Ease of use and reliability allow the University’s broadcast team to focus on the production and eliminate concern over audio faults
Philadelphia, May 19, 2021 — For its first in-house ESPN/American Athletics Conference broadcast in late 2020, Kevin Hession, Temple University’s director of video production and broadcast engineer, needed a versatile and reliable converting solution for analog audio sources — specifically for natural sound microphones during its men’s basketball and women’s basketball, volleyball and gymnastics productions. After partnering with Alpha Video out of Minneapolis, Hession and his team selected the Ferrofish A32 AD/DA converter.
“We wanted as much functionality as possible to still be able to use analog audio when necessary,” Hession said, adding that the A32 converter is routed to a full patch bay. “We’re then able to patch those sources to the necessary destinations.”
Hession and the broadcast team then convert that to MADI and send it to a 64-channel digital mixing console. “The audio ecosystem we implemented makes audio routes incredibly simple,” he added. “The A32 gives us a ton of flexibility with that.”
Temple University’s Broadcast Room
Converting Audio with Ease
A universal solution for connecting, routing and converting, the A32 is a perfect solution for high-end multi-format converting for broadcasting.
Aside from its universal functionality, Hession said another key feature when selecting the A32 converter was its ease of use.
“By using the A32, it easily allows me to focus on the actual production rather than having to constantly troubleshoot any potential audio faults,” he said. “If we want another audio source, or even if our broadcast talent just wants a different analog source we’ve set up, it takes less than four clicks.”
Recently, Hession shared that his team had the honor of producing Hall of Fame Temple Men’s Basketball Head Coach John Chaney’s “Celebration of Life” service, which aired simultaneously on ESPN+ and YouTube — drawing thousands of viewers watching live from Temple’s Liacouras Center.
“An outside AV company came in to do any in-house audio, and all we had to do was connect their mixdown to the A32, and we had crystal clear audio,” he explained. “It was as simple as that.”
The Ferrofish A32 also is available in a Dante format.
For more information, visit ferrofish.com.
