Established 11 years ago, Silence! is one of the major Parisian sound engineering providers, specialising in sound reinforcement and recording of musical programmes for television. With a range of credits from Victoires de la Musique to Musicale de Canal + and l’Album de la Semaine, not forgetting Michel Drucker’s programmes and La Nouvelle Star, Silence! has gained an excellent reputation among broadcasters and production companies.
The original team, consisting of sound engineers Gilles Hugo and Daniel Dollé (a.k.a. “Shitty”), has tended to favour Yamaha products: the company’s equipment based at Saint-Denis includes numerous PM1D, PM5D, M7CL, DM2000 and 02R96 units, as well as three PM5000s and several DMEs.
Photo 2In 2001, Silence bought another leasing and sound engineering company, Slade, thus also acquiring a mobile “sound” trailer based on a 48-track Dolby Surround compatible SSL 8000HG. Using the Sound Mobile, Silence can now supply the sound signal to the vision control room, as well as recording live broadcasts by multitracking, for sound engineering on the TV set: this is an indisputable advantage for broadcasting clients. Because of the upsurge of new musical programmes such as Star Academy and La Nouvelle Star, the mobile studio has been running non-stop.
As time went on, its design began to appear dated: the analogue console could not provide the Recall function which is such a valuable feature of digital sound consoles, and despite the addition of a premixing Sony DMX-R100 and/or an M7CL, the limits of the SSL, for both inputs and outputs, were often reached. Some programmes often need more than 140 inputs, and 48 track recording is no longer enough! Also, the size of the trailer made it impossible to access some sites. There was also an increasing demand from the customers of Silence!, which meant that Gilles and Shitty often had to lease the Voyageur [mobile studio owned by Dispatch] or the mobile unit of De Preference… In 2004, the decision was made: Silence needed another mobile studio!
Photo 3Various options were considered, until Gilles Hugo found that the former Voyageur III (the previous SFP mobile studio, nearly thirty years old!) was for sale. It was empty, but its acoustic insulation was perfect (a very important matter for a mobile studio) and the internal space was large for a 19-tonne unit. So the deal was done.
The project manager for L’Autre! is Benoît Bertheau. “The specifications were quite simple: it had to do everything!” he explained. “The truck was clean, but we reconstructed the decoration, all the audio wiring, the false ceiling, and most of the cabin, connected to the rear part which remained intact. We modelled the internal layout on our big mobile studio. For audio monitoring, I was happy to replace Genelec 1038 speakers in the spaces provided; afterwards, we added Genelec 1030 and Avantone units.”
What console did you provide? “To begin with we wanted to give our clients a free choice, instead of specifying anything for them. Finally we installed two DM2000s, then three of them, in series – the Solo and the buses are linked. Why these consoles? The quality/price ratio is good, we are already familiar with them, since we have several of them among our sound engineering equipment, and their connection and expansion facilities based on MY cards were exactly right for the planned application. The potential is there, and there’s a good level of support from the manufacturer”, points out Gilles Hugo. “We also provided the mobile studio with nine AD8HR pre-amps, with AES-EBU connections to the DM2000s, and we also installed TDIF output cards for the DA-98s or X-48s which record the programmes. This gives us outstanding audio quality, and our sound engineers are already familiar with the DM2000, so everything has worked out fine.”
Benoît Bertheau agrees: “To begin with, some sound engineers who preferred the analogue option were rather unenthusiastic. After a few sessions, there were no complaints about working in digital. Everyone has their own way of mixing: for example, one of our engineers prefers not to look at the parameter values on screen, and works “by ear”, as with an analogue system. He finds the DM2000 processing completely satisfactory. Even with groups like Archive or Muse, with a very marked analogue style, L’Autre! provides something very different from the standard digital sound. DM2000s are suitable for every task.”
In the “simple” configuration, with two consoles (placed side by side), L’Autre!, i.e. the “Other Mobile”, already handles 96 inputs on 48 tracks. Adding the third console, positioned at right-angles to the other two, at the back, in a position originally planned for a Pro Tools operator, brings the number of inputs to 144 (on 4 x 36 pairs). This is generally enough for ordinary operations (even though Benoît has already had to record programmes on 160 tracks in Pro Tools, with the premix, stems and recording mode). This goes a long way beyond the resources of the big Silence! studio.
Benoît explained the distribution of the signals among the consoles: “The first layer, 1 to 24, handles the analogue inputs - even with AD8HR units, we have to use the pre-amps integrated in the console when we need to process more than 96 inputs. The second layer, 25 to 48, handles the AES/EBU digital inputs, in other words the AD8HR outputs. The third layer handles the effects returns, etc.” Of course, L'Autre! includes some effects and processing peripherals such as a T.C. Electronic System 6000, a Lexicon PCM70, PreSonus ADL 600 and SSL analogue stereo compressors, a Finalizer, etc. The dynamic processing at channel level is carried out in the consoles themselves, avoiding the need for peripheral racks.
After a year of work, L’Autre! went into operation at the start of the 2006 season. It has operated practically continuously ever since, rather eclipsing the first Mobile. Benoît Bertheau is already considering some improvements such as supplementary CAT5 and fibre wiring, a Trinnov Audio monitoring calibration system, and expansion towards 5.1 mixing to meet the growing customer demand.
Photos:
Photo 1: L’Autre! in operation (external view)
Photo 2: The two “main” DM2000s
Photo 3: The third DM2000, with SILENCE sound engineers Fabien Chanier and Guy Lacoste (seen from behind) at the controls
