Boston, MA (May 9, 2023) — Boston College recently installed two DiGiCo SD10B consoles to support sports broadcasts over the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Network.
Each 37-fader SD10B is the main console for each of the two matching main control rooms of the media suite, which is located between the school’s 8,600-seat Conte Forum basketball/hockey arena and 44,500-seat Alumni Stadium football venue.
The ACC Network is unique in broadcast sports: an association of 11 colleges and universities linked into a broadcast network that pool and share their individual media facilities. Founded in 2019 as part of $1 billion, 12-year media-rights deal with ESPN, member schools carved out space in current structures, and in some cases built new ones, to create and house media facilities featuring multiple control rooms with display-covered walls and studios with green-screen backdrops. Designs varied, with the only basic collective mission requirement to ensure the ability to handle a linear broadcast.
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One of the college’s earlier-installed 24-fader SD9B consoles is now located in a separate control room, locally known as “The Eagles’ Nest,” a reference to BC’s mascot, Baldwin the Eagle. This third control room is most typically used to produce the in-game experience in both venues, Alumni Stadium and Conte Forum. Here, content is produced for the Daktronics videoboards and for the PA systems, which were manufactured by local companies Fulcrum Acoustics for Alumni Stadium and Bose for Conte Forum.
In addition, there are two DiGiCo MADI-equipped MQ-Racks for the SD10Bs and a D-Rack for the SD9B. The media suite and its control rooms were designed by systems design firm Idibri, a Salas O’Brien company, and installed by systems integrator Diversified.
“Despite having a smaller sized audio console, this control room is almost as capable as the other two, with only a few key differences, such as the audio console is not in a separate mixing room,” says Boston College broadcast engineer Adam Ferguson. “The Eagles’ Nest control room can still be utilized to produce broadcasts, and has actually been used to produce both the broadcast and the in-venue show simultaneously.” The remaining SD9B is used as a rolling “hot” spare as needed, he adds.
