IBC 2012: Studer adds automatic mic mixing to Vista Series

Harman’s Studer has utilised the IBC 2012 platform to announce a new software upgrade for its range of Vista digital mixing consoles.

The Studer VistaMix automatic microphone mixing software is designed to remove the need for an operator to manually adjust all the faders, leaving the microphones of talking participants open, while closing the microphones of silent participants in order to reduce spill and background noise.

Without this facility, the reaction time of a human operator can result in audible fade-ins of people who start talking rather unexpectedly. Furthermore, changes in fader positions can lead to drastic changes in the total ambience/noise level in the mix.

The new VistaMix software aims to provide an optimised solution by mimicking the action of a human operator; increasing gain for ‘talking’ mics and reducing gain for all others.

VistaMix is also aimed at providing an ideal solution for news operations when multiple mics are installed in the studio but the desk operator is unsure which ones will be used. VistaMix switches on only the mics that are in use. VistaMix source channels may also be mix minus (N–X) owners.

Each source channel has a weight control, which offers two possibilities. Firstly, it allows the desk operator to add weight, or priority, to the main presenter, so that, if required, he can ‘talk over’ the guests or contestants.

Secondly, it allows the desk operator to give more gain in the mix to any contributors who have weak voices or are too far from their microphones. The weight control may also be used during a show to adjust the relative balance dynamically. This function is set with the ‘Knob Assign’ control.

This new feature is available to all existing Vista systems with SCore Live DSP engines. By upgrading to software version 4.8 and adding the special VistaMix channels to the DSP configuration, VistaMix is ready to use.

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