Polish media company and broadcaster Telewizja Polsat has upgraded the two main news studios at its headquarters in Warsaw with a pair of Solid State Logic System T digital mixing consoles.
Polsat’s Studio A is now equipped with an SSL S500 48-fader surface powered by a T25 Tempest Engine supporting 1,024 I/O and Studio B features a 32-fader version of the S500 surface with a T25 providing 512 I/O.
Polsat, one of the largest media companies in Central Europe, launched at the end of 1992 and has become the most watched television channel in the country. The company’s headquarters, located on Ostrobramska Street in Warsaw, houses four studios in total.
According to Polsat TV studio engineer Łukasz Zawadzki: “We are building a facility-wide Dante network in our headquarters that will also be connected with our studios in Lubinowa Street, which is also in Warsaw.
“Choosing SSL’s System T, which works natively with Dante, was the best solution for building a Dante network in the facility.”
Additionally, System T’s software-based foundation enables the desks to be set up for each operator’s preferred workflow. “From the operating side, with System T, any operator has a fully configurable surface for their individual needs,” he says.
The adoption of Dante networking in Polsat’s facility streamlines audio routing through the plant, Zawadzki continues. “The technological change to audio-over-IP allows us to simplify making new signal connections between audio equipment.
“Now, there is often no need to plug in new cables if we want to send new audio signals. And System T allows easy control of these connections.”
Studio A is the main studio for the Polsat News channel, which broadcasts live 18 hours daily. The channel’s most popular news program is Wydarzenia (Events).
Studio A’s System T, which is integrated along with an SSL SBi16 Stage Box, replaced an aging console that was installed when Studio A, which has always hosted news programming, was launched in 2008.
Studio B was previously used for the Superstacja channel and for some programs for Polsat Sport but has since been repurposed to become the broadcaster’s second news studio, hosting Wydarzenia 24 (Events 24).
The new System T, fully automated by Vizrt’s Viz Mosart studio automation, is interfaced with the plant via SSL’s SB32.24 Stage Box and a Net I/O D64 32 x 32 AES-to-Dante converter. It replaced a 15-year-old analog desk dating from the inception of Studio B.
Krzysztof Kowalewski at Commercial Audio, Solid State Logic’s distributor in Poland, supplied the SSL equipment and assisted with the commissioning of the two new desks.
“Integration was mainly in-house with big help from Krzysztof at Commercial Audio during the installation and configuration of the SSL consoles,” Zawadzki says.