BROKEN ARROW, OKLA.—Kodiak Mobile
Television is a new mobile production
company and a sister to Kodiak Production
Group, a full-service production
company that handles both live and post
production work. We’ve learned from
experience that with the industry-wide
move to HD, many of today’s trucks are
really overkill for some clients. My business
partner, Paul Bronsteader, and I saw a
need for a smaller-scale OB truck to serve
clients that don’t need or can’t afford the
larger ones, and decided to design and
build our own.
UNIVERSAL AGREEMENT
Before we started construction, we
talked to existing and potential customers
about what they’d like to see in an OB
truck. The single most requested piece of
equipment was a Calrec console, so when
it came to audio, the choice was clear—we
ordered a Calrec Omega.
Our 160-channel console has 40 dual layer
faders and a 5.1 spill fader panel. The
configuration includes 64 AES inputs and
outputs, 64 analog inputs, 32 analog outputs,
and 256 channels of MADI in and out.
In our workflow, we send 128 channels via
MADI between the Omega console and
our routing switcher, with the router handling
the task of embedding audio feeds
into the video signals that we send to our
ISO recorders. We reserve 64 of our MADI
input and output channels on the Omega
to interface with other mobile units or facilities
we might be working with on-site
via connections in our I/O panel.
The Omega’s multichannel I/O capability
provides great flexibility. We can send
dozens of different mixes that
can be isolated for separate live
feeds, or recorded and sent to
postproduction. The ability to
create so many mixes from a single
console makes the Omega a
really powerful system.
AUDIO LOUDNESS MONITOR
One of the Omega features that
we find most valuable is the integration
of RTW’s TM7 TouchMonitor
surround sound analyzer and
loudness monitor. The 5.1 analyzer
is a tremendous asset, and having
this capability right at the console allows
us to monitor and make adjustments at the
truck, rather than having to deal with it further
down the transmission path or in post
production.
Another critical feature for us is the ability
to expand the console to use Calrec’s
powerful Hydra networking technology.
This allows us to interface with other Hydra
networks when we’re on location and
audio signals are being distributed from
larger trucks. Being able to connect with
those larger trucks via Hydra or MADI
makes us very flexible and opens up opportunities
to serve as a second or third
truck in side-by-side scenarios for large
productions.
Mobile production is the most brutal
production environment in television,
and Calrec consoles easily and reliably
stand up to the demands. Calrec has become
the de facto standard in the HD OB
industry, and as such, it’s easy to find operators
who know how to use them. That
means that freelance operators require
little to no user training, which saves everyone
time and money. Having Calrec
equipment in our truck bodes well for
our company. Customers have asked for
a Calrec, and we can now give them that
capability.
David Kearnes is co-owner of Kodiak
Mobile Television and Kodiak Production
Group. He has been in the industry since
1981. He may be contacted at david@kodiakmobile.tv.
For additional information, contact
Calrec at 310-220-9409 or visit www.calrec.com.