First aired in 2004 from the BBC Television Centre, Strictly Come Dancing made early use of Merging Technologies’ Pyramix system for initial and successive series. Now transmitted from the George Lucas studio by BBC Studios & Post Production, the current series requires considerable more complex production – it had outgrown the Mykerinos-based Pyramix.

Instead, it has been replaced by a completely new Pyramix MassCore 256 Music Pack and hardware, including a Horus Networked Audio Interface. With the need to postproduce some of the shows, a VCube Essentials pack is also part of the package.

Sound Supervisor Andy Tapley was responsible for the decision to continue with a Merging rig as the recording tool to complement BBC S&PP’s new Studer Vista X mixing console. Apart from the fact that the team was familiar with the Pyramix platform, the key point was the ability to handle high track counts and the long recording times that are now the norm.

The requirement to record all of the rehearsals and the shows over two days and to refine the mix, and produce stems, for postproduction, means that there is often the need to record as many as 152 tracks. This is easily achieved with MassCore 256 and the 128 channels of Madi plus 24 AES/EBU I/O connectivity between the Vista X and the Horus. emerging, the UK distributor for Merging Technologies supplied all the hardware including a new 4U-high computer chassis with a Raid 0 array of three 1TB media drives so that many hours of continuous recording can be stored safely.

One special show each year comes from Blackpool’s iconic Tower Ballroom: ‘Even when we are in the comfort of the Red TX sound recording truck on the Blackpool seafront, capturing the show is simple because Pyramix is part of their standard kit,’ Andy Tapley says. ‘We can record here and easily transfer the project to our base in Elstree for postproduction work. Making the move to Horus has been seamless.’