Calrec Audio announced New Century Productions (NCP) will outfit its latest HD mobile production truck with a 72-fader Alpha digital audio console, featuring the company's new Bluefin high-density signal processing system, which more than doubles the processing power of the console on just one DSP card. New Century's latest truck, the NCP-VIII, is slated to roll out in August.
The new truck will use the Alpha primarily for mixing major sporting events, such as the U.S. Open tennis tournament, the Word Series coverage, the Breeders' Cup horse-racing competition, and the Super Bowl pre-game show. For these types of events, the Alpha will need to mix more than 100 incoming audio sources simultaneously, including stereo and 5.1 surround-sound sources.
NCP sources note that the Alpha with Bluefin was chosen for its ability to provide unequalled processing power in limited rack space. Using Bluefin, the Alpha is capable of providing 78 full 5.1 surround-sound channels from its complement of 162 stereo and 156 mono channels and eight surround groups. Each channel and group is fully equipped with full EQ and dynamics, and the system has 23 minutes of user-accessible delay elements, four surround main outputs, 48 multitrack outputs, and 20 aux outs. Also important for mobile truck applications, the new system generates less heat and uses less power than previous designs.
The selection of the Calrec Alpha for the NCP-VIII marks the fourth installation of Calrec mixers in NCP trucks. Currently, NCP owns two analog Q2 consoles and carries a 96-fader Alpha on the NCP-VII truck.
For more information, visit www.calrec.com and www.ncpvideo.com.
