The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts has chosen the Calrec Brio 36 broadcast audio console for its new campus TV and recording studio.

Established by Sir Paul McCartney and Mark Featherstone-Witty (founder of the BRIT School) in Paul McCartney’s old school on Mount Street, LIPA produces huge numbers of highly talented graduates each year in both the performance and technical aspects of the performing arts.

Jon Thornton, Head of Sound Technology at LIPA, recently spoke to Calrec’s official UK Brio distributor Synthax Audio UK, about why the university chose the mixing desk for its new multi-purpose, state-of-the-art TV studio.

“We want to produce graduates with the necessary skills to enter the world of broadcast, and hit the ground running,” said Thornton. “So it was time to create a module catering for vision. Because we’re an Institute for the Performing Arts we wanted to cover several aspects of vision work, ranging from traditional multi camera capture, through non traditional uses of vision combined with theatre, and on into the growth areas of AR and VR.”

The decision was made therefore to repurpose one of the theatre spaces, The Sennheiser Studio, into a multi-purpose TV studio. Laid out a bit like an OB truck, the sound control room is at the end of the Vision Gallery. Then there are separate rooms for colour grading, motion capture, and a small post production room with ProTools and a 5.1 Neumann speaker system. The design of the acoustically important spaces was carried out by consultancy firm Whitemark who have a long-term relationship with LIPA, and give annual lectures as part of the Recording Technology course.

The new TV Studio’s Sound Control room consists of the Calrec Brio 36 mixer, ProTools, Neumann speakers, and a Bricasti M7 reverb. Unlike an OB truck, or the majority of sound rooms in large studio complexes, there is a window through to the studio floor. “That’s all part of the multi use requirement,” explained Thornton. “We can use the TV studio as a live space, and the Calrec for normal sound mixing, with direct contact between the mix engineer and the artists.”

Elaborating on the decision to install the Brio, Thornton said, “I’d insisted that LIPA invest in a product from one of the ‘big broadcast audio brands.’ In this way, students leave LIPA having used real software from a real broadcast company, and have experience of a console they are very likely to encounter in the real world. It’s the same reason we feature SSL in our main music mix room, and an AVID S6 in the main post-production suite.”

The Calrec Brio was purchased through Studiocare in Liverpool, and equipped with three option cards for MADI, SDI embed and SDI de-embed. Systems integration was implemented by Robin Howell of Wire Broadcast, with the furniture designed by AKA Design.

https://www.synthax.co.uk/calrec/brio/

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Såo Paulo-based R3 Estudio Movel has chosen a Calrec Artemis Ray audio console for its OB truck, dubbed PowerTruck, focussing on the recording and mixing of audio for live broadcasts as well as music DVDs and streaming outlets.

Isaías Rosa, R3’s recording/mixing engineer and multi-Latin Grammy nominee, says that when assessing the audio console market, “the Artemis met all the requirements of our truck,” highlighting its versatility as a key quality that drew him to the console. “The truck is set up for mixing and recording music. The Artemis Ray has excellent sound quality; we use it in a 72-fader configuration, which is great for live music mixing as we have the faders set up on one layer,” he added.

R3 Estudio Movel uses two WAVES cards, one Dante card and six MADI cards in the truck. The on-stage setup includes 128 mic pre-amps and two MADI cards. The company creates about 40 music DVDs a year – including one recently for Sony Music’s Brazilian funk artist Nego do Borel – plus its work on live broadcasts and streaming.

“This project is a great example of how the Artemis console can really spread its wings with different types of broadcasts, including live music. It’s a testament to its power, versatility and superior sound quality. We’re delighted that R3 Estudio Movel is reaping the benefits of all that the Artemis has to offer,” commented Mike Reddick, international sales manager, Calrec.

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Mark L. Butler, owner of Majestic Sound Productions, Inc., knew he was in for quite a challenge when he agreed to go to the middle of Egypt and open a sarcophagus on a live TV broadcast to 100 countries. The live Discovery Channel event aimed to showcase one of the biggest archaeological finds in 15 years and was co-hosted by real-life Indiana Jones, Dr. Zahi Hawass, former Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs for Egypt. For live audio mixing, Butler turned to Calrec’s Brio36 compact digital broadcast audio console.

Throughout the production, Butler relied heavily on the Brio, which stood up to the harsh Egyptian environment. “Being in the middle of the desert made for a lot of logistical issues and problems,” explained Butler. “We dealt with sandstorms, rain, high winds, and even poisonous cobras and desert vipers, but the Calrec Brio offered the perfect amount of ruggedness to get the job done.”

Though Butler worked mostly from the production truck during the live portion of the event, he also explored the tombs during the pre-taped segments and while planning out the production. “We climbed down 30-foot ladders and then had to crawl through tunnels and climb over sarcophaguses,” he said. “In one tomb, we had to make our way through a 40-foot-long tunnel, all the while trying to avoid stepping on 3,000-year-old skeletons and artifacts, in order to set up our RF system. We were not allowed to bring in any antennas or source the RF gear from outside the country, which proved to be the biggest challenge of the shoot. We were using a lot of mismatched RF gear to connect the talent to multiple receivers.”

Fortunately for Butler, he had a brand new video truck and Calrec Brio to work with. “I generally work on Calrec’s Apollo or Artemis, so this was my first show on the Brio,” he added. “The learning curve was pretty easy and soon I was navigating as though I work on it all the time. There is so much power in such a compact package, and I loved being able to ‘draw’ EQ on the screen. Before the Brio, smaller trucks wouldn’t necessarily have the budget or the space for a larger Calrec, so the Brio really fills a missing piece in the mobile audio puzzle.”

“This is literally one of the most intense productions we’ve ever seen, and we’re glad that Calrec was part of such an historic event,” said Helen Carr, Regional Sales Manager, Calrec. “Mark was mixing on a Brio in incredibly inhospitable conditions, so this is a great example of how portable, lightweight, powerful and rugged the Brio console truly is.”

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Pro Audio distributor Synthax Audio UK has appointed Simon Roome as its new sales manager.

With over 25 years of experience, Roome will be responsible for sales across the broadcast and professional parts of the Synthax UK portfolio, including the Calrec Brio and Type-R broadcast consoles, as well as pro audio solutions from RME, Ferrofish, DirectOut and Appsys.

His most recent experience involved 10 years working for Studer by Harman as UK sales manager and product manager. For Synthax, Roome will leverage his deep relationships with customers in the broadcast, live and professional audio sectors.

Based in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, Roome will work closely with Synthax Audio UK’s managing director Martin Warr. “I’m delighted to welcome Simon to our team,” Warr said. “Since we acquired distribution rights for the Calrec Brio last year, and are now adding Type-R to our offering, Simon joins at just the right time to aid Synthax’s push into new market sectors, as well as consolidating our existing customers in the live and studio communities.”

Of his new role, Roome commented: “I’m excited to join Synthax UK at a time when the company is experiencing substantial growth. Synthax has a great reputation for providing top-level support, advice and technical expertise for brands like RME and Calrec, and I’m looking forward to continuing this philosophy whilst establishing new business opportunities throughout the UK.”

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Viewers around the world enjoyed premium quality audio while watching Wimbledon 2019 with NEP UK deploying 15 Calrec consoles at the South West London tennis venue, alongside extensive Calrec networking and routing technology and I/O boxes.

An additional three Calrec consoles were used in NEP OB trucks that covered Centre Court, Court One and Court Two.

Jimmy Parkin, sound engineer, NEP Broadcast Services, said, “We have worked extensively with Calrec over the years. The networking flexibility and easy scalability of their technology were central to the success of this Wimbledon 2019 project. We needed audio operators to be able to easily access any source from any court without having to move anything or plug anything in; any console can “talk” with any other console on the network. We also needed to integrate IP networks with Calrec’s Hydra 2 networking technology and using their interfaces made this very easy. Pre-event offsite planning, using Calrec’s H2O GUI for the Hydra 2 network, meant that we could accurately name and label ports before any hardware was connected.”

For the second year, the host broadcaster was Wimbledon Broadcast Services (WBS). The video network was all IP (SMPTE ST2110) with Calrec consoles connected to this host broadcast network. 11 Calrec consoles – 10 Summa and one Brio – were deployed across this, including consoles for the Wimbledon Channel and the media centre.

In addition, NEP worked with a major US broadcaster for their coverage, including streaming, using an additional three Calrec consoles – two Artemis and one Brio – in their three control rooms.

Parkin added, “It worked seamlessly. The way that Calrec’s technology allows resources to appear on a network, and then how effortless it was to move those resources across the network, made our life so much simpler. Adding additional I/O boxes was also really easy too. This was a very complex project, but we were working with good people and great technology.”

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Calrec has announced that it will be showcasing its VP2 virtualised mixing system for the first time in Europe on Stand 8.C61 at IBC 2019.

VP2 has no physical control surface and utilises Calrec’s Assist software for setup and control. VP2’s 4U core comes in three DSP sizes; 128-, 180- and 240-input channels, and incorporates Calrec’s Hydra2 networking solution. Calrec Serial Control Protocol (CSCP) allows the audio console to be completely controlled by an automation system.

Calrec’s Assist software can be accessed from multiple locations through a web-browser. The technical director/operator can be given basic control functions, whereas an engineer can delve deeper to fine-tune the setup or recall different setups as needed.

Also on show will be Calrec’s ImPulse core audio processing and routing engine, with AES67 and SMPTE 2110 connectivity. The ImPulse core is compatible with current Apollo and Artemis control surfaces, providing a simple upgrade path for existing Calrec customers. In addition, future scalable expansion will allow up to four DSP mix engines and control systems to run independently on a single core at the same time, providing the ability to use multiple large-format mixers simultaneously in a cost-effective and compact footprint.

ImPulse provides 3D immersive path widths and panning for next generation audio applications and has an integral AoIP router that fully supports NMOS discovery and connection management, as well as mDNS/Ravenna discovery.

Calrec will also have its H2-IP Gateway and the AoIP Modular I/O controller card on-hand during the show. Both products are SMPTE 2110/AES67-compatible and expand the range of AoIP solutions that the company now offers.

The H2-IP Gateway provides an interface between Hydra2 and AoIP networks. It also awards an extra level of control that allows audio labels and control data to be passed in both directions between the two networks. This gives Hydra2 users the ability to control gain of Calrec AoIP mic inputs, and AoIP users can control gain of Hydra2 mic inputs. The 1U gateway can pass either 256 or 512 channels of audio in each direction and multiple gateways can be used to increase capacity or to connect with multiple networks. For full hardware redundancy, additional units can be deployed as backups.

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Calrec Audio’s Artemis Light digital broadcast audio console is at the front and centre of Clark Media’s new 53-foot state-of-the-art production trailer.

The rig was designed to be flexible; specifically to meet the demands of native 4K UHD and HD productions for everything from sports events and award programs to live game shows and breaking news stories. 

“As one of the leading consoles in the broadcast industry, we felt confident selecting Calrec and, as expected, the Artemis can’t be beat,” said Stephen Sharp, chief engineer for Clark Media. “It provides us with the flexibility we need for the wide variety of events we do with the truck. The I/O is very easy to configure. Anyone who has ever used Calrec before will be very comfortable with it almost immediately. In addition, Calrec’s customer service is always very good and that is very important.”

One of the main benefits of using a Calrec console for Clark Media is its ease-of-use. “The nice thing on the Calrec Artemis Light is the Hydra2, which provides us with a lot of I/O in a very small fiber box,” added Sharp.

In addition to its user-friendly 5.1 audio mixing suite, the new trailer includes various high-end video components including 16 Sony 4K/HD cameras, 4K reference monitors, a Grass Valley Kayenne production switcher and Korona panel for second-screen feeds, and 24 channels of 4K recording.

Artemis Light is the smallest in the Artemis range, packing 240 DSP channels into a compact 4U core. The 56-fader surface was ideal for Clark Media’s 4K mobile trucks, which can take on any type of demanding sporting or entertainment project. Clark’s production trailers’ recent projects include PBS’ Presidential convention coverage, NBC’s Rose Parade 2018; NBC’s Golden Globes 2018; Netflix’s “Beastmaster;” Audi’s “Think Faster” commercial; and numerous concerts, network up-fronts and 4K shows for New York Fashion Week designers. 

“We are very excited to have Clark Media continually turn to Calrec for its mobile production needs,” said David Lewty, regional sales manager, Calrec Audio America. “The company affords its customers with some of the most powerful 4K, UHD and HD solutions available, and our Artemis Light console is the perfect complement to Clark’s world-class and future-proofed OB fleet.”

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Parisian TV sports channel L’Equipe is reaping the benefits of a new 36+8 Summa and Brio36 from Calrec Audio.

Situated in the main and secondary control rooms for its two studios respectively, they are being used for live mixing, commentary, and sports programming that includes cycling, biathlons, rallying, judo, and the Pétanque Championships.

Alexis Bougault, audio technical manager at systems’ integrator EUROMEDIA oversaw the design and implementation of the project. He said: “We wanted to offer our client something that was modular and that was therefore easily expandable; L’Equipe is continually growing so this was important. The consoles benefit from an excellent price/performance ratio and work without complex ongoing configuration with the addition of other interfaces easy to achieve.”

Both control rooms, commentary booths and intercom system and consoles are connected via a Dante network. The two consoles are additionally connected via a Calrec Hydra 2 network with a modular rack. The Summa has two Dante cards with one for the Brio, with Hydra 2 allowing shared console resources with up to 512 channels per link.

“The combination of the Summa and Brio36 work perfectly because they use the same software that’s very popular with the L’Equipe team,” said Patrick Vautier, technical manager with L’Equipe. “Operators are often called to work in either control room so this is crucial. With features easily accessed via a touch screen, the consoles are intuitive and very refined to use.”

L’Equipe sports TV channel is part of the leading French sports news media company, L’Equipe 24/24. The integration was handled by systems integrator EUROMEDIA, a major broadcast services and facilities provider in France, with assistance from Calrec’s French distributor, Audiopole, who also provided training.

Karl Chapman, international sales manager, Calrec, added, “The sports broadcasting market is incredibly vibrant and dynamic and we’re seeing considerable activity. We’re really pleased that L’Equipe is taking advantage of our easy to configure networking capabilities, shared console resources and intuitive user interfaces.”

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TVB, the largest broadcaster in Hong Kong, has confirmed the purchase of a Brio12, its 10th Calrec console purchase to date.

The new Brio joins a fleet of Artemis consoles, including two Artemis Beams and one Artemis Light console that were purchased last year, as part of TVB’s ongoing audio technology upgrade.

The Brio12 is being used as a portable console and was most recently used for live sports events including the 2019 Tissot UCI Track Cycling World Cup held in January, and the SIXDAY Series PRURide cycling event that happened in Hong Kong last month.

TVB is also taking advantage of Calrec’s Hydra2 networking and its additional Dante and MADI I/O cards.

“Connecting via fibre, it’s easy to change the I/O cards to accommodate different productions. We’re using MADI cards for our intercom connection and Dante cards for signal interchanging between a PA console and the broadcast console,” said Mr. Law Yui Wah, studio production department/assistant manager at TVB Hong Kong. “The Brio12 is small enough for us to use portably yet offers enough connectivity and power, surpassing other consoles on the market in this price range.”

The commissioning was handled by Calrec’s Hong Kong distributor, Jolly Pro Audio.

Anthony Harrison, international sales manager for Calrec, added: “By being able to move the Brio around, TVB Hong Kong is taking advantage of the true benefits of the Brio’s versatility as a compact console that doesn’t compromise on quality. TVB is proving that product performance and price point are at the top of its purchasing decisions when it comes to audio consoles.”

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Calrec Audio will be showcasing its latest virtualised solutions at NAB 2019, including its VP2 headless mixing system, the RP1 2U rackmount broadcasting mixing system, and its modular IP-based system, Type R.

The VP2 virtualised mixing system has no physical control surface and utilises Calrec’s Assist software for setup and control. VP2’s 4U core comes in three DSP sizes; 128, 180 and 240 input channels and incorporates the company’s Hydra2 networking solution. Calrec Serial Control Protocol (CSCP) can allow the audio console to be completely controlled by an automation system.

Meanwhile, RP1 is a broadcast mixing system in a 2U rackmount box, containing Calrec’s Bluefin2 processing. Calrec’s RP1 is designed to provide solutions to three major challenges in remote production workflows – latency, transport and control. On-board DSP enables the generation of monitor mixes and IFBs onsite with no latency, Hydra2 interfaces provide a mechanism to output audio in a variety of formats and Calrec’s True Control gives an operator in a remote studio direct control over channel functions.

Finally, Type R is a modular, expandable, IP-based mixing system, which utilises standard networking technology and combines it with configurable soft panels that can be tailored to operator needs. It provides simple customisation across established networks, open control protocols and surface personalisation. Type R can be used without a physical surface with control and setup via Calrec’s browser-based Assist application and is fully compatible with automated systems using CSCP.

Calrec and its latest virtualised solutions can be found on Booth C7408 at NAB 2019.

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