Turning Point, a broadcast ministry featuring the teachings of Dr. David Jeremiah, recently completed the integration of a Solid State Logic System T S500 broadcast audio platform into the control room of the new TV Studio 1 at its facility near San Diego, California. An SSL Live L100 Plus console with a 16-fader Remote Tile has been installed in the studio to mix audio for the audience. A System T S500m — a streamlined chassis version intended for mobile audio applications — has also been delivered for integration into the ministry’s remote broadcast truck.
Turning Point has a long history with SSL, having installed a C200 broadcast console when the company built its remote truck in 2008. “I really wanted to stay in the SSL family,” Eric “Ric” Seaberg, Turning Point’s longtime chief engineer, says. “Their equipment sounds great, and their support is some of the best. We have had such a great relationship with them. The SSL guys have been such good friends to all of us. It's great to be a part of their team.”
He continues, “It's so easy to mix on C200 and the System T is even better. Especially as a music mixer, I find it so much easier to mix, because you're not fighting with a bad quality signal. You're starting out with great preamps so you're not having to clean things up; you're just balancing the music. And that's even more so with the System T, because the mic preamps and the processing are a double step better than the C200. And it's just so simple to work.”
For instance, Seaberg says, “The thing that was really easy for me to pick up initially was the whole concept of changing your fader layouts for individual tiles. I have a master template that we build everything from. But today, I might only want to see these faders on this tile, and it's so easy to jump around and change things. That's been really great.”
SSL backbone with Dante networking
Both System T S500s have dual redundant engines with 256 processing paths and are configured with 48+2 faders. In the 6,500-square-foot studio, which seats about 150 people, the L100 Plus provides 24+2 faders with the associated Remote Tile. Two SSL Net I/O SB 16.12 and four SB i16 interfaces support 96 inputs from the stage while an SB 32.24 is positioned at front-of-house for audience microphones and other sources. The truck system travels with a pair of SB 32.24 stageboxes. “The entire ecosystem, tying the System T in and having the L100 Plus tied into that, with the Remote Tile, and sharing the stageboxes in terms of gain adjustments and so forth, is very, very nice,” says Greg Praniewicz, the facility’s engineer-in-charge.
“The whole infrastructure, with the SSL backbone and with everything being Dante and clocking and working together, plus the expandability, is hard to beat,” Seaberg agrees. The facility’s production area, encompassing five control rooms and five edit bays, is already networked over Dante, and will soon expand to include six more edit suites, he reports. “So we're really excited to be able to network the two halves of the building together over one large Dante network.”
“Our primary requirements were sonic clarity and overall quality,” Praniewicz comments, “and we recognise that SSL is renowned for that. We do everything under the sun, so versatility and flexibility were also high in our list. Operationally, we’re dealing with different scenarios, like single-person interviews, multiple talent interviews, no audience, full audience, and musical guests with a full band, backup singers and horn section.”
While the Turning Point audio team is still exploring System T’s full potential, one feature has already emerged as a firm favorite for interviews and presentations with multiple microphones on the studio stage, Seaberg reports. “We've already had several situations where we've used the built-in Automix. It's just saved so much time, and it sounds incredible. We used Automix on the Live in the same situations. All the mixers talk about is how easy it makes our lives.”
Turning Point’s multi-camera UHD TV remote truck is used to capture senior teaching pastor Dr. David Jeremiah every Saturday and Sunday at Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, California, about 30 minutes’ drive away. “We record everything he teaches, and that becomes part of the television outreach of Turning Point Ministries,” Praniewicz explains. “We bring in over 16 terabytes of data every weekend from all the content that's recorded and that is edited into 30-minute and 60-minute television programs and translated into about 16 different languages.” Content is broadcast across the U.S. and Canada, to the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, and to the world’s Spanish-speaking countries.
Previously, Seaberg would mix or remix the music tracks through the C200 in the truck. “But now that we also have a System T in our facility,” Praniewicz notes, “Ric will be able to do his work here at the studio, and bring in all the raw content, audio files and so forth, and remix everything.”
Two is better than one
For that reason, it was important to have two System T consoles, Seaberg says. “We wanted to be able to have one setup that we could easily transfer back and forth between the two systems. There are times when I'm running 128 tracks of Pro Tools. On weekends when we're shooting, I could have 100-plus microphones with full orchestra, a 200-voice choir, full rhythm section and singers on stage, and video roll-ins.”
In TV Studio 1, the L100 Plus is paired with a Meyer Sound audience PA system. The compact console features 12 faders, with additional controls on the Remote Tile, bringing the total to 26. "That’s just enough," Seaberg explains. "We don’t feel limited; in a live situation, we’re good with that. The Live console made perfect sense, given how everything integrates and shares the stageboxes."
Solid State Logic will be exhibiting at NAB 2025 and offering live demonstrations during each day of the show. To learn more, register for NAB, or book an appointment with an SSL expert, please visit https://solidstatelogic.com/events/nab-show-2025.
