On-Air Reliability
Providing the Confidence for Creativity
Built and installed entirely by SSL to match your exact specifications, accompanied by full on-site training, long term technical support, extensive redundancy, and intelligent remote-diagnostic and self-healing software, the C100 is primed for reliability. Because you can have total confidence in your tools, you are released to concentrate on production.
Resiliency through remote-diagnostic and self-healing software
SSL’s own diagnostic software constantly looks for illegal instructions or values in any part of the code, correcting them before they can cause an avalanche failure. SNMP logging of essential elements of the console also allows potentially harmful conditions to be detected and fixed. In other words, most faults are fixed before they even become a reality.
If a fault cannot be corrected pre-emptively, the software is able to trace any failure down to an individual component on any card, or an individual line of software in roughly one million lines of code. SNMP remote diagnostics also allow engineers to receive warning of faults immediately, as well as allowing long term logging of console status for pre-emptive maintenance. About 10% of the console’s code consists of these watchdog routines and system diagnostics.
The console’s DSP has its own self-healing software, providing fast, fault-tolerant processing recovery: The computer checks the status of each DSP chip every sample period and is able to bypass, restart and re-engage any failed chip in under 200ms. If failures remain unresolved, the operator is given the option of continuing without that chip’s processing or swapping to any available redundant DSP, a process which takes 250ms.
100% proprietary, virus-proof systems
All console hardware and software is designed by SSL: The operating system, application software and hardware computer are proprietary to SSL, providing total protection against viruses, and removing any need for constant security updates and virus-checking, even when moving projects between rooms or facilities.
Extensive audio and control redundancy
In the unlikely event of a failure at any stage in the audio, control or graphics processing within the C100, backup systems are waiting in the wings to take-over:
- The C100 console, Blackrock processor, and routing and IO chasses all have dual redundant PSUs.
- Redundant system hard disks come as standard, with the option of a complete redundant processing core.
- MADI connections between the Blackrock processor and local IO can easily be configured for redundancy.
- Redundant Ethernet connections between the Blackrock processor and the front panel come as standard.
- Redundant touchscreen control and graphics cards are present on any console with 24+ faders, with an external mouse and keyboard providing further touchscreen control redundancy.
- Multiple Master Channels, and even complete channel bays, all provide redundancy for each other. Individual control surface tiles and bays can be disabled while on air, without affecting the audio, and their operation seamlessly transferred to other tiles/bays.