Media Prima purchases Malaysia’s first Vista 1 console
Published: ASIA
MALAYSIA: Studer has announced the first sale of its Vista 1 digital console into Malaysia. Media Prima Berhad, an integrated media investment group, recently purchased the console for multipurpose usage throughout all the Media Prima companies. The console was supplied by Harman Pro’s local distributor, Mahajak Trio Electronic Sdn Bhd.
According to Mahajak Trio senior manager, sales and projects, Lee Chin Kah, the station had required a reliable, flexible, and cost-effective solution. Studer represented one of the best choices with its reputation for reliability and sound quality, and the station had already been using Studer platforms since starting out in 1984.
‘Studer’s reputation is legendary in the audio industry and the all-in-one Vista 1 console fitted the needs of our customer perfectly, containing all the advanced features of the Vista range, including surround 5.1, within the budget,’ Mr Kah said.
The 5.1 functionality was one of the features the station had been eagerly awaiting, and as a result Media Prima can now migrate from stereo to surround sound mixing. They also noted that Vista 1 was user-friendly with Vistonics interface, and by using Studer’s Virtual Surround Panning, its operators can take mono sources and create realistic sound fields. The station was also keen to try out the VistaMix feature, which mimics the action of a human operator, increasing gain for talking mics and reducing gain for all others to maintain a constant output.
According to the station’s director of audio engineering, Nur Azrin, the learning curve with the console was minimal, and the Vistonics interface and FaderGlow made it easy for the sound engineer to operate compared. But most importantly, he confirms, the sound quality is the best and the support is excellent.
‘We are in the process of adding the D21m AES EBU I/O card slot on the rear of the console to expand our AES I/O channels. It takes us less than a minute for the console to recognise the new I/O’s. It’s so user-friendly to configure,’ Mr Azrin commented. ‘Another advantage is that the Studer stagebox can be used or interchanged between Studer and Soundcraft, since we have a few Soundcraft Si Performer digital mixers — so it will save the expense of buying another stagebox.’
‘We have had no hesitation in recommending the Vista1 to customers based on the excellent quality of the sound and the inbuilt sound processing,’ he summarised. ‘It offers one of the best price-to-performance ratios and this was a vital aspect, as it allowed us to fulfil the customer’s requirement — namely for flexibility and cost-effective sound for all video production.’