“I’ve always been impressed by Solid State Logic and the System T was the natural progression from the C10 that we had previously,” Chris Frazier, Chief Broadcast Engineer, says. “When you're on a C10 you have already bought into how well Solid State Logic builds their desks.” SCHN’s C10 came from NBC News in Los Angeles when the Houston facility was under different ownership. “We continued to use a C10 that was manufactured in 2011 all the way until this year, so we got a good 13 years out of it,” he comments. “The fact is, SSL builds good stuff.”
SCHN’s production facility is connected to the teams’ local sports venues via dark fibre. Video and audio feeds are taken directly from the respective venues, with the production team located at SCHN’s facility. Road games for both teams are produced from the SCHN studio. Following the installation of the System T, Frazier says, “we've already extended our network so we're now doing our pre- and post-game shows with Dante across the dark fiber network.”
San Francisco-based Advanced Systems Group LLC (ASG), which is headquartered in the Bay Area with an office in London, supplied and integrated the new System T platform, having provided asset management, archive and broadcast equipment to SCHN’s previous owner’s regional sports network facilities around the country. The decommissioning of the C10 and the commissioning of the new System T were scheduled during a four-day break from live productions.
"I've had the privilege of working with Chris and his team for nearly a decade, and this solution was a great fit,” stated Tyler Berry of ASG. “We deployed System T at a former owner’s facility with seamless results. When SCHN needed to replace the C10, System T was the clear choice for its flexibility and SSL's outstanding support. Thanks to Chris, SSL, and ASG’s systems integration team lead by Michele Ferreira, the project was a resounding success."
Space City Home Network, which re-launched under its new name and new ownership in October 2023, broadcasts about 250 games annually “We don't have a lot of downtime here,” Frazier says. “On average, we do six games a week during baseball season, and an average of three to four during the basketball season SCHN is available through a variety of providers in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and eastern New Mexico.
