New York-based broadcast rental company CP Communications has purchased 17 DiGiCo S21 compact digital consoles, principally to support ongoing work with Fox Sports’ and CBS Sports’ coverage of NFL and college football games.
The consoles are assembled into flightpack configurations for use in a variety of sports venue environments as effects submixers. This configuration exploits the S21’s compact form factor and processing power (based around its FPGA core and new ARM QuadCore RISC processor), which lend the desk to use in virtually any broadcast location and environment.
‘The S21’s compact form factor was the most enticing thing about it initially,’ CP Communications Executive VP, Kurt Heitmann confirms, ‘but once you look deeper, the case for the S21 becomes even more compelling.’
He cites the S21’s connective versatility, through its expansion ports: ‘We can have the console ready to work with Madi or Dante or Hydra, or whatever the situation calls for, thanks to the S21’s expansion slots,’ he says. ‘That’s important because at the A-level games it can easily connect with the Calrecs in the trucks, and below the A-game level, broadcast crews never know what they’re going to face week to week. The S21 means they’ll be able to handle anything.’
Heitmann says that the S21’s compact size means it can fit into even the smallest of broadcast booths, where effects submixers are often positioned for game broadcasts. ‘So it’s a console that fits anywhere but is also multilayered, so we’re not giving up channels, and it can be expanded when needed, so we’re not sacrificing connectivity,’ he explains. ‘And the S21 is more powerful, with true DSP, than the consoles we’re using it to replace.’
He also values the S21’s remote diagnostic and maintenance capabilities: ‘That’s very important,’ he emphasises. ‘We won’t buy a console unless we can “talk” to it remotely. As the number of sports broadcasts increases and the knowledge level of operators varies more, we need to know that we – and DiGiCo, through their great support infrastructure – can be there virtually if a problem arises during a game a thousand miles away.’
Heitmann says that, while he saw the benefits of the S21 early after its introduction in 2016, it was critical that CP Communications’ clients also recognised the it value to them: ‘We put the S21 in front of Fox Sports and CBS Sports, and they could see how the form factor, processing power and flexible connectivity were huge advantages,’ he says. ‘Buying the S21 was absolutely a customer-driven decision, and it’s been a very good one.’
The new DiGiCo S21 desks join more than half-dozen DiGiCo SD10B broadcast consoles already in CP Communications’ inventory for remote-production vehicles, and are expected to find additional sports broadcast applications in the future.
