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Floating Earth Upgrades with SSL C200 Digital Production Console

Independent audio engineering service Floating Earth and Will Shapland Mobiles joint venture, Floating Earth Europe, has become the first company in the UK to invest in Solid State Logic’s new C200 digital production console.

The 96-input, 32-channel frame C200 has been installed in Floating Earth’s state of the art mobile truck. Within days of completing the installation the console was used to record the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, before moving to the Isle of Wight where Will Shapland completed a Virgin Radio and CCLab commission to record and supply a live stereo mix for TV and radio of the Isle of Wight Festival. Artists included Stereophonics, Groove Armada, The Who, David Bowie, Manic Street Preachers and Jet.

Floating Earth, established in 1987 and run by Mike Hatch and Steve Long, is based in Perivale, West London, where it has four post-production suites and executive production facilities, as well as workshops, offices, tape stores, listening facilities and equipment storage areas. In keeping with the company’s policy to always ensure the best possible audio quality, the Floating Earth mobile was designed with the very highest audio specification in mind, utilizing custom mic amps on a fibre link paralleled to the original console and multitrack of choice. Whilst this suited Floating Earth’s primarily classical recording and broadcast demands it wasn’t able to cope with the large-scale rock and pop events as recorded by Will Shapland.

Although it is best known for its ground-breaking classical recording projects, Floating Earth has recently been making inroads into the rock and pop worlds thanks to its collaboration with Will Shapland, who left Sanctuary in August 2003 after 17 years as senior engineer on Manor Mobiles and then Sanctuary Mobiles. Using a variety of commercial facilities for his freelance work, it soon became apparent that there was a shortage of high quality sound mobiles in the UK. Already fans of the SSL MT console, Will Shapland and his manager Zoe Fawcett-Eustace approached Steve Long with a view to collaborating on the installation of a new SSL C200 digital production console in Floating Earth’s truck.

Floating Earth director Steve Long explains that this collaboration was one of the main reasons why the company chose to replace its old console with an SSL C200. “We knew that we needed to upgrade the desk in the truck and were immediately drawn to the C200 because Will and our own engineers were all very familiar with SSL technology,” he explains. “The C200 does everything we need and more. It has 96 inputs as opposed to 48 and it also has fantastic 5.1 capabilities, which was an important consideration as we are handling an increasing number of 5.1 projects. Apart from that, it was also a question of logistics – the C200 is so compact that it fits perfectly into our truck while still offering exceptional audio quality and all the features we need.”

Will Shapland adds: “We now have a console that is fast enough to cope with the rigors of my multiband festival work and live broadcasting, is capable of the highest quality audio recording and is also a more powerful mixing/post production tool than is available in most ‘fixed’ studios. We have all this in a vehicle compact enough to get to most venues yet still retaining the interior operating space to rival anything in the UK.”

Commenting on the sale, SSL’s marketing director Niall Feldman says: “We’re very pleased to welcome Floating Earth into the worldwide fleet of SSL equipped mobile trucks. The C200 is a very versatile digital console, with a freelance friendly control surface. Complete automation and reset capabilities, full surround operation and acclaimed SSL sound quality will allow this new Floating Earth mobile to provide a solution to a very wide range of location challenges.”

Attention to audio quality combined with continued investment in the latest technological advances has enabled Floating Earth to achieve pre-eminence within the classical music industry. This position is confirmed by the fact that Floating Earth has been in receipt of a prestigious ‘Gramophone’ award for every year since it began trading. Two of these awards were given specifically for engineering quality. In addition the company has been awarded several Spellemann prizes (Norway), Deutsche Schallplatten awards (Germany) and numerous Grande Prix du Disques (France).

In recent years Floating Earth has undertaken a number of ambitious productions for television and film, to great critical acclaim. Its production for London Weekend Television, ‘Leaving Home’, received a BAFTA, and in 2002 ‘Trouble in Tahiti’ received the prestigious IMZ international TV award and was also nominated for a Grammy in the United States. In 2003 the company was responsible for the audio on Channel 4's ‘The Death of Klinghoffer which won the prestigious ‘Prix Italia’ for arts films. Finally, Floating Earth has also received platinum gold and silver discs by the BPI for a number of its recordings.

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Floating Earth Upgrades with SSL C200 Digital Production Console

25th June 2004

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