Swiss HD OB ‘Supertruck’ Packs PMC

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Swiss HD OB ‘Supertruck’ Packs PMC
Switzerland’s RTS Chooses PMC IB2S & Wafer ‘Flat’ Speakers For OB Surround Monitoring

Switzerland´s national French-language television broadcaster, RTS (Radio Télévision Suisse), has chosen a 5.1 PMC monitoring system for the audio control room in its first-ever high-definition outside broadcast vehicle. Known as HD1, the new expanding production trailer was built by Sony Europe in Basingstoke, England. PMC´s contract for the monitoring in HD1’s main audio control room has subsequently been followed by a number of smaller upgrades to the monitoring in RTS´s standard-definition OB vehicles, and also in some of the studios at RTS´s production centre in Geneva, where PMC monitors have also been installed.

RTS is the last of the major TV divisions of the national Swiss broadcasting company SRG SSR to build a high-definition OB truck, following the commissioning of a large HD production trailer for tpc, the production service for the German-language Schweizer Fernsehen, and a smaller vehicle for RSI, the Italian-language broadcaster in the group. The intention from the outset was that the new RTS truck would be capable of mixing and outputting full, discrete-channel 5.1 surround to accompany the HD image. And Yannick Dumartineix, RTS´s Head of Audio Production, had convinced his management that great care must be taken on the audio side, as he explains. "We wanted high-quality monitoring and proper acoustic treatment, just as you might find in any recording studio. Sound is often treated like a secondary consideration in an OB truck — but we wanted to set a new standard, with as much isolation between the video and sound control rooms as possible."

Aware that he was pushing the boundaries of OB truck design, Dumartineix and his RTS colleagues first consulted renowned acoustician Christian Malcurt, who designed Luc Besson´s Digital Factory production facility in Normandy, amongst many other prestigious audiophile environments. Malcurt confirmed that the approach was worth pursuing and drew up a basic concept, but work pressures meant he would be unable to complete the design before it was needed, so the final concept was realised by another renowned acoustician, Jochen Veith of jv acoustics. The double-expanding sides of the sound and video control rooms of the truck were designed to be mechanically separate, so as to hinder the transmission of audio from one to the other, and the shared internal wall was heavily treated acoustically. "Jochen Veith did some amazing work," continues Dumartineix. "The wall between the video and sound control rooms on the truck is only eight centimetres thick, but he managed to build 43dB of attenuation into it. There was detailed discussion about the acoustic treatment, and the result is really impressive, with the video production part of the truck being taken into consideration to provide a quiet environment."

PMC’s IB2S speakers were chosen for the Left, Centre and Right channels in the sound control room, with their slim-line Wafer monitors handling the surround channels in the 5.1 system. Amplification was provided by rackmounting Bryston amps to save space, which was at a premium. "The powered IB2S-A speakers would have been too deep, so we went with the rackmounting Brystons," explains Dumartineix, "and the choice of the Wafers for the Surround channels also helped to save space." PMC Wafers were additionally used for the monitoring on the front channels as part of the more basic 5.1 surround monitor system in the video control room.

Similar PMC-based surround monitoring systems have subsequently been installed in four studios at RTS´s Geneva production headquarters — in two post-production mixing suites and two on-air audio mixing rooms — using Bryston-powered IB2 speakers on the front three channels and either ‘flat’ Wafers or AML1 monitors on the Surround channels. Finally, following the completion of work on the HD1 ´supertruck´, two of RTS´s standard-definition trucks, the 5.1-capable SD1 and the stereo-only SD4, are also having their monitoring systems upgraded to PMC’s recently launched DB1S-A Mark II speakers.

Explaining their decision to go with PMC monitoring in so many of their facilities, Yannick Dumartineix comments: "I used to have PMCs in my own studio years ago, and I´ve used them here ever since I was a post-production mix engineer; to me, they really are the perfect speakers for audio mixing. Pre-mixes done in a small room with the IB2S translate amazingly well to our larger dubbing theatres with bigger speakers. I was first introduced to the IB2S by Laurent Lozahic of the French integrator and dealer 44.1, and I remember him telling me how unfatiguing they were to listen to. He was so right — and this point is critical when you consider that when you’re mixing for broadcast, and especially live shows, the rehearsals alone can last up to 12 hours a day. Basically, the PMCs were the right choice for a flagship project like the HD1 truck, and for many other parts of our operations too."