A new in-house audio system at Xinjiang (China) Corps TV Station, serving the provincial capital Urumqi and the surrounding 12 regions and broadcasting to more than 12 million people in the northwest of the country, utilizes an Allen & Heath digital mix and routing platform to support productions that include live performance, galas and variety shows.
EZPro, the chosen provider on the project, was tasked with the design and supply of systems for the facility’s main 1,500-square-meter studio, a smaller 400-square-meter studio, a review room and a conference room. To meet the fluid demands of the various productions, a pair of 36-fader dLive S7000 surfaces are partnered with DM64 MixRacks – both fitted with Dante cards — to provide a redundant system offering 128 input processing channels and highly configurable bus architecture.
dLive’s show/scene system, enabling both full and partial scene recalls with granular filtering options, was a key factor in the choice of dLive for the project. “To meet the needs of different productions, scenes need to be changed quickly and frequently, so flexibility is critical,” explains FAN Gaoqing, EZPro’s project designer. “With the dLive system, we could store and recall different ‘modes’ by using Show File, Scenes and Preset Library to achieve very efficient changeovers.”
To facilitate dual system redundancy, the primary and secondary Dante ports were used on both systems in conjunction with an analogue connection that can be used in the event of a network outage. The Dante and analogue outputs from the system feed an EAW array plus a trio of Powersoft Quattrocanali DSP+D amplifiers connected to multiple passive EAW boxes.
“dLive solved a problem where the control room is a relatively enclosed space that is not friendly for mixing engineers,” FAN notes. “As the dLive audio engine resides in the MixRack, we can easily change the location of the surface whenever required. This meets the requirements for flexible FOH positions, ease-of-use and fast setup.”
Elsewhere in the building, the smaller studio and the review and conference rooms are equipped with multiple dLive C2500 surfaces and CDM32 MixRacks to allow for flexibility in all usage scenarios. “Allen & Heath consoles are always our first choice, they are advanced, reliable and flexible,” says WANG Xiaoyang, the installation engineer for the project. “We believe the whole system raises the bar for sound reinforcement in TV production studios.”
