News
ZDF upgrades to SC/X
7 April 2009
Oscar-winning German broadcaster still in love with its AMS AudioFiles
‘We love these machines dearly!’ is Rainer Ahrens’s verdict on the AudioFiles he and his team have been using for nearly 20 years at German broadcaster ZDF’s Berlin facility. In fact, so dearly do they love them that, upon learning that there was an upgrade available to the AudioFile SC/X format, they immediately abandoned existing purchase plans for a new Pro Tools system and bought the SC/X upgrades instead.
The new upgrades – incorporating increased tracks, 2TB storage, capacity for up to 128,000 cues (ie 16,000 per drive, up from 3,072), built-in StarNet networking functionality and more – admirably fulfil the technical team’s brief for ‘a more comfortable multitrack editing environment’.
‘One thing we really appreciate in the AudioFile System is its very high reliability,’ explains Ahrens. ‘The system combines features for live TV production with very high performing audio editing facilities. Besides these high level functions, it provides a unique machine control system.’
Along with reliability, quality is also a paramount concern for Ahrens and his team. ZDF (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen – literally Second German Television) is a public-service channel with an enviable reputation. That was underlined by its success at the 2009 Oscars, where it won Best Foreign Film for The Counterfeiters, a drama set in 1944 and based on the true story of Nazi-run money forging at a concentration camp. Two ZDF collaborations with ARTE, a culture-focused Franco-German TV network, also won Oscars: Best Documentary for Taxi To The Dark Side, about the wrongful arrest and death in US custody of an Afghan taxi driver, and Best Animated Short Film for Suzie Templeton’s version of Peter & The Wolf.
