Shanghai Media Group (SMG), a division of the Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group, operates 14 television channels and 11 radio stations that serve the Shanghai megalopolis — the largest city by population in China (and the world) — bringing diverse programming, sports, and news to an audience of 1.6 billion across the country and beyond.

To meet the needs of a booming production schedule and growing programming demands, SMG recently began upgrading its production facilities to move further into all-digital production and broadcast.

Challenge

Because of the rigours of providing 24/7 programming and the move into HD production, SMG engineers decided to implement an audio backup system in case a main high-end console should fail. The fail-safe system needed to be easy to operate yet powerful enough to handle the audio tasks of a main console.

Solution

Touchmix Combo systems from TSL Products were chosen as the audio failsafe solution and are installed in five television production studios. Each system provides operational backup for the studio’s main audio console.

The Touchmix Combo takes the capabilities of the original Touchmix (AVM-T-Mix) and Touchmix Pilot (AVM-T-MIX Pilot) multi-channel touchscreen monitoring systems to a new level. It fulfills the backup mission by providing a master/slave system that instantly takes over audio duties from the main console.

“Our R&D team paired the units in a master/slave configuration and wrote new code to satisfy SMG’s requirement, resulting in a viable solution that is relevant to many other applications. The Touchmix Combo was born from a customer’s vision.”
— Martin Dyster, Head of Audio, TSL Products

Project Description

SMG uses TSL’s Touchmix Combo systems as a safety net for its 24/7 news operations. Each of the five new production studios is outfitted with a high-end digital audio console and an associated audio engineer. The rackmount master Touchmix units are located in the production rooms, where the technical manager can make configuration changes. The desktop slave Touchmix Pilot allows the audio engineer to control and send audio to air in the event of a main console crash.

If a console fails, the parallel-configured Touchmix Combo systems can take over audio tasks within seconds.

• The master Touchmix unit includes two 20-channel audio mixers, each configurable for stereo, mono, or surround input channels.
• The 22:9 touchscreen panel provides volume control, dual-function gain/balance encoder, headphone socket, USB port, home preset save/recall switch, and loudspeakers.
• The slave Touchmix Pilot consists of a desktop touchscreen and a rackmount host unit.
• Units are interconnected via Ethernet.

The Touchmix Combo gives SMG confidence that audio production will not be interrupted, offering a capable backup at a lower cost than purchasing smaller versions of the main consoles. In addition, the Touchmix Combo can also be used for traditional audio monitoring, extending its functionality.

Touchmix Combo — Audio Monitoring and Mixing

Touchmix Pilot and its rackmount host empower users with easy ‘lean-back’ operation while maintaining the full functionality of the rackmount Touchmix. The system allows one-touch access to any analogue, AES, or SDI embedded audio source in mono, stereo, or surround formats. It enables adjustments to individual levels, balance, and pan control, letting users mix multiple sources for flexible monitoring and production applications.

Touchmix & Touchmix Pilot — Main Features

• 8 AES (8 pairs/16 channel) inputs — 110 Ohm balanced or 75 Ohm unbalanced via optional CAB-D25-BNC cable
• Optional dual SDI input with auto-sensing 1080p (60, 59.94, and 50Hz), HD/SDI video input
• De-embedded audio monitoring from video (HD/SDI) with selection from up to 16 channels (SDI 1), and 8 channels (SDI 2 Group 1 and 2)
• 8 analogue stereo inputs
• Identical twin audio mixers
• 10 stereo/20 dual mono assignable input channels per mixer