SSL Live on The Voice France
- Details
Set in Studio 217 at La Plaine Saint Denis, just north of Paris, its stage is the largest in Europe at 2090sq.m, with a 1,300 capacity. As with any major broadcast event, it's a meticulous, multi-console affair, and requires a plethora of inputs. FOH engineer Jerome Kalfon and monitor engineer Alex Maggi both mix the show on SSL L500s to mix the show.
The Voice France utilises 128 mics, four SSL ML32.32 stage boxes, and an SSL BL II - Blacklight Concentrator, which allows FOH and monitors to share all inputs. The two broadcast consoles in the OB van receive inputs directly from inbuilt broadcast MADI splitters located at the back of the stage boxes, and the broadcast mix comes directly from the SSL mic amps and SSL conversion.
Jerome Kalfon has used the SSL at FOH for three years on The Voice, and enjoys working from it even more now than when he first started, testament to all the feature enhancements that have been implemented along the way.
“This is such a sophisticated musical show, where each song is sung by a different performer, with a different ambience and style, so setup can be radically different from one title to the other. For the live shows it is very intense to manage the music mix, and also to deal with the frantic comms between all the production teams, such as the video sequences being fired from the OB van.
“It's so often the way when you're working on a demanding TV show,” says Kalfon, whose position at FOH is high up on a tower. “Because of my mix position, I find I am using the [SSL] TACO tablet software extensively; it provides pretty much all I need when I have to go downstairs and adjust the mix from the audience and the coaches' seats via WiFi. It is very fluid, and it even has the Query mode allowing me to jump between groups of signals easily.”
Alex Maggi has been an SSL Live advocate since the consoles inception in September 2013. His monitor position is a little unusual: just behind the musicians, and their 'very loud' guitar amplifiers.
“It's like being in a guitarist's bedroom back there, so I need to keep a close eye on the balance,” he says with a smile. “I find the L500 makes my workflow faster and easier, and it doesn't force you to work in a specific way. As a result, I can provide a better sounding mix much quicker for the musicians, with less effort – and for me, speed is everything.”
Since it first hit French TV screens in February 2012, The Voice France has enjoyed eight seasons and 128 episodes.
(Jim Evans)
