Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) continued its longstanding investment in HARMAN
Professional Solutions with the selection of two Studer Vista 9 consoles for its
production audio control rooms. The Studer Vista 9 consoles ensure industry-leading
sound quality and ease of use to help facilitate a range of media productions.
The station was experiencing system instability and looked to Studer by HARMAN
for a resolution. Its previous audio system was a hybrid of two different
manufacturers, which according to Darvin Sparks, senior broadcast engineer at
GPB, contributed to the system instability.
“Our old system was frequently leading to downtime in productions,’ said Sparks.
“We wanted a stable, reliable audio system that would serve as a foundation for our
productions and could grow with our future needs.’
GPB also desired enhanced production capabilities in several areas, including
improved total system I/O capabilities, a flexible internal routing architecture, both
MADI and audio over internet protocol (AoIP) capabilities, and a minimum of 32
channel strips per console. When selecting new consoles, GPB looked for a vendor
with a long history of providing advanced, reliable, well-supported systems.
For Tom Spencer, primary audio operator at GPB, the new Studer consoles have
been a valuable addition to the GPB studios. “The two Vista 9 consoles consistently
meet the station’s wide range of production demands,’ he said. “Internal routing is
extremely flexible and intuitive, allowing for any last minute modifications that
should arise during the course of a production.’
The Vista 9 microphone preamps are incredibly quiet and the EQ has a musical
quality. In addition, compression and limiting are both transparent in their
operations. Spencer is also impressed with the functionality of Studer VistaMix
automatic mixing, a software upgrade available to all Vista digital mixing consoles.
GPB’s familiarity with HARMAN Professional Solutions made it an obvious choice
when it came to selecting the audio consoles. The station exclusively uses JBL
Professional studio monitors, in addition to AKG microphones, Crown amplifiers and
Lexicon reverb units.
Beginning as a five-station educational TV network in 1970, GPB is now a
multiplatform media production facility with 18 radio stations and nine TV stations,
serving approximately 98 percent of residents throughout Georgia and parts of
Alabama, South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee. It has five TV production studios,
four radio production studios and numerous video and audio editing suites. The
station’s two TV production control rooms are mirror images of each other, and both
contain Studer Vista 9 consoles.
