Recently established as a production facility for French subscription channel Canal+ and the free to air channel C8, Canal Factory has completed a major upgrade to its technical infrastructure, moving its audio and video workflow to a facility-wide network – making it Europe’s first all-IP facility.
All of the facility’s new systems – four large-scale Solid State Logic System T broadcast audio production systems, an SSL L500 Live consol, and SSL Network I/O interfaces – are connected via a high-capacity (120-plus devices using 6,000 x 6,000 audio channels), fully redundant Dante Ausio-over-IP network that shares the core Canal Factory IP infrastructure. The same infrastucture also supports a number of TSL Products MPA1 Mix Dante units.
‘During this project, we created the first large scale broadcast centre based on Dante Protocol for audio’, says Canal+ Broadcast CTO, Ralph Atlan. ‘Canal+ and SSL learned a lot together about the best way to implement SSL consoles in a full IP live broadcast environment. It really makes our partnership stronger.’
Canal Factory is responsible for much of the Canal+ and C8 core daily live programming and music events broadcasts. The C8’s daily talk shows, as well as its nightly news and talk shows such as Le Petit Journal, plus live music and the major sports shows Canal Football Club and Canal Rugby Club are all broadcasting using the new systems. When not in use on live productions the new studios are used for pre-records of shows such as the popular satirical puppet show, Les Guignols.
The facilities include two main audio control rooms, four production stages, and a music premix studio. All audio I/O is connected to and routed around the facility’s IP network using the Dante networked AoIP protocol via ‘commercial off-the-shelf’ (COTS) Cisco network switches. This provides comprehensive, ultra-low latency distributed routing with full device discovery and more than 6,000 x 6,000 system channel capacity. The Dante Network has also been extended to the Canal+ Lumière Master Control Room via a dark fibre link, so that existing madi infrastructure is now connected to the new network.
Canal Factory also hosts a fully network-based video system that includes multiviewers, processing, and edge routing technology, using SMPTE ST 2022-6 (-7 to come).
The two audio control rooms each feature a 64-fader, 3.5-bay main System T control surface and PC-based T-Solsa control software with a 16-fader panel connected to one Tempest Audio Engine, plus an additional 16-fader 1.5-bay pre-mix/back-up surface connected to another Tempest engine. Dante system-wide routing can be controlled directly from the consoles, or via the control system panels in each room.
Those Tempest Engines (four in total) are in the Machine room. SSL’s OCP network which handles communication between Tempest Engines and control interfaces is carried via the same standard Cisco switching hardware and facility-wide network infrastructure as the Dante network. The Machine Room also has SSL Network I/Os: SDI-Madi and Network I/O: AES units on the Dante Network, plus Dante services and control servers.
For flexible analogue I/O, the facility uses a number of SSL Network I/O SB 8:8 (8-channel mic/line in/out) stageboxes in the TV production stages, the OB services area, and other spaces. The entire facility uses more than 100 Dante I/O devices from many other manufacturers, all connected to the same network.
The SSL L500 console is used as a music premix facility, and as System T’s user interface is closely related to the L500’s, operators familiar with one, will have no problem operating the other. L500 audio input is from the stage via Madi, and the console feeds the main Dante network.
Head of Technical Studies Pierre Maillat, Head of Engineering Charles Lesoil, and Project Technical Executive Jean Marc Delage were responsible for specifying the new studios, in direct connexion with Olivier Beneuf’s (COO) teams. There were many aspects to the decision to invest in System T and SSL Live, not least the move to a true networked infrastructure where all audio is available anywhere in the facility and where several operators can control a single Tempest Engine simultaneously. ‘We have around 120 devices on the Dante Network at the moment,’ says Lesoil. ‘This facility is proof that a large-scale AoIP network infrastructure can serve a sophisticated round-the-clock broadcast operation. It’s made us more flexible - ready for anything.’
‘The SSL I/O and processing power also makes a big impact on our operation,’ adds Delage. ‘The sound quality of the whole system is regularly complemented by our operators, and they love the SSL user interface and processing – its high capacity and sonic performance is amazing.’
In all, 23 TSL Products MPA1 Mix Dante units have been installed across the Canal Factory facility for custom audio mixing within the IP-based workflow. ‘We chose to work on the Dante platform as it is the preferred audio networking solution – it has been adopted by the world’s leading manufacturers and it works,’ says Delage. ‘TSL Product’s Dante-enabled MPA1 units fit seamlessly into our workflow as well as our budget, and offers excellent overall quality for our custom mixes.’
The MPA1 Mix Dante is specifically designed for use where operators need to create a custom mix from a Dante stream. With powerful user features accessible via the web UI, the MPA1 Mix Dante is simple to use and flexible enough to meet specific workflow requirements. The built-in web server enable users to remotely view the status and control any of the networked MPA1 monitors, allowing for quick fault finding and adjustment. The web UI also enables engineers to remotely configure and customise individual units/functions.
‘As world leaders in audio monitoring solutions, we continually develop forward-looking yet practical solutions to meet the current and future needs of today’s leading broadcasters,’ TSL Products Regional Manager for France & Benelux, Daniel Shihata. ‘We’re proud to see MPA1 Mix Dante playing a key role within the ground-breaking IP-based workflow at Canal + Canal Factory.’
