British Broadcast: Calrec

As BVE 2015 draws to a close, Audio Media International is speaking to a number of UK pro-audio companies within the broadcast sector this week and quizzing them on several topics.

Jim Green, UK sales manager at Calrec Audio gave us his rundown on the current state of the ever-changing market: “The extent to which control is integrated between different manufacturers’ equipment has increased in recent times. OB companies are using control systems to provide a truck-wide memory recall system. Studios floors are no longer necessarily tied to a particular gallery but can be paired with any gallery on the network. Features like Calrec’s Alias system render this a simple task and being able to control these features via a third party control system means that all required equipment can be switched using a single interface.”

“The next change is likely to be one of cable infrastructure. MADI and SDI are used extensively in broadcast but there seems to be an inevitability about IP-based replacements for these formats. AES67, SMPTE2022 and other AoIP protocols potentially offer significant advantages, such as cost and bandwidth, over the incumbent formats.”

Green explains that Calrec has remained strong throughout the changing climate, and one the reasons for this success is down to the Bluefin2, relied upon by many due to its status as ‘the most powerful audio processing engine on the market’.

“Calrec’s current Bluefin2 range has built on the great success of its Bluefin predecessor. Bluefin2 offers more processing power and more channels than any other audio processing core and is used by the world’s most successful broadcasters. Calrec’s consoles offer anything from 128 channels to 1020 and all are equipped with the powerful Hydra2 audio router which is scalable to meet the broadcaster’s needs.” 

Besides the Bluefin2, other products have been proving successful in recent projects.

“The first Calrec Summa in the UK went live recently at Russia Today’s London bureau. Calrec is known mostly for large or medium format broadcast consoles but the Summa is proving to be a big success due its impressive power-to-price ratio. Russia Today benefit from having Bluefin2 channel facilities on their Summa which provides them with a huge amount of dynamics and EQ processing, delay, automixers and the ability to cater for a number of different, often complex, mix minus requirements.”

And when asked how this product range responds to the changing demands of the market, Green responds: “Calrec’s product development is continuously shaped by changing needs of the broadcasters. Calrec combines a close relationship with its customers with knowledge of market trends to create a product that not only meets the customer’s needs but is futureproofed. A large part of Calrec’s development is directly informed by user feedback and this is a major attribute to its success.”

http://www.calrec.com