Bernacki continues : “ These rooms are built around a single-operator design ; with talkback microphones and a Focusrite Scarlett Solo audio interface for the operator to be able to speak to the presenter or guide those conversations . We rarely need that , but it ’ s there in case we do . The monitoring of those calls and the final program is done on headphones .”
As well , the use of Audio-Technica ATH- M30x headphones and Sennheiser e845-S microphones are standardized across the board . “ We ’ ve amassed a large supply of those headphones and , generally speaking , I prefer the Sennheiser e845-S to a comparable switch mic because they have a silent switch ,” Bernacki adds .
While the medium and large control rooms are equipped with similar systems , the “ mediums ” share some components and infrastructure . “ In the medium rooms , all of the computers are connected via Dante , both for playback , and for the primary computer for the remote presenter call . We ’ re using the Audinate AVIO USB-A-to-Dante interfaces for that , so it ’ s a USB-to-Ethernet dongle that shows up as an audio interface on the computers . Those are connected to a Digico 4REA4 processing engine via Dante and the 4REA4 has one zone for each “ medium ” control room . If the show is more unique than what the standard audio configuration permits without a dedicated audio operator , audio gets re-routed by the 4REA4 to be mixed on a shared Digico SD9-B , then sent over Dante to our Glensound AoIP22 Dante / analog interfaces , and then to an AJA 3G-AMA audio embedder for the final broadcast .”
Again , each class of control room – small , medium , and large – offer similar functionality and systems for ingesting and embedding audio and video . The large control rooms are also the only spaces where near field monitors ( Meyer Sound Ultra X-20s ) are deployed as opposed to headphones . Unlike the centralized , shared system elements in the medium rooms , the large spaces are equipped with their own audio consoles . “ In Control Room 1 , as an example , it ’ s a Digico SD12 with the Automix card and Dante card and two Digico D-Rack 32x8 I / O boxes .”
Additionally , because Control Room 1 is also responsible for any studio elements , there is a Cedar DNS 2 dialogue noise suppressor . “ That ‘ auto-learns ’ the environment and removes the background room noise and room tone ,” Bernacki explains . “ It ’ s a great box that we bought in the pre-COVID
days to assist in doing press conferences in noisy environments . For example , in a steel factory you can ’ t shut down the factory [ during recording ] and , as you can imagine , it ’ s really loud . So , we just plug in this Cedar box , press the button , and the noise is gone . It ’ s spectacular . I can ’ t sing its praises enough .”
Bespoke AV has also leveraged their substantial inventory of Clear-Com technology , specifically an Eclipse matrix intercom system allowing each room to produce a high-quality end product that combines the collaborative , real-time elements of live , in-person events with the remote viewing experience that became absolutely necessary throughout 2020 .
Clear-Com , Bernacki says , is integral to the system in order to facilitate communication with remote participants , producers , other control rooms , and in-person event sites if required .
The intercom mainframe consists of a Clear-Com Eclipse HX-Delta (“ the ‘ brains ’ of the system ,” Bernacki says ), with one E-IPA-HX card ( 64 ports ). “ That ’ s the most important card in our system . It provides connectivity to our AES67 Iris Panels , AES67 FreeSpeak II IP transceivers , Agent IC connectivity , and the LQ connections we use for HelixNet and LQ interfaces . We also have IVC connections for any V-Series panels we need to deploy outside our facility over the internet , and an MVX-A16-HX , a 16-port analog card , as our analog audio I / O for smaller control rooms that don ’ t have Dante functionality .”
Additional Clear-Com products include an LQ-2W2 , which acts as a bridge between their HelixNet System and the Eclipse , an
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