Charged with the ‘revitalisation and normalisation’ of the Māori language and culture through high-quality, readily accessible programming in both Māori and English, Māori Television provides a range of local and international programming for New Zealand audiences both terrestrially and online. Following this brief, the broadcaster has recently upgraded its studios with Studer Vista 5 M3 and OnAir 2500 digital consoles.

‘Our studios are used for a variety of shows, including live news and current affairs programs, talk shows, sports programming and more,’ says sound team leader, Kane Dickie. ‘One of the most challenging requirements is doing the sound for a live music show that requires mixing multiple hosts talking at once plus a live band.’

The installation was handled by Harman Professional distributor Jands, and includes 32-fader Vista 5 M3 and 12-fader OnAir 2500 consoles. Replace aging analogue mixing desks, the new consoles had to be flexible and easy to use. This involved eliminating patching the consoles into external effects devices, and adding built-in processing.

Ease of use was equally important: ‘We wanted consoles that were intuitive, so that most of the people in our studio would be able to operate them,’ Dickie says. In addition, the consoles needed to link to share sources between Māori Televisions two broadcast studios. Along with the Vista and On Air desks, Māori TV purchased three Studer Compact Stagebox expansion units, a 32-input/16-output and two 16-input/16-output models.

Before Māori TV purchased the equipment, Jands set up the complete system on its own premises to allow Dickie and his team to try them out. The Māori TV staff took to the consoles immediately, giving high marks for easy, fast and responsive operation, accessible control layouts, their Vistonics and Touch’n’Action colour touchscreens, and variety of useful built-in effects.

‘The transition from analogue to digital consoles went smoothly,’ Dickie  reports. ‘In addition to doing everything we need them to and then some, we’ve noticed that the consoles’ preamps have made all of our mics sound much cleaner. And all of the old analogue buzz we could never get rid of in the past has disappeared.’