In terms of covering the biggest area and using the most inputs, Fame Academy is the largest of the productions to have used the brace of PM1Ds. The desks have also been used by Blitz on The Games for Channel 4 and on Channel 5's The Farm. Russell says: "We've been steadily building up our digital portfolio over the last few years; it now contains 11 digital consoles, because this is the way we see the business going. With TV shows like these, we need a very large number of inputs, and the digital consoles can provide a high level of automation, enabling the engineers to go very quickly between snapshots as the contestants move around the house."
Another benefit is the use of the PM1D's on-board processing. "Previously we used to insert a compressor across every channel of the console," says Andy Groves, "now we can do all that and more within the digital domain. The result is sound quality that is far superior to an analogue system, and a few thousand less connections."
(Lee Baldock)
