Click here to receive emails with more news like this.
System T S300 at Waterman Broadcasting
FORT MYERS, USA - Waterman Broadcasting, based in Fort Myers, Florida, has installed two identical Solid State Logic System T S300 audio production consoles in its twin control rooms alongside a Tempest Control Rack for back-up and disaster recovery.
The broadcaster owns Fort Myers-licensed NBC affiliate WBBH-TV and runs the ABC-affiliated WZVN-TV for Montclair Communications under a local marketing agreement, with both channels produced from the same facility.
The primary role of the station is news and we do, depending on how you want to count them, 19 to 21 newscasts per day over the two stations explains Bob Hannon, Director of Production at Waterman Broadcasting. The two stations are in one building, the news staffs are in one building, but the shows are produced completely separately. It's like working in The Ark: we have two of everything.
No single point of failure
Two identical console systems serve the two channels, each comprising a 32-fader S300 control surface with a T25 256 path engine fitted with 512 channels of I/O. A third system, a Tempest Control Rack (TCR) that can be controlled from a desktop touchscreen, has been installed as a back-up.
We do so much news we cannot have a single point of failure, it's that simple, says Hannon. We bought one S300 for each control room and then we have a TCR that can go into either control room in case of catastrophic failure.
And Florida being Florida, Hurricane Preparedness - the Eyewall of Irma went right over the station - is a constant issue. At a certain point during a Hurricane event the two stations will start to simulcast and broadcast the same programming out on both channels, although they continue to use both studios while they can.
We bought System T with that in mind, says Hannon. Hopefully we won't get another storm till after I've retired in 13 years, but if we get pushed into that scenario again we've got a system where we can do everything from one spot; the flexibility of the 300 means that I can work in one control room but access everything in the house. It also lets us use one control room for x amount of time, have the other control room fired up and ready, let them take over, and that give us time to do any preventive maintenance or just let things breathe in the first control room for a little while.
Ease of use
One of the attractions for Waterman Broadcasting in purchasing the S300s was ease of use. The company is justifiably proud of both its diversity policies and its training programs. We're proud of what we've done, offers Hannon. Indeed, the vast majority of Hannon's 42 staff are still effectively in their first jobs and have been trained in-house from scratch. Ease of use is therefore very important, especially given Hannon's assertion that the audio board is often the most intimidating part of the whole production environment.
Of all the boards I've looked at, when I sat down at the System T within five minutes, I thought I could do a show, he says, it was that logically laid out. It's a powerful board but it's simple in its design and that's what drew me to it. Most of our operators are on their first jobs and I train them to be able to do everything everywhere, and the simplicity with which I can train on the board was a big draw.
The multiple levels of the board are nice, he continues. Having stuff that's available to the operator but is also hidden is great. On any conventional board that's not nine miles long, everything is there and if someone grabs the wrong knob a minor problem becomes a major disaster. With the S300 its good to have it all thereabouts but out of the mainstream. And all the operators - and the management - love the auto mixing. I go anywhere from a single mic to eight at a time, and to have all that run through the auto mix and have the levels evened out for the operator on the fly is a big, big plus; not to mention it's part of the board and not a third party add-on.
Reputation for quality
Other features of the S300 that Hannon rates very highly include the mixture between conventional hardware and touchscreen operation, the optional screen arm, what he refers to as the simplest mix minus configurations he's ever seen, and its control surface ergonomics ( Big enough to give operators room to work but not so big they need their arms stretched out, he says).
He also describes the whole experience of purchasing the System T equipment as a pleasure.
From the way SSL conducted itself to getting a number that worked for everybody, from the training to the installation, it's been one of the most pleasant experiences I've had for a very long time, he says.
But in the end, it's what the two S300s enable his team to do for WBBH-TV and WZVN-TV day in, day out, producing hundreds of newscasts every month, that really seals the deal.
You want to keep it simple for the operator: you want their focus on the show and not that in order to get this to work I have to tap my foot three times, kick the trashcan, stand up, jump around and chew gum at the same time, he says. I'm a firm believer that the simpler you keep it the more you can do, the better your productions are, and the better your product is. And that's what System T allows us to do.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Click here to receive emails with more news like this. 
