HARMAN's Studer Comes Dancing at the Tower Ballroom
BLACKPOOL, United Kingdom - When BBCs flagship Saturday night Strictly Come Dancing entertainment show relocates once a year from Elstree Studios to the coruscating Blackpool Tower Ballroom, all the production infrastructure likewise heads north, with the OB recording trucks set up in a co-opted scanner park. With the hit show now in its 10th year, BBC Studios and Post Productions Andy Tapley, and lead Sound Supervisor, Tony Revell, evolved an elegant workflow in Blackpool, mixing the show entirely on three HARMANs Studer digital consoles. For the first time on a Strictly OB, the topology was based on a conjoined Vista 8 and Vista 5, alongside a Vista 1, which handled the surround sound mix within Red TXs reconfigured Red II 3D/7.1 OB truck. This also housed a dedicated grams area.
Both the Vista 1 and Vista 5 were provided by Terry Tew Sound & Light, along with 60-70 channels of radio mic and IEMs. Tew also handled RF frequency management.
States Andy Tapley: Linking the Studer Vista 8 and Vista 5 Cores via HD provided 96 channel tie-lines, as well as 64 bi-directional MADI streams between the Vista 1 and Vista 5; this meant it was easy to sub-mix and main mix between the two.
Mixing live in the ballroom was FOH sound engineer Nick Cook. Three of the fibre stageboxes were located by the splits for radio mics and band circuits with the fourth assigned to audience mics. (FOH also took its feeds from these splits).
The multis on the OBs resident Vista 8, operated by Andy Tapley, carried all band, orchestra and music circuits as well as the dancers radio mics, while two fibre multis to Tony Revells Vista 5 ran 26 audience mics, presenters, judges and vocal mics.
Both stereo mixes and surround mixes were created in the OB. Stems were provided to Sound Supervisor Richard Sillitto who produced a surround mix on the Vista 1 via the Dolby E encoder and Dolby Audio Tool. The resulting downmix was then compared to Tony Revells stereo mix. I could precisely match the stereo dynamics Tony was using by simply interpreting his mix, states Sillitto. But the aim of the surround mix is to put everyone in the best seat in the house; its why you want to hear the audience around you.
Running the I/O architecture via optical fibre were four Studer D21m stage boxes - two each assigned to the Vista 5 and Vista 8 where McBusted were joined by Shirley Bassey (plus a 12-piece string section and backing vocals). This was in addition to resident band leader Dave Archs 15-piece ensemble, fed via MADI to the Vista 8, which also handled the string submixes. The Vista 5 provided Grams feeds to FOH and monitors (sound beds, voice overs, tracks for McBusted and couples rehearsals).
Other add-ons to the sound desk technology proved equally useful in supporting a first class production. For example, Virtual Vista was used to build the desks and the Vista Config tool used to design the number and type of channels as well as busses and I/Os for each of the three desks.
This was really the key to enabling the Vista 5 and 8 to link cores, explained Tapley, It meant I could build the desk titles with Virtual Vista from the comfort of my sofa! It enabled us to drop our Configs into Dropbox and compare tie-lines and MADI routing so that by the time we arrived here we could virtually load the files on USB sticks, and save as snapshots. These were used to save band and vocal mixes and prefade routings to VT of couples mics while dancing. Each snapshot on the Vista 8 fired off a MIDI trigger to the Vista 5 so that the snapshots on each desk would change in unison.
The production team also called on the Studer VistaMix Plus software resource, assigning four separate busses and automixing with the Cedar DNS-8 dialogue noise suppressor. It makes a huge difference to be able to place the person talking in the centre of the mix and duck any others rather than having something swimming in open PA, Revell remarked. Each presenters and judges mic had its own Cedar channel inserted - and this cleaned audio was then fed to the VistaMix channel to further improve the signal.
The eventual mix transmission was sent via MADI to the adjacent CTV OB truck where all vision mixing and VT routing take place.
Tony Revell said: With this technology, we are able to build the mix accordingly and it is easy because of the MADI connectivity. I can write a custom config for the surround and via an extra MADI card, link all three desks.
It also enabled the sound supervisor to fire off different reverbs, running QLab on a MacBook Pro, with the Theatre Cue list containing the snapshots programmed with MIDI cues.
In summary, both Andy Tapley and Tony Revell say the experience of the conjoined Vista 8 and Vista 5 had been like having one big desk, requiring just two CAT5 cables to link them. We were able to replicate the studio operation on the OB and it enabled us to concentrate on the content without having to worry about the technical aspects.
Tony Revell believes that the Studer set up had been given the biggest workout weve ever known, adding, to be able to sit down and decide how many channels and mix busses we needed and then customise it for a particular event was really useful.
It is certainly a huge step forward for us in delivering a show like Strictly live to air from an OB, he concluded.
--
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Designed for synchronized multi-stream playback, low-latency delivery, and real-time analytics, MATCH introduces a unified viewing experience for sports broadca...
07/04/2026
Berklee Students to Honor George Martin with Performance of Original Scores The orchestra, led by associate professor Xander Rovang, will perform several work...
06/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
06/04/2026
From high school sports all the way up to the major leagues, building high-quali...
06/04/2026
Quickplay, an AI company for the media and entertainment industry, has been accepted into the Advanced tier of the TwelveLabs Ecosystem Partner Program. Quickpl...
06/04/2026
Grass Valley has announced the Future Playmakers Program, a global initiative to...
06/04/2026
El l der de operaciones impulsa la producci n en estudio mientras encuentra insp...
06/04/2026
The ops leader helps lead the charge in studio for the Spanish-language broadcas...
06/04/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
06/04/2026
The National Hockey League (NHL), in partnership with Verizon and the New Jersey Devils, today announced the opening of the NHL Innovation Lab powered by Verizo...
06/04/2026
Rock League, a new professional curling league, has announced that ESPN+ will stream its inaugural 2026 season for fans in the United States. The first Rock Lea...
06/04/2026
Advanced Systems Group has announced the appointment of Andrea (Andy) Cummis as Vice President of Systems Design and Engineering. In this role, she will lead de...
06/04/2026
Backed by Bolt Ventures, the venture brings Bryson DeChambeau, Grant Horvat, and...
06/04/2026
With this environment we can start that collaboration even earlier because we ca...
06/04/2026
Like the immortal lives of vampires, some stories never really end. That's t...
06/04/2026
As podcasting continues to evolve, growth increasingly means building beyond aud...
06/04/2026
Multiband dynamics plug-in enhanced
California-based developer FSK Audio have released a significant update for their innovative multiband dynamics processo...
06/04/2026
Share official & user-created full-rig presets
IK Multimedia's latest TONEX update makes it possible for users of the popular amp and effects modelling ...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Dalet Showcases Dalia Agentic AI and End-to-End Media Workflows at NAB Show 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Dalet, a leading technology and...
06/04/2026
OpenDrives Shows Off Sports Expertise in Sports Business Hub located in NAB Show...
06/04/2026
Proton to Demonstrate 3D Application at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Yet further creative potential unleashed through innovation in ...
06/04/2026
Autoscript Highlights Voice-Driven Prompting and PTZ Solutions at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Experience Autoscript Voice, PTZ prom...
06/04/2026
Mediaproxy Highlights Significant Enhancements to its LogServer suite at NAB Sho...
06/04/2026
Wayne, N.J., April 6th, 2026 Phantom High-Speed announces the release of PCC 4...
06/04/2026
April 6th, 2026
TRIBECA STUDIOS AND LILLY ANNOUNCE WINNERS OF INAUGURAL VITAL...
06/04/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Expands Kids Entertainment Lineup With Playground App ...
05/04/2026
Tackles all reported bugs!
SoundBridge have just announced the launch of a new update that introduces a couple of minor changes to their remote collaboratio...
04/04/2026
The University of Arizona's Men's Basketball team has only loss twice th...
04/04/2026
1080p HDR arrives, a new generation of storytelling tools takes center stage, an...
04/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
04/04/2026
Faster, cleaner and more intuitive than ever
The control software for Flock Audio's digitally controlled patchbay systems has just been treated to an up...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
DHD Introduces AI-Based Audio Noise Reduction to XD3 IP Core
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
The accompanying image shows the rear panel of the ...
04/04/2026
Macnica Redefines ST 2110 Flexibility with Two Speeds on One Card
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
New for NAB Show 2026, MEP100 SmartNIC now sup...
04/04/2026
Unified Media Workflows for Story-Centric Production
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
Framelight X unifies field capture, editing and publishing ...
03/04/2026
Michigan's Fab Five will reunite for an alternate presentation of the Mich...
HARMAN's Studer Comes Dancing at the Tower Ballroom
