Dante AV deployed across HIT Productions studios
- Details
With recent changes in how content is created, distributed, and consumed, HIT realized that its old facility no longer met the needs of its production teams and clients. Studios in the old facility were based on analogue point-to-point connections built back in the era of specialised rooms with limited signal routing options, resulting in inefficient use of space and resources. When a new building became available in 2021, HIT jumped at the opportunity to build a new facility that would allow them to meet the challenges of a constantly changing technology ecosystem.
Dennis Cham, founding partner and chief technology officer of HIT Productions, decided to implement Dante AV as the transport mechanism for all audio and video between rooms. He recognized the new facility needed to have a flexible AV design to support the physical reconfiguration of the studios for production needs, with seamless re-routing of audio and video streams as required.
Because the pandemic forced many employees to work remotely to keep onsite headcount down to minimize infections between staff and on-air talent, the AV system also had to support hybrid workflows for the company’s employees.
“Dante AV gave us the flexibility to connect rooms in any number of combinations with standard Cat 6 Ethernet cables,” said Cham. “Audio and video quality is exceptional, and the flexibility to route audio and video around the facility on just a few cables was very liberating.”
HIT Productions uses high-performance Patton FiberPlex FPX6000 gateways to route video signals via Dante over the network to wherever they’re needed. Audio I/O is routed via multiple Focusrite RedNet X2P portable Dante interfaces controlled by RedNet R1 controllers. In addition, Dante also connects multiple Focusrite Red and Avid MTRX Studio audio interfaces powering the larger production suites.
HIT Productions currently has 12 production rooms running on Dante AV, with plans to expand to all 28 rooms over time. Dedicated Dante cabling has also been installed in the 12 hot desk-style workstations and the facility’s four conference/huddle rooms.
“Dante AV was the perfect solution for us to send audio and video all over the facility with the lowest latency,” said Cham. “Dante AV is cutting-edge technology that will allow us to be more productive and expand to meet the challenges of a changing industry.”
