Calrec will introduce usability, customization and system enhancements across its entire range of Argo consoles during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Center.

Showcasing a suite of interconnected products and updates designed to help broadcasters adapt to dynamic broadcast environments, Calrec will demonstrate a live ecosystem made up of multiple Argo consoles, the modular Type R mixing system, the ImPulse processing core and the company’s ImPulseV virtualized cloud audio mixing engine, the company said.

With the company’s latest iteration of True Control 2.0 providing bi-directional control and connectivity throughout the stand, Calrec’s IBC presentation will focus on the creative ways broadcasters can introduce flexible workflow combinations to their infrastructures, it said.

Calrec will show its Argo M platform, a compact and portable IP mixing solution designed to meet the full spectrum of live broadcast production demands. Available in a 24- and 36-fader footprint, Argo M maximizes desk space.

Featuring full-sized fader strips with wild controls built to handle demanding productions in limited space, Argo M is a high-performance, plug-and-play control surface with a full range of SMPTE ST2110 and cloud connectivity out of the box.

At IBC 2025, Calrec will also preview a new software update for its Argo consoles. The company will also demonstrate its 48-fader Argo S console paired with an ImPulse DSP core. Argo S is a modular, IP-native audio console available in two height variants.

Calrec’s new v1.4 Argo software introduces enhanced routing strip functionality that allows users to see every fader’s routing simultaneously on the touch screen. It also enables users to switch rows of physical controls to other strip modes, such as EQ, Dyn or Pan, and enables Argo Q to support two sets of custom wild panels per section.

The update also supports DAW control of MIDI on the Argo platform and makes improvements to NMOS Control, status updates and monitoring and interfacing with Calrec Connect.

The demonstration of True Control 2.0 will underscore its ability to control any Calrec system from any location.

True Control 2.0 gives broadcasters far greater levels of remote control without the limitations of mirroring or parallel controlling, delivering full feature-set control parameters that include EQ, dynamics, routing, direct outputs and delay. It allows broadcasters to scale their production ecosystems quickly to meet changing production requirements, facilitating any combination of distributed production workflows and a deep level of remote control. A single controller can access up to five other consoles or processing cores at the same time.

See Calrec at IBC2025 Stand 8.C47.

More information is available on the company’s website.

HEBDEN BRIDGE, U.K.—Calrec Audio has promoted Sid Stanley to managing director. Stanley, who joined the company in July 2018 as general manager, has been instrumental in guiding it through major developmental changes as the broadcast industry continues to embrace remote and distributed production and transition to new ways of working, the company said.

Prior to joining Calrec, Stanley held senior leadership positions at several companies in the media and entertainment space including channel director, EMEA, North America and China, Barco; general manager, Sony Broadcast & Professional Europe; and managing director, Maverick.

“During the last seven years, the speed of change in live broadcast has accelerated dramatically,” Stanley said. “Calrec has been there to help its customers to stay ahead of those changes by delivering innovative technology to allow them to solve the evolving challenges global broadcasters face. It’s an honor to lead such a prestigious company, which has achieved much success over the years, and to work with our strong team. It’s these people who deliver the innovation, and it’s a privilege to be in a position to ensure that we keep doing this.”

“Calrec is over 60 years old and its DNA will never change; it has always been and will persist to be fully focused on broadcast audio,” he added. “The company is dedicated to always having an intimate understanding of the needs of the market and customers and, of course, making sure its solutions are fit for purpose for life. Calrec has played a significant role in the transition to creating new, flexible workflows and will continue to develop and deliver advanced solutions as we head further into this new age of audio broadcast.”

Stanley’s promotion follows a successful NAB Show, where the company introduced its second-generation remote production technology, True Control 2.0. Allowing broadcasters to control any system from anywhere, True Control 2.0 is an adaptive IP ecosystem that enables broadcasters to embrace distributed production, minimize costs and scale resources on the fly.

TV Tech: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trends at the 2025 NAB Show?
Sid Stanley: Media consumption is constantly shifting, and broadcasters face increasing competition for subscribers as well as reductions in advertising revenue. With on-demand and social content gaining more ground in the battle for viewers, broadcasters need ways to create more content with the same resources.

The days of fixed processing infrastructures are over, and broadcasters are building in robust connectivity and flexibility to allow them to scale up or down production resources and flex their requirements in more cost-effective ways. This allows them to not only cover more content, but more niche events and distributed production models that can quickly combine on-prem, on-edge and cloud resources with minimal or no additional investment. This will be a major theme at NAB.

Meanwhile, delivering control to all this new content is just as important, and Next Generation Audio (NGA) output configurations like personalization are already adding value for viewers. Having a range of distributed control interfaces that can be located anywhere, or tied into automation software to simplify workflows, will also be big news at the show. Distributed production has undoubtedly encouraged a spike in direct-to-consumer (DTC) and OTT content, but audio quality is still paramount and broadcasters still need to consider all the output configurations.

TVT: What will be your most important product news?
SS: Calrec is expanding the company’s product ecosystem across three new product ranges and is introducing a suite of new interconnected products and updates to help broadcasters meet a variety of challenges.

Connecting Calrec’s entire IP range to facilitate distributed production across multiple products, True Control 2.0 is a second-generation remote production technology that can control any system from anywhere. It provides access to more cores, more faders, more surfaces and more control from any location, and at NAB we’re adding Apollo+ and Artemis+ into the True Control 2.0 family. By expanding the number of products it works with, True Control 2.0 gives broadcasters unparalleled flexibility to scale as their production demands grow and shrink. It is compatible with Argo M, Calrec’s latest compact IP broadcast audio console with built-in DSP and I/O and GPIO, and users can add additional external DSP paths with ImPulse, ImPulse1 and ImPulseV.

Calrec is debuting an aux booster upgrade path to provide extra bussing on the ImPulse and ImPulse1 DSP cores, as well as on all three Argo consoles. We’re also packing in more functionality across the entire Argo platform with MIDI to support DAW control.

Calrec’s Type R mixing system is also upgraded, providing access to new features including off-air record, enhanced GPIO talkback, monitor selector follow, mix minus bus user labels and a large DSP pack with 32 aux buses.

Finally, Calrec is showing the ImPulseV cloud-based audio mixing solution, which delivers premium audio quality alongside Calrec’s full broadcast feature set.

TVT: How is your new product different from what’s available on the market?
SS: Connectivity is everything, and for the first time Calrec’s full range of IP-native products can seamlessly connect wherever they are, taking remote and distributed productions to new levels.

True Control 2.0 delivers expanded levels of control in two key areas. Firstly, it gives users far greater levels of remote control without the limitations of mirroring or parallel controlling, with control of an expanded feature set including EQ, dynamics, routing, direct outputs and delay. More fundamentally, it gives broadcasters and content providers the ability to scale their productions with workflow combinations that allow them to increase content output at the same time as reducing costs.

It also works seamlessly with Calrec’s ImpulseV cloud-based DSP software, which had its development preview at NAB Show in 2024, to provide a virtualized mixing engine in a cloud-native AWS environment. Accessed from anywhere in the world, it can be controlled through Calrec’s Assist web UI on a standard browser, or from any True Control 2.0 enabled console.

This new ecosystem and comprehensive suite of products empowers broadcasters to flex resources to meet the demands of large broadcast events with a mix of capex and economical opex models. It enables content providers to deliver a wider range of events which may not previously have been economically viable.

TVT: What is it about the NAB Show that brings you back every year?
SS: We’ve attended the NAB show every year since the 1990s, and it has always given us an opportunity to reconnect with a wide range of partners, from end users, customers, operators, engineers, and network designers to system integrators and fellow manufacturers. For us this is fundamental; Calrec’s broad range of products aims to meet all our customers’ needs and NAB Show is the best international event to give us face-to-face access with everyone in the broadcast chain. The feedback we get from NAB is invaluable and it all feeds back directly into our extensive R&D teams. In fact, it’s why we always have product development teams on the floor at every show.

Our whole industry demographic is changing and what NAB does really well is showcase the evolving broadcast landscape. It does this by delivering a broad depth of content that we, as exhibitors, get immense value from; it enables us to keep across how to adapt our technology into these new environments.

SOUTH BEND, Ind.–Founded in November 1842, the University of Notre Dame is America’s leading Catholic, undergraduate research institution. It’s home to approximately 8,900 undergraduate students, 4,200 graduate/professional students, and hosts several of the United States’ most renowned athletics teams. Collectively known as the “Fighting Irish,” as their sporting prowess has developed, so has the desire to produce better live game coverage.

Built in 2017, our Notre Dame Studios production facility was designed to be a fully IP from the start, however it’s not part of the athletics department. As part of the Office of Informational Technology (OIT), we’re a centralized production facility that serves all of the Notre Dame campus. We produce a variety of events year-round, ranging from performing arts and academic events to weekly coverage of the Catholic Mass from the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.

Our Calrec Installs
Our three studios encompass a range of content, from simple studio shoots to linear broadcasts, covering approximately 125 annual athletic contests for ESPN’s ACC Network. More recently we have provided the backbone for all of Notre Dame’s home ice hockey games to NBC’s Peacock streaming service.

Our commitment to NBC made us rethink our audio infrastructure. The sheer number of microphones we have in place around the rink, combined with providing content between periods, means we produce a whole professional show for NBC. We knew we needed to upgrade to provide the level of audio quality that NBC required.

After seeking advice from our own A1, Garry Elghammer, as well as several visiting NBC A1s with whom we share feeds, we installed a Calrec Artemis audio console, Type R surface and IP ImPulse cores into our Rex and Alice A. Martin Media Center. The Artemis is installed in Audio Control Room 2 (ACR2), the Type R is in ACR1, and we operate three smaller control rooms that use Axia Fusion consoles.

The Artemis is the heart of the entire audio system, and it’s when covering hockey that we really stretch its legs! It’s a 48-fader console with an empty bay that will enable us to extend to 56 faders in the future, which is NBC’s minimum requirement for football coverage. It has redundant ImPulse cores, which not only allow us to maintain our full IP workflows but means that the whole Notre Dame facility can interoperate on the same SMPTE 2110 network, whether that’s an audio product like Calrec or Axia, or a video product like Evertz.

Network Flexibility
We have a modular I/O unit in the equipment room for interfacing, a 32x32 EDAC I/O unit in ACR2, a 12x4 fixed format I/O box located in one of our studios, and three portable 24x8 fixed format units that we use around campus. It enables us to work like a REMI; with fiber operating between all our venues we can facilitate various types of productions. It makes bringing in all the different audio feeds really easy, and it means that the Calrec network benefits the whole university and not just athletics.

With I/O boxes strategically placed across campus, we have enough flexibility to cover a variety of events. ACR1’s Type R is a more compact 36 fader surface but has all the features of a larger production console, enabling us to mix for shows for ESPN, and it’s well understood by visiting A1s, which increases the pool of contractors/freelancers we can use.

Our Calrec IP infrastructure enables us to flex our network when required to service the whole university. We’re also committed to training the next generation in all areas of broadcast, even non-broadcast students are learning operational skills to give them valuable, real-world paid experience in professional audio with many students seriously considering a career in broadcast.

For more information on Calrec visit https://calrec.com.

It will come as no surprise that artificial intelligence (AI), virtualization and the cloud will be the major trends dominating the agenda at this year’s NAB Show. This applies as much to audio as it does to the visually oriented contingent that will be at the exhibition but the sound side is seeing some very different or specific applications of these shared technologies.

When it comes to audio mixing consoles, virtualization and cloud processing are “weekly conversations,” according to Henry Goodman, director of product management at Calrec Audio. “The majority of people want to talk about what will happen in the future with those technologies and how they might benefit from those kinds of workflows,” he says.

Another hot topic, Goodman adds, is, almost inevitably, AI. “It’s an area we’re all  looking at with a great deal of interest,” he comments, “and we’re looking at it to see how it can provide benefits for us.

“On the console side, the area that would interest us is providing facilities that offer some kind of assistive mechanisms for the operators. It could be for balancing external feeds coming in or providing standardized EQ for certain types of microphones. It’s not something that is at the forefront of our development programme right now but we’re definitely keeping a close eye on it.”

AI and cloud processing were highlighted by other manufacturers in TV Tech’s focus on audio mixing consoles in the January edition of TV Tech ("Audio Mixing in the Age of Remote Production") As with many technologies, virtualized mixing and processing is not an entirely new technology; it is now being used increasingly in radio, with Telos Alliance company Axia supplying consoles for one of the first implementations, the BBC ViLOR project, completed in 2019.

‘Headless Mixing’
Martin Dyster, vice president of business development for TV at Telos Alliance, highlights another trend that, although it first appeared elsewhere in the world decades ago, is now gaining traction in the U.S.

 “Audio follow Video [AFV] is becoming increasingly prevalent, particularly in live news at local stations,” he says. (The AFV concept  involves automatically adjusting the timing of audio signals to match the timing of corresponding video signals.)

“In some instances the consoles aren’t even a surface, they’re completely under the automation control of the orchestration layer managing the show,” Dyster adds. “This kind of ‘headless’ mixing is not new but the U.S. has caught up with it and it’s becoming widespread there.”

Similarly, Dyster continues, Europe is ahead of the U.S. when it comes to immersive audio, although NBC has broadcast Olympics in some form of immersive audio for the past decades. 

Christian Struck, senior product manager for audio production at Lawo, comments that broadcasters are currently demanding “intuitive and comprehensive immersive audio features,” with the ability to mix over wide area networks plus support for decentralized mixing involving several consoles.

“Just when immersive audio looked all set to take the world by storm, it was put on the back burner by the pandemic,” Struck says. “But it is back in full force, thanks to the ready availability of playback devices, including smartphones and binaural headphones.”

The IP Network
The last few NAB Shows have seen the growth in products that conform to SMPTE ST 2110 for the transport of media streams over IP networks. But, as Phil Owens, senior sales engineer at Wheatstone, outlines, the cloud is the next challenge for the standard.

“We have seen the whole issue of 2110 environments, where a physical installation has two distinct networks, with audio and video on each,” he says. “The audio goes to both simultaneously, so if there is a drop-out on one, it picks up from the other instantly within a frame of audio. But there is now the issue of how a 2110 environment will work in the cloud, which is still in its early stages.”

Wheatstone is also devoting what Owens calls “a great deal of R&D” in its Layers cloud/server software platform for mixing, streaming and processing either at cloud data centers or local servers. However, he also sees more emphasis being put on voice processing, particularly for news and sports coverage.

“Broadcasters can get away with less acoustic treatment or design in the studio and report from environments that they might not have broadcast from in the past because the mic processor can cover a multitude of sins,” Owens said.

Larry Schindel, product manager at Telos Alliance, agrees that processing is “quickly moving” into the virtualized space. “Cloud processing is gaining in popularity as more workflows migrate to the cloud,” he says. “But there is still a large base of customers who prefer to keep everything ‘on prem’ or at least use a bit of a hybrid approach.

“Some of the more common types of processing in use today are loudness control and upmixing but processes like Object-based Audio with Serial ADM [a metadata format for use with Dolby Atmos] and automatic voice-over mixing are also starting to emerge in the marketplace,” Schindel adds.

Software-Driven Processing
Loudness will again be a focus for NUGEN Audio during the NAB Show, with previews of the latest version of its VisLM3 metering plug-in. New features include user-defined program segments, which can be used where multiple integrated measurements are required, such as between ad breaks; support for up to 22.2 audio channels; stem monitoring; and loudness measuring for individual deliverables.

Professional audio is definitely seeing a “shift towards software-driven processing,” according to Will Waters, principal product manager at Audinate. This, he says, “underlines the industry’s commitment to leveraging advanced technology” to meet the evolving demands of broadcast production.

Waters also sees software processors having an increasing role on the intercom side of broadcast production. “This offers broadcasters even more versatility and efficiency in managing their intercom solutions,” he explains. “The evolution of broadcast technology, especially with digital and IP-based systems, has significantly impacted intercom.

“We’re now seeing Dante as part of intercom communications by being integrated into the networked audio infrastructure, enabling any number of audio mixes or routes to exist from the production equipment,” Waters added.

Staying Connected
IP-based intercoms are now well established but, as Martin Dyster at Telos observes, the sector continues to evolve.

“We’ve found an increasing number of customers moving towards either full Live Cloud Production (LCP) or a hybrid of on prem and cloud,” Dyster said. “From the finance angle, and perhaps surprisingly, we’ve witnessed most of our customers adopt the Infinity VIP system via a one-time buyout capital purchase route. But we have also seen increasing interest in subscription models, especially where the intercom is associated with a cloud-driven video production system like Grass Valley AMPP or Viz.”

Some intercom manufacturers were quicker to offer IP systems than others but now all the major brands have at least one system based on the technology.

“I think IP is now firmly in place,” comments Marco Lopez, vice president of engineering at Clear-Com. “There was a natural progression of first standardizing the way we were distributing audio signals across the various infrastructures and now those are being used for digital audio that could be wired but is also a means of achieving wireless audio connectivity where, typically, you would have had to build a network of antennas, especially for very large scale events with many users connecting to that environment.

“From a technology point of view it’s all about the standards now, ensuring we have good connectivity and integration using ST 2110, along with NMOS support. as well as AES67 and Dante,” Lopez added.

With such a variety of technologies and applications to investigate and discuss, it could be that audio is something of a trendsetter in Las Vegas this year (again). 

Register for the 2024 NAB Show, April 14-17 in Las Vegas at https://nabshow.com/2024/

Audio mixing is and will always be a key component of live broadcast production. How, where and on what kind of equipment it is carried out in the future is not entirely certain but trends are emerging and technology is being established that already give some indication of how the audio console is evolving to meet the changing requirements of broadcasters.

For the time being at least there is still a definite need for big, physical multiple fader sound desks, most especially on large-scale, prestige broadcasts such as premium sports events and entertainment shows. The difference, according to Henry Goodman, director of product management at Calrec Audio, is where the mixing surface is located and where the processing takes place.

‘Distributed Production’
“What we’re seeing is a break in the geographical connection of the control room having to be where the studio is and the operator having to be at the venue,” he says. “If you don’t have to physically tie your operator to the venue or a truck, you can put them in a nicely built studio where they have the space to monitor properly with all the necessary equipment. That changes how you can manage the operator and the equipment, as well as providing greater consistency in the mixing.”

Software and the cloud play major roles in this new arrangement, which Goodman prefers to call distributed production rather than remote production.

“It’s not just remote, it is distributing the different elements of the production in different places,” he explains. “The cloud part is another step along that way. Instead of having your physical DSP processing next to the console or in a central control room, you have it either in a public cloud or on COTS hardware that’s under your control, replacing the traditional DSP engine with a software-based engine. 

“Quite a few of the broadcasters we’re talking to are not necessarily totally sold on public clouds, so building their own private cloud and running software on that in an agile way is quite appealing,” he added.

Calrec’s parent group, Audiotonix, has produced a technology Proof of Concept (PoC) for audio cloud processing that is now providing what is described as the “backbone” of live broadcast consoles being developed by both Calrec and fellow subsidiary Solid State Logic (SSL). 

For Calrec, it involves a RP1 remote production unit at the venue linked to an Argo mixing surface in a control room over Dante Connect, with an Audiotonix New Heights audio DSP mix engine in AWS Cloud. 

“When we started thinking about what we needed for cloud processing we looked across the group for technology we could use, which is why it’s seen as an Audiotonix development,” Goodman says. “Calrec and SSL are working on it at the moment because we’re both operating in the broadcast sector and it’s mainly broadcasters that are driving the need to get audio processing in the cloud.”

Best of Both Worlds
Other leading broadcast audio console manufacturers are also adding their own takes on how to provide more flexibility by splitting up the various aspects of the mix process and putting a substantial part of it in the cloud. Wheatstone’s Layers Software Suite brings mixing, processing and streaming capabilities to any server, either on premises or in an AWS or other cloud data center. 

Senior Sales Engineer Phil Owens comments that in a “typical console system” today, which will be based on audio over IP (AoIP), some of it can be easily virtualized and other parts of it will remain physical.

“But you want the part that’s physical to work in your dream system in the cloud at some point,” he says. “For this we have virtualized the guts of some of our consoles. By that I mean when you sit at a physical console and push a switch or raise a fader, there’s CPU hardware in that console that’s telling the rest of the system what you did. 

“When you virtualize that, you’re still going to push a switch or raise a fader but it’s going to be on a touchscreen and those commands still have to have a CPU that tells the rest of the system you took those action,” Owens continued. “So we have the console virtualized to the extent it will run on a Linux server and you interface to it via a touchscreen, which can communicate with a server in the next room or the next town or in the cloud.”

Lawo has developed the HOME IP management platform as the basis of its audio mixing systems, with various apps for different requirements.

“We have not decided to nudge our customers in any particular direction,” says Christian Struck, senior product manager for audio production. “While these containerized microservices can run in the public cloud if users so wish, they are as effective on standard servers in a data center as on-prem. We like to call data centers that can be accessed from just about anywhere in the world a ‘private cloud,’ which is easier to protect and more affordable with respect to ingress and egress costs.”

Just Getting Started
Even with this activity, it can be said that— as Martin Dyster, vice president of business development for TV at Telos Alliance observes—these are still early days for software and cloud-based mixing. 

Dyster highlights the Audiotonix New Heights project and AWS’s involvement with audio companies, adding Telos is also working with the cloud platform but more for its virtual intercom system. 

“Audio has been left behind when it comes to cloud production and we’re all playing catch up right now,” he says. “I’ve been involved with the cloud for about three years through the comms platform and have become very aware that the landscape around us for cloud-based mixing has been pretty sparse. 

“A lot of broadcasters we talked to early on were using things like REAPER [digital audio workstation] but we weren’t seeing the major console brands you might expect. That’s starting to change now but it’s still not a well populated landscape and it will be interesting to see what develops over the next five years.”

Dyster notes that the concept of a virtualized console is picking up more in radio, with Telos’s Axia Altus virtual cloud mixer now being used for some applications on that side of broadcasting. While TV and radio sound desks are different animals, there is now more crossover between the two areas due to the growth of visualization in radio, with cameras now becoming more common in on-air studios. 

“Features like automix are an absolute standard now,” he says. “Automation control from third party orchestration layers is more requested, particularly with visual radio and algorithms that can automate based on the schedule of the show, so the console cuts itself to some extent, with more audio-follow-video features.”

What About AI?
As with all broadcast production technologies, many are now considering what influence or impact artificial intelligence (AI) might have on audio consoles. Dyster points to specialized mixing systems from Salsa Sound and LAMA Mix, which provide features such as ball tracking for sports coverage, automixing and monitoring for language recognition. 

Lawo’s Christian Struck adds that “there is no doubt AI will find its way into future audio mixing consoles or their DSP engines,” while Wheatstone’s Phil Owens says that although AI is working its way into the broadcast workflow, it hasn’t hit audio yet. 

But it does have potential. 

“What AI can do for sound is provide the basis for plug-ins that perform noise cancellation. When you apply an AI to that job it gets better at doing it, recognizing noise as opposed to signal,” Owens said.

Henry Goodman at Calrec agrees it is an interesting area and one people are looking at to see what benefits it can bring.

“On the console side, the area that interests us is having facilities providing assistive mechanisms for the operators, whether that’s balancing external feeds coming in or standardized EQ for specific microphones,” he said. “It’s something we’re keeping a close eye on but it’s not at the forefront of our development right now.”

All of which makes the audio console the gear to keep watching, if only to see where it ends up in the broadcast center. 

MURFREESBORO, Tenn.—At Middle Tennessee State University, our broadcast audio advances and remote production accomplishments have been rapidly evolving.  A prime example of this happened in June during the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn., where more than 80,000 fans took in 135 scheduled acts on six primary stages over a non-stop four-day weekend. The experience of seeing and hearing multiple overlapping shows, especially amongst the kaleidoscopic lights of “‘Roo” at night, is exhilarating and dizzying. 

However, if the crowds, sound levels and smells of a live music festival aren’t your speed, there was a streaming alternative on Hulu, which broadcast two channels of Bonnaroo programming over the same four days with live and time-shifted coverage of 71 selected performances.  

It takes a national level crew of producers and craft professionals to create 70 consistent hours of great-looking, great sounding, high-definition multicamera concert television. But who would have guessed that 29 of the streamed performances, originating from two separate Bonnaroo stages—sometimes at the same time—were switched and mixed entirely by a crew of university students in a 40-foot expando box truck nearly half a mile from NEP’s mobile units in the master control compound?  

Emerging Artistry
In 2014, when this story begins, the College of Media and Entertainment at MTSU hosted a symposium on music festival management that opened the door to an educational partnership with Bonnaroo. I became the coordinator and audio supervisor on a faculty/staff team that taught nearly 100 students over the next five years how to mix, shoot, engineer, and direct live performance coverage of Bonnaroo’s “emerging artist” stage. 

What began next as a limited plan in 2018 to replace the truck console and deploy digitally networked field boxes led to another opportunity thanks to Calrec. We made a transformational investment in not just one but three digital broadcast audio consoles with associated I/O equipment to support broader collaboration and training on premises as well as in the mobile unit.  We certainly didn’t know how relevant distributed production and remote integration would become within the next year.  

Breaking the Mold
During peak-Covid, we used our Calrec Summa-32 and Brio-36 consoles in a variety of linked and independent configurations across the MTSU campus on dark fiber Hydra2 networks and within the College of Media and Entertainment’s studios. The equipment and its unique capabilities also helped us launch a new broadcast audio production course.  

We broke the mold again at Bonnaroo in 2022 when we were asked to go live and produce several mainstage EDM acts for that year’s Hulu broadcast. Not only did we shoot more total performance hours than any previous season, we spanned more than 3,000 feet with a dozen video lines and over 100 audio channels to reach both the EDM stage and our alternate venue, thanks to our Calrec upgrades.    

To achieve simultaneous broadcasts from two stages in 2023, we implemented two fully independent video production switchers, a complex audio traffic scheme with multitrack recording, and independent audio program mixing, monitoring and QC, thanks in huge part to the flexibility of the Brio’s split console layers, dual inputs per channel, multiple main buses and Calrec Fader Assist. 

For more information visit https://calrec.com/

HEBDEN BRIDGE, U.K.—Calrec has unveiled its ImPulse 1 IP audio processing and routing engine, a smaller, but powerful, SMPTE ST 2110 version of its ImPulse core.

The cost-effective ImPulse 1 IP comes in a compact 1U form factor and offers a second, optional core for redundancy. The 128-input channel digital signal processor (DSP) offers entry-level pricing, the company said.

Since the introduction of Calrec’s ImPulse IP core four years ago, the industry has broadly adopted IP. However, cost has remained a constraint, the company said. 

The ImPulse 1 makes the move to IP more attainable. The new solution offers a range of options to suit various budget requirements. ImPulse 1 works with Calrec’s Argo Q and Argo S control surfaces and Calrec Assist, the company’s browser-based GUI that’s well-suited for remote, multi-operator or headless operations. Cores with smaller DSP license are available without hardware redundancy, it said.  

"Broadcasters are under pressure to improve workflows in the move to ST 2110 and reduce costs whilst still demonstrating ROI. With this in mind, we have introduced a cost-effective and compact 1U solution with an optional second core for redundancy and a range of DSP options, including a new 128-channel DSP pack.”

Designed for small to medium-range single mixer applications, ImPulse 1 is offered with a new DSP license with 128 input channels. Its small form factor makes the ImPulse 1 a good fit for small spaces, such as those in an OB truck or a flypack. DSP options range from 128 to 384 input channels, it said.

“With the addition of Argo and ImPulse1, we are able to help broadcasters of any size navigate the move to ST2110 with a range of solutions, price points and a pace that suits them,” said Letson.

Twin core hardware redundancy or optional single core systems are available with ST 2022-7 as standard, Calrec said.

• Up to 672 processing paths.
• Native AES67/SMPTE ST 2110-30 connectivity.
• ST 2110-30 connections can operate in 1Gbps or 10Gbps mode.
• Built-in support for NMOS IS-04 advertisements and IS-05 connection managements.
• Max router capacity of 2,048 x 2,048.
• Up to 512 ST 2110 streams. Each stream can pass between 1 and 80 audio channels.
• Surface connectivity via IP, so surfaces can be physically remote, connected over COTS networks and supplemented with Assist web UI for multi operator, remote or headless use.

More information is available on the Calrec website.

LYNCHBURG, Va.—At Liberty University, we have an active and growing Digital Media and Journalism department, and for this we need best-in-class technology to help our students thrive in areas such as media production, broadcast journalism, sound design and audio engineering.

That is why we work with Calrec audio consoles, and it explains why our roster of Calrec solutions is growing. Currently, we use Calrec’s Type R for Radio, Summa, Artemis and several Brio consoles. 

Our most recent expansion of Calrec technology includes a trio of new consoles including Artemis and Brio consoles and we’ve gone remote with the addition of Calrec’s VP2 virtualized mixing system. 

Hands-On Experience
The Calrec equipment is used across a variety of live and pre-recorded sports and entertainment shows as well as providing students one-on-one broadcast audio training on industry-standard technology. Students receive hands-on experience on Calrec consoles and the opportunity to operate as an A1 on certain productions. Additionally, academic classes can utilize the school’s production control rooms during classes.

More specifically, the consoles are being used to live stream various NCAA Division 1 sport competitions on ESPN+ as well as three linear FBS Football Broadcasts on other ESPN networks. We also use the studios for our weekly Emmy Award-winning syndicated live sports talk show “Flames Central,” as well as for more corporate and entertainment shows. This includes Liberty University Convocation, which is hosting guests this semester such as Dr. Tony Evans, journalist Shannon Bream, and New York Times Best Selling author Jon Acuff.  There is also a music component to these shows, with a full band that can include up to eight vocalists.

Type R for Radio was purchased as part of a new radio studio build and is being used for live radio shows and podcast recordings. The second Brio was purchased to upgrade a smaller control room, and the second Artemis replaced a Summa console, which was moved into our mobile production unit. We also wanted both of our main production control rooms to have the same console, making it even easier to move shows between rooms. 

Virtualized Mixing 
We purchased Calrec’s VP2 based on what we experienced and learned while doing production during the Covid-19 pandemic. The VP2 is a virtualized mixing system with no physical control surface; it uses Calrec’s Assist software for setup and control so that we can work even more flexibly. Working with Calrec’s shared Hydra2 network router core allows us to adapt to whatever we are tasked with so we’re able to accomplish a lot of different projects with little lead time.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of using Calrec is the ability to quickly build a show from scratch, while the integration with Evertz via Hydra2 to TDM allows us to have 1,536 channels going from our six Calrec consoles to our router, providing an incredible amount of versatility.

Calrec really does have a solution for every broadcast requirement, including radio, alongside a variety of networked and virtual products, and the work that we’re doing here Liberty University is certainly proof of that. 

It’s incredibly rewarding for us to be able to prepare our students for a future in a professional broadcast environment, and we have Calrec to thank for that.  

For more information visit https://calrec.com/.

U.K. professional audio vendor Calrec has responded to social media chatter that claim the company supports Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 

“Recently we have received many comments via social media that mistakenly claim Calrec are in some way supporting Russian state aggression,” the company said in a statement. “Calrec, like the rest of the world, continue to watch the unjust situation in Ukraine with utter sadness and disbelief. What continues to occur is completely at odds with the values that we stand for. 

“As a company, we maintain stringent compliance controls and immediately took steps to cease all commercial activities in Russia and Belarus,’ the statement continued. “Whilst we all look to a better future, our support continues to our friends and colleagues in Ukraine.”

While it is unclear as to the basis for such criticisms, the company counts Russia State TV & Radio VGTRK among its customers; the company appears to have taken down press releases regarding its business with the state broadcaster from its website. 

This tweet, in particular, criticizes both Calrec and Ross Video: 

Shortly after the invasion, Ross was among several companies in the M&E tech sector that announced cessation of business in Russia. A statement of support for Ukraine released at the time by President David Ross is now pinned to the top of its Twitter feed.

LAS VEGAS—Calrec will be showing a new version of Calrec Assist, multiple console software and a Type R Talent Panel and GPIO Box at the 2022 NAB Show, April 23-27. 

ImPulse: Multi-console operations
At its booth, Calrec will run three independent consoles from a fully redundant pair of ImPulse cores; a 48 dual fader Apollo console, a 40 fader Artemis console and a headless console running Calrec Assist on a PC.

ImPulse—which features native SMPTE ST 2110 connectivity—is "the most powerful DSP engine on the planet," according to Calrec. It’s compatible with the Calrec Assist web interface as well as Calrec’s Apollo and Artemis consoles to provide a simple upgrade path for existing Calrec customers moving to an IP domain. It provides 3D immersive path widths and panning for next-generation audio with height and 3D pan controls, flexible panning and downmixing built-in.

ImPulse allows up to four independent mixing environments to run from a single core, wherever in the world it’s located, and each independent mixer can access up to 1458 paths.

Calrec Assist is a browser-based interface that creates a virtual console environment allowing operators to mix directly from a computer or laptop. It’s compatible with a range of Calrec products to help broadcasters streamline workflows, improve cost efficiency, and expand the variety of coverage.

Calrec’s flexible Type R will sit on the same IP network, as will the Brio console, connected via an AoIP box. Calrec’s AoIP and Gateway boxes give Calrec users on a Hydra2 network the ability to merge onto an IP network, providing continued value as well as allow users to tap into the benefits of IP workflows. Gateway technology also lessens the learning curve for operators and allows broadcasters to transition at their own pace, the company said.

New: Type R Talent Panel and GPIO Box
Calrec’s Type R is a mixing console designed to allow customers to take advantage of distributed production and flexible workflows. Its integrated native IP core provides virtual working practices and integration with station automation systems like Ross Overdrive, Sony ELC and Grass Valley Ignite. 

Type R can provide fully automated programming with real-time adjustment of external factors via a standard web browser, and its small and highly portable hardware elements can be quickly added if required. 

Powered by standard POE switches, Type R has just three panel options; banks of 6 x faders can be added, as well as user definable soft panels like Calrec’s Large Soft Panel (LSP) and Small Soft Panel (SSP). 

Talent Panel
Also new is Talent Panel, a compact unit that allows guests to switch between multiple sources via its integrated hi-res TFT and adjust headphone volume with a dedicated rotary control. Four switches allow for the panel to be customized to the individual user with common functions like talkback and cough switches; this ensures only essential controls are close to hand. 

Easily mounted into furniture and with connections over standard cat5, the Talent Panel acts as an AoIP endpoint and can be quickly configured, and multiple devices can be added quickly wherever they are required, Calrec said.

Calrec will also introduce a new GPIO unit for Type R which delivers an additional 32 x GPOs and 32 GPIs for interfacing with external systems such as playout, phone systems, codecs etc. Functionality can be added onto physical buttons on Type R fader panels, soft panels or web UIs, and configured via Calrec’s user-friendly Connect application.  

Targeting remote production, Calrec’s 2U RP1 remote production unit features RP1, a remotely controlled processing engine that allows dedicated control rooms to be used to mix feeds from multiple remote venues, providing more live coverage with minimal resources. 

Calrec will also debut its new Brio 36 Duet plug-and-play broadcast console, which comes with internal Hydra2 connectivity, comprehensive built-in IO and 96 input channels as standard. The Brio 36 Medley package includes everything on a Brio Duet plus a Dante 64 card or MADI I/O module, and an external Br.IO box with 24 mic/line inputs, 16 analogue outputs & 8 AES I/O.

Calrec will be in Booth C8008.

For more information on the 2022 NAB Show, visit nabshow.com/2022/

SALT LAKE CITY—Utah’s PBS station, KUED, recently installed a Calrec Audio Brio 36 to boost its studio-based productions via an upgrade to a 5.1 native broadcast audio console.

The Brio 36 was selected for KUED by William Montoya, the station’s audio team leader. Montoya highlights the console’s built-in audio mixing and surround capabilities. Additional benefits of the unit include its simple navigation and user interface that helped with the station’s transition from its old console, as well as its small form-factor.

Montoya says that KUED is considering adding additional I/O for other rooms at the station.

LAS VEGAS—Calrec Audio is putting an emphasis on its virtualized systems at this year’s NAB Show, announcing that it will feature the latest updates to its VP2 headless mixing system, the RP1 2U rackmount broadcast mixing system and its modular IP-based Type R system at its booth.

The VP2 mixing system has no physical control surface and utilizes Calrec’s Assist software for setup and control. The unit’s 4U core comes in DSP sizes of 128, 180 and 240 input channels and incorporates Calrec’s Hydra2 networking system. With Calrec Serial Control Protocol, the audio console can be controlled by an automation system.

The 2U rackmount box of the RP1 system contains Calrec’s Bluefin2 processing. The RP1 is designed to assist with latency, transport and control issues in remote production workflows. Its on-board DSP enables the generation of monitor mixes and IFBs onsite with no latency; while Hydra2 interfaces provide a way to output audio in different formats; and True Control allows for direct control over channel functions from a remote studio.

The Type R IP-based mixing system uses standard networking technology combined with configurable soft panels that can be tailored to an operator’s needs. It can be customized across established networks, has open control protocols and surface personalization. Type R can be used without a physical surface with control and setup via Calrec’s Assist application, as well as being compatible with automated systems using CSCP.

Calrec Audio will be located at booth C7408 during the NAB Show. To register for the NAB Show, visit www.nabshow.com.

LAS VEGAS—As broadcasters continue to embrace IP, Calrec Audio is putting the spotlight on its native IP products for fully integrated workflows during the 2019 NAB Show. Front and center will be Calrec’s ImPulse core and Type R platforms.

ImPulse core is an audio processing and routing engine with AES67 and SMPTE 2110 connectivity. The ImPulse is compatible with Apollo and Artemis control surfaces, while future scalable expansion allows for up to four DSP mix engines and control systems to run independently on a single core at the same time. Other offerings include 3D immersive path widths and panning for next generation audio applications. The system also has an integral AoIP router that supports NMOS discovery, connection management and mDNS/Ravenna discovery.

A modular, IP-based radio system, the Type R uses standard networking technology and configurable soft panels to meet operators’ needs. The system features a 2U core with integrated I/O resources, with a single core capable of powering as many as three independent mixing environments. Type R provides customization across established networks, open control protocols and surface personalization.

Additional technology that will be on-hand at the Calrec booth includes the H2/IP Gateway that links Hydra 2 to IP domains so signals and control can pass in both directions, and upgrades to modular I/O frames via a new switchable controller card for the frames to sit on either a Hydra 2 or IP network, with a future option to upgrade existing fixed format boxes.

Calrec Audio will present these products and technology at its booth, C7408, during the NAB Show.

To register for the NAB Show, visit www.nabshow.com.

MADISON, WI—Rush Media produces live sports broadcasts as both a packager and truck provider for numerous regional and national networks, including Fox, CBS, NBCSN and ATTSN to name a few. We recently embarked on a complete fleet upgrade, and were looking for a high-quality console with a small footprint. Calrec Audio’s Brio36 was a viable choice because of its size, reliability and coverage with the Hydra2 network.

We purchased our first Brio for a national sports package and have since ordered five more consoles for our six new custom built, 40-foot mobile units with expanding sides. Each truck includes eight camera control units, two 8-channel replay servers, two graphics generators, 36-input switcher, 48-port communication frame and a main truck router with full audio capabilities. The Brio36 is the perfect fit to bring all these elements together.

Rush Media offers a smaller, cost-effective alternative to the full budget, larger footprint mobile units. We needed an audio console that could deliver the quality networks were accustomed to and be familiar to the freelancers that would be using it. We found that the Brio can do both, with no other console at this price point coming close.

Many factors came into play when selecting a console. As with any mobile unit, size is limited. The Brio36 provides 36 dual layer faders and by using a Hydra2 expansion card, we were able to double the size of the console’s I/O. Utilizing MADI in and out of the truck router, left us with more than enough paths and fit nicely in the space available.

The Brio36 has many functions that I’ve used in the past with larger Calrec consoles. With high frame rate cameras being a standard complement on our trucks, delay on every input and output is a must. GPI, together with Auto Fader, has become very useful with the Vizrt graphics generator, and handheld cameras in the field. The Hydra2 network has made it easy to expand the I/O and network multiple desks together.

Our newest mobile unit is being used for all home and away broadcasts for a major league soccer team. The home broadcasts require us to send multiple transmission feeds with unique audio assignments, as well as provide the visiting team separate field FX microphones to be used for their broadcasts. The combination of extra I/O provided by the Br.IO wallbox and MADI to our truck router makes it easy for the operator to provide feeds. The I/O routing section on the Brio is very user friendly and no coordination is needed with the mobile unit engineer. We are so pleased with the performance of the Brio36’s and see no reason to look elsewhere.

We plan to add more mobile units to our fleet next year and additional Calrec audio consoles will be included in this expansion.

Rusty Cummins has worked in the broadcast industry since 2005, joining Rush Media full time in 2013. He can be reached atrustycummins@rushmediaco.com.

For more information, please visitwww.calrec.com or call 661-877-9775.

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HEBDEN BRIDGE, ENGLAND—Practice makes perfect, so Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts is giving its students ample opportunity to practice with the Calrec Brio compact audio console. Brought in to help train students on professional broadcast techniques, students utilize the system during the university’s television production schedule.

The Brio platform is a part of the production system for “Chapman News,” a live weekly newscast that is broadcast on campus, throughout Orange County and the greater Los Angeles area, and streamed online live. Students use the Brio to mix audio feeds for the news program, including audio from six anchors, four video playback channels and reporters filing live segments from the field. The Brio also handles IFB feeds with its own dedicated mix, as well as incoming music tracks and other audio elements.

In the classroom, teachers are able to use the system’s DVI connections to project output from the Brio touch-screen display to a large screen.

Dodge College also uses the Brio system for talk show and narrative programs.

HEBDEN BRIDGE, ENGLAND—Calrec Audio’s Brio system has found its way under Dome Production’s roof as part of a recent studio upgrade. The Brio system was implemented to replace Dome Production’s 15-year-old main studio audio console.

Installed into Dome’s Studio95 facility control room located in the Rogers Centre in Toronto, the Brio is used in conjunction with the mobile units for “remote-at-home” style broadcasts. Brio’s compatibility with other Calrec consoles allows Dome to configure audio mixing in various productions; it can also expand the studio’s capabilities by adding more Calrec Hydra2 Fieldboxes.

Dome Productions, which provides broadcasts of live sport events, went live with the Brio in September 2016.

HEBDEN BRIDGE, ENGLAND—Students in the New England School of Communications at Husson University in Bangor, Maine, now have the ability to get hands-on training with Calrec Audio’s Summa audio console.

Summa audio console

Video Production and audio engineering students use the Summa in a studio environment to produce live newscasts and recorded public affairs show. NESCom expects to expand the use of the Summa console to connect with the school’s remote production truck. Both the video production and journalism departments will also utilize the Summa console.

Calrec Audio is based in Hebden Bridge, England, and focuses on audio mixing products for on-air and live production.

HEBDEN BRIDGE, ENGLAND—Students at Chabot College in California now have the chance to train on the same equipment that their local CBS affiliate does with the addition of the Calrec Summa audio console to the college’s TV Studio.

Esmeralada Bautista, a broadcast student at Chabot College, trains on the Calrec Summa audio console.

The Calrec Summa audio console offers a 17-inch multitouch screen with a straightforward interface. It also features Bluefin2 technology that provides a pool of 180 or 128 channel processing paths, eight groups, four mains, 16 auxes, 32 tracks, and a Hyrda2 router core.

Students use the console to produce educational programs that are broadcast over close-circuit TVs to classrooms across campus and over cable television.

Calrec Audio is a provider of audio mixers based in Hebden Bridge, England.

HEBDEN BRIDGE, ENGLAND—Outside broadcast services company NEP has announced it recently installed Calrec Apollo and Artemis audio consoles into a new OB truck. The unit has so far been used to cover both professional golf and Thursday Night Football.

NEP's operators use the Calrec consoles to handle the main mix and effects mixes.

The Apollo and Artemis consoles were installed in the B unit and handle the main mix and effects mixes. The Hydra2 also allows for full control of the preamps directly from the desk; it also networks the two desks together to enable source sharing.

The Calrec systems help NEP cover the entire golf course, as well as handle the wide range of noises and long hours of play during golf tournaments. The redesigned Hydra2 Fieldbox features looping network connections, which allow for the elimination of external battery-powered preamps and a reduction in the amount of copper cable required. The new OB truck carries about a dozen fieldboxes.

The new OB truck with Calrec consoles covered two golf tournaments in August and then transitioned to Thursday Night Football.