audio engineer for the Food Network. “We evaluated the current field of digital consoles and went with the C100 because of the quality sound, the advanced feature set, proven reliability and attentive support from SSL.”
Food Network has grown in popularity over the years, now reaching 85 million U.S. households and boasting approximately 5 million Website users per month, with a growing international audience. To meet the production demands for this skyrocketing popularity, the decision was made to consolidate the production facilities and corporate offices into one building. This location is where the C100 (pictured) is anchoring the audio.
“We really like the touchscreen in the center section of the console because of the instant access to critical signal flow information that is always immediately available,” McNamee explains. “When we work on one of our larger programs like “Emeril Live,” we use an abundance of mics to cover all the action. We also have other audio source material that we add to the main mix from time to time, and these sound bites need to be available all the time. All of this signal information appears on the screen and that makes the management task for the show very straight forward.”
Food Network’s C100 has 32 faders on the console surface giving them enough input real estate to hold everything that is happening on a show like “Emeril Live.” According to McNamee, Food Network will employ 14 RF mics, 10 audience mics and mics for a full band for that show. Layers underneath tape machine playback are stored, as well as other isolated effects and slugs that can be called up in an instant.
“A major item of interest is the C100’s capacity to recall different setups for the various programs,” says McNamee. “The console allows us to create EQ settings for the individual actors, add signal dynamics processing and manage an entire complex setup, and all of this information can be stored and recalled extremely quickly. With ‘Emeril Live’ we have a particular, tailored setup. When we end that session and need to go to the next program, like ’30-Minute Meals,’ we simply recall the settings for that show and off we go. In the past this changeover process was cumbersome, time-consuming and not very accurate. We are very happy with the performance capacity of the C100.”
For more information, please go to www.solid-state-logic.com.
