Johnston, IA (June 20, 2024)—Iowa PBS recently upgraded two control rooms at its studios just north of the center of Des Moines as well as a remote truck with the installation of new SSL System T consoles.
David Feingold, senior audio engineer/production technician senior at Iowa’s award-winning public broadcasting network, explains that the new integration is the first step toward a wider Dante AoIP implementation at the facility. “This is the first time we’ve used Dante. We only have two other pieces of gear—outboard recorders—that use Dante right now, but we can expand, which is really nice.”
There are other digital consoles on the market, he continues, “But System T has Dante integrated, so you don’t ever have to go out to the Dante Controller to route things. I really enjoy the built-in router in it as well, and how quick it is to route things internally. That’s all Dante, so that was a big draw.” Plus, he says, “The sound quality of the System T is exactly what I would expect from SSL.”
A 48-fader S300 has been installed in Control Room 3, which is connected to a studio theater seating up to 300 people. Control Room 1 and the network’s mobile broadcast truck each now feature a 32-fader S300. The three S300 control surfaces are each combined with a TE2 Tempest Engine supporting 256 processing paths and have been integrated with a wide variety of local and shared Network I/O interfaces and SB stageboxes.
The three new System T platforms have replaced three SSL C100 HD digital desks that the network had been using for about 16 years, ever since the transition to HDTV transmission in the United States. The C100s had served the network well, he says, but Iowa PBS was ready to take advantage of the latest technology integrated into the System T platform.
Iowa PBS generates a wide variety of programming, from sports, arts and entertainment to agriculture and politics, including the caucuses each election cycle, not to mention regular pledge drives. Control Room 3’s S300-48 drives the audio for two weekly shows, including an agri-business program, Market to Market. “Sometimes we take that show, and a show called Iowa Press, on the road. We also do a big music show, Studio 3 LIVE,” Feingold reports, which features local, regional and national artists. “We’ve also had different outside shows, such as PBS News Hour, come in and produce stuff in the studio.”
