Montreal's Piccolo Mobile Remote Upgrades to Solid State Logic System T Networked Broadcast Audio Platform posted: 02/04/2021
Denis Savage, SSL user for 20 years, says System T is very clean and huge sounding
Studios Piccolo, the largest recording facility in the province of Quebec, upgraded one of its Piccolo Mobile remote production trucks in January with the installation of a Solid State Logic System T networked broadcast audio platform. The truck's new System T comprises a 48-fader S500m compact and lightweight mobile modular control surface, twin redundant Tempest T80 engines, supporting up to 800 signal paths, and a 16-fader Remote Tile.
There were a number of reasons why Piccolo chose System T, says company co-founder Denis Savage. Not least of those is that the studio is a longtime SSL user and was the first Duality-equipped commercial facility in North America. Further, Savage, who has been C line Dion's tour manager and FOH engineer for several decades, installed an Axiom MT+ digital music production console at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas when the singer began her years-long residency there in 2003. Savage switched to SSL's Live series desks for Dion's shows in 2014.
The perfect fit for Piccolo Mobile's discerning clientele
But for Piccolo Mobile's clientele, says Savage, the company needed a more specialized console. And the SSL System T is specifically designed for today's fast-paced and complex broadcast environment, he says. The number of inputs - up to 800, with EQ - and how we can quickly build mix-minuses, make it a great console for us. Plus, it's very quick to set up. If you have a basic layout on your console, you arrive in the morning, just add inputs and it puts everything in the right order. In no time you're ready to rock.
Piccolo Mobile's team integrated the new System T into the larger of the company's two trucks, PM2, between Christmas 2020 and the new year. We also upgraded Pro Tools in there to record 192 tracks, says Savage. We have four Pro Tools systems in each truck, two to record and two to mix, so they are redundant.
SSL System T: A spectacular debut on the big stage
The truck's first gig with the System T was a project with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. It was then positioned at MELS studios in Saint-Hubert, a Montreal suburb, for the months-long production of Star Acad mie, one of the francophone province's top-rated TV shows. The reality TV show, to find young singing talent in French-speaking Canada, launched in 2003 and aired for five seasons until 2012. It was consistently the highest-viewed program of the week. The latest season of the singing competition, which premiered in mid-February, airs live on Sunday nights on a two-hour-plus show, following two days of rehearsal then a final run-through.
It's a massive show with a bunch of singers and a bunch of guests, says Piccolo engineer Charles- mile Beaudin, who works in the truck with show mixer Simon B langer. The show generates about 140 inputs, including more than 20 vocal microphones, and typically features over 30 songs per episode. The lines from the stage, which is in-the-round in the absence of a studio audience during the Covid-19 pandemic, split to three FOH and monitor consoles in the house and are transported over MADI to the System T in the truck outside.
B langer uses Layer Manager in System T's software to reposition the faders that he needs for different segments of the show at his fingertips. For instance, during one part of the show, contestants each sing one line of a song in turn. Having the Layer Manager is a great factor to help us go fast when it's medleys. I put all the vocals in a row, and I can just travel down the faders, says B langer, who is able to quickly raise and lower each singer's level in quick succession.
During the mash-up part of the show, one singer will take the lead before switching to background vocal while another singer takes over. That's where the System T also comes in handy, switching the stems, reverbs and panning. It's really fast, says B langer.
System T's processing and effects rack is regularly put through its paces as the young contestants find their voices, says Beaudin. They're being coached each day and trying different things. The timbre of their voices changes dramatically from song to song and day to day. So we use a lot of dynamic EQ and different reverbs and effects.
Audiophile-grade sound quality and unmatched flexibility
Having put in many hours on the SSL Duality at Studios Piccolo, Beaudin is well placed to compare its sound and performance to the System T. From week to week you start to get a sense of what it sounds like, what it does, how it feels, he says. System T is very clean and huge sounding. It doesn't change the sound drastically; it just sounds good. Over time you realize that the headroom is great, and it sounds wide and deep.
Beaudin adds, Of course, we use the SSL Bus Compressor, which is the same as the Duality. Sometimes I think, am I really compressing that much? Because it's not hurting the mix!
Up to three surfaces can control any System T at the same time, but thus far the truck's Fader Tile has stayed in its box, says Beaudin. We were planning that maybe I would mix some things in the background. But we haven't had to use it yet because Simon is doing a wonderful job and he doesn't need me to help him. But in the future, he says, There will be a lot of shows where, let's say, I'm mixing the music on the console and there will be a guy behind me mixing the traffic stuff - same engine, different surfaces.
The Star Acad mie 2021 production is complex, what with so many live microphones and the pace of the production leading up to each l
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
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...
13/05/2026
New Adobe Premiere Color Grading Mode Accelerated on NVIDIA GPUs
Joel Pennington May 13, 2026
0 Comments
New NVIDIA RTX-accelerated features streamlin...
13/05/2026
Grass Valley announced that dB Broadcast has delivered new IP-based outside broadcast (OB) trucks for Cloudbass, featuring Grass Valley LDX 100 Series cameras a...
13/05/2026
Ikegami will exhibit the latest additions to its wide range of broadcast production cameras, control units, viewfinders and monitors on stand 5D3-1 at Broadcast...
13/05/2026
FISE, working with the founding members of the XR Sports Alliance (XRSA), Accedo, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and HBS, have collaborated to develop an immersive...
13/05/2026
Canon Unveils New EOS R6 V Full-Frame EOS Camera and RF20-50mm F4 L IS USM PZ Bu...
13/05/2026
Boston Conservatory at Berklee Honors Beth Morrison and Moses Pendleton at Comme...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Creative software developer Foundry today announced the latest developments on Nuke Stage. A purpose-built application for end-to-end virtual production and in-...
13/05/2026
A definitive portrait of one of Ireland's most influential musicians
New TV documentary airs Monday 18 May on RT One and RT Player at 9.35pm
Watch the...
13/05/2026
Agentic AI is changing the way users get work done. Following the success of OpenClaw, the community is embracing new open source agentic frameworks. The latest...
13/05/2026
Reinforcement-learning agents - AI systems that learn by trial and error - can c...
12/05/2026
Beyond the Hype: A Strategic Post-Hoc Analysis of NAB 2026 If NAB Show 2026 had an underlying theme, it was a quiet, industry-wide pivot from the high-energy sp...
12/05/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D), a Panoptec Technologies Group company, and CT Square, led by Chandresh Shah, have announced a joint venture to distribute G&D and V...
12/05/2026
With 30 days until the start of the FIFA World Cup 2026, Telemundo, the exclusive Spanish-language home of the tournament in the United States, has announced th...
12/05/2026
The NHL has announced the return of Stanley Pup for its third consecutive year, a 90-minute special featuring adoptable rescue dogs competing on a miniature rin...
12/05/2026
NBCUniversal presented its 2026 Upfront to advertisers at Radio City Music Hall, detailing upcoming programming across NBC, Peacock, Bravo, and Versant properti...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced funding for the Fandom and Social Connection Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Publ...
12/05/2026
TNDV and Live Media, both divisions of Live Media Group, supported live broadcast coverage around NCAA Final Four weekend in Indianapolis, including the March M...
12/05/2026
The European Football Alliance (EFA) has announced a content distribution agreement with Fubo Sports Network, the free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel ...
12/05/2026
For the first time, Spanish-speaking fans in the U.S. will have two separate tel...
12/05/2026
CP Communications led a comprehensive spectrum management initiative on behalf of Churchill Downs during Kentucky Derby week, coordinating RF assets across the ...
12/05/2026
LiveU has announced a strategic partnership with DRONERESPONDERS, a 501(c)3 non-...
12/05/2026
Open Broadcast Systems has announced that BMC TV, a specialist in IP transport of broadcast content, has selected the Open Broadcast Systems 5G Flyaway solution...
12/05/2026
NEP Europe, part of NEP Group, has announced it will deliver broadcast solutions...
12/05/2026
Grass Valley has announced continued collaboration with Ravensbourne University ...
12/05/2026
Stats Perform has announced the launch of Opta Pulse, an AI-assisted video creation and distribution platform for leagues, rights holders, and broadcasters. The...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced a collaboration with Sesame Workshop to integrate Sesame Street characters into FOX Sports' FIFA World Cup 2026 programming. Conten...
12/05/2026
To date, NHL Productions has produced 19 broadcasts with commentary in American Sign Language
NHL in ASL (American Sign Language) may be just one show, but the...
12/05/2026
Google's Brian Albert: creators, athletes, highlights, nostalgia, second-scr...
12/05/2026
A still from Past Lives by Celine Song, an official selection of the Premieres program at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | p...
12/05/2026
Spotify is where fans and artists come together, turning discovery into somethin...
12/05/2026
Features patented Marco-MMC clocking technology
Black Lion Audio's latest release combines the company's expertise in clocking with their renowned p...
12/05/2026
New Track Panel, sequencer upgrades & more
Following their recent public beta release, Reason Studios have announced the full release of Reason 14. With the...
12/05/2026
One month to go! SBS reveals expansive FIFA World Cup 2026 lineup beyond the pi...
12/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz presents its advanced solutions for power electronics testing at...
12/05/2026
aconnic AG (ISIN: DE000A0LBKW6), Munich, has developed a modified fund raising p...
12/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/05/2026
Tyrell Corporation, specialists in high-end live sports and entertainment broadcasts, was tasked with delivering compelling broadcast coverage of premier equest...
12/05/2026
Registration is now open for IBC2026 as the global media, entertainment and technology community prepares to converge on the RAI Amsterdam from 11 14 September ...
12/05/2026
Ross Video, a global leader in live video production technology, will present its latest innovations and integrated production workflows at BroadcastAsia 2026, ...
12/05/2026
500 selected leaders from around the world across start-ups, corporates, and venture capital. Over 50bn in assets under management among attending investors, a...
Montreal's Piccolo Mobile Remote Upgrades to Solid State Logic System T Networked Broadcast Audio Platform posted: 02/04/2021 
