Co-Owner of BNY Productions, Bill Kristijanto has found Waves’ eMotion LV1 Live Mixer and plug-ins the solution to remote broadcast streaming of events as diverse as political rallies and speeches during coronavirus constraints.
‘We were out on the road with a client using the Waves eMotion LV1 mixer and also supplying video, lighting, staging and accessories,’ Kristijanto says. ‘However, due to Covid-19, the client had to stop doing all live events, and came to us for a solution to be able to do broadcast, without a crew in the room. Subsequently, we needed to build a TV/broadcast studio that was able to handle phone interviews, podcast, video conferencing, direct to camera recording, live network TV interviews, and live virtual events, while being controlled/produced off site.
‘To clarify, the only person accompanying the client is his personal assistant, so everyone else – the audio engineer, lighting engineer, video engineer, shader, producers and everything in-between – is off site and in a different state,’ he adds. ‘To make things a little more complicated, the client has a team of people who are involved in producing/directing the events who are scattered in different states, and they too need to monitor the feed at near-zero latency.
His decision to move to the eMotion LV1 in 2016 proved prescient: ‘Today we own ten Waves eMotion LV1 mixers and are able to easily remote into the mixer from states away. This is definitely a feature that wouldn’t be as easy to do with any other console on the market. The LV1’s strengths and capabilities reaffirm that we made the right decision four years ago.’
In operation, the set-up at BNY’s Control Studio includes two SoundGrid Extreme Server-Cs and an Apogee Symphony I/O Mk II 8x8+8MP, while the Remote Studio built for our client has two SoundGrid Extreme Server-Cs and three DiGiGrid IOX I/O interfaces. The Remote Studio audio signal chain starts with either a DPA 4017B shotgun mic or a DPA lavalier mic, into a DiGiGrid IOX I/O interface.
‘The client has an option of monitoring through an IFB or a wedge, depending on the event,’ Kristijanto explains. ‘Out of the console, the audio gets embedded into the video system, which then goes into a custom server that takes care of the point-to-point streaming over to our Control Studio for low-latency monitoring. Once the data is decoded by another custom server in the Control Studio, the audio then goes into a LV1 using an Apogee Symphony I/O, feeding into a Meyer Sound Bluehorn speaker system.
‘One of the big advantages of this set-up is that we are able to have different engineers/operators control part of the system from different locations. For example, we can have a video engineer in Pennsylvania, a shader in Washington DC, and an audio engineer in Iowa, all run an event from their homes.’
‘There are several unique benefits using the LV1,’ Kristijanto reflects. ‘As an audio engineer, I like that I’m able to make a custom signal flow to the individual channel strip. Other consoles don’t have that capability. Typically, the channel strips, such as the EQ, dynamics and effects are predetermined in other consoles. The eMotion LV1 allows us to integrate easily with plug-ins so I can precisely shape the sound to my liking.
Waves plug-ins are an integral part of our workflow,’ he continues. ‘We are currently using the Mercury, SSL 4000 Collection, Abbey Road Collection, Dugan Automixer + Dugan Speech, Pianos & Keys, API Collection, and the CLA Classic Compressors bundles. If I had to choose must-have plug-ins, I would start with the WNS Noise Suppressor, since rather than only having one control, the WNS lets me have control in several frequency bands, allowing me to suppress some bands, without affecting others. The Primary Source Expander (PSE) would be next – it is unique in that the talent doesn’t always want to mess with IFB and would prefer to use a wedge instead.
‘I would also include Vocal Rider, which is a true timesaver, as we required something that could keep up with a dynamic speaker. The talent can sometimes talk very softly followed by a dramatic change in volume. By putting this plug-in on top of the signal chain, it helps keep the level consistent down the chain, so it hits the dynamics at about the same level. That way, the presenter’s voice is always present regardless of the volume changes.’
Another advantage of the console is its size: ‘When working in a residence where space is limited but we do not want to sacrifice sound quality, the LV1’s size makes it easy for us to maintain our high-quality audio standard, without taking up the large amount of space that most mixers of that calibre require. The backup capabilities are similar to what you’d find in big-boy consoles, which leads me to another benefit – stability is something that we cannot compromise on, and currently our LVfly system has been running continuously for months without a glitch.
‘A final feature that I would like to highlight is the overall design and scalability of the LV1 _ the flexibility of being able to add an additional I/O whenever and wherever is unprecedented.
‘In these challenging times’, he concludes, ‘it is becoming a requirement to support live streaming and remote events, and the Waves eMotion LV1 has proven to be indispensable. We are fortunate to have it at the heart of our remote streaming systems.’
More: www.waves.com
