World?s largest Calrec Hydra2 network established at NTV-Plus

Digital satellite company NTV-Plus has cemented its foothold as a leading force in Russian broadcasting with the installation of an additional six Calrec consoles in the Ostankino Technical Center in Moscow, bringing 10 consoles together to create the world’s largest Hydra2 network.

Oleg Kolesnikov, chief technology officer at NTV-Plus, said of the move: “The Hydra2 network is especially useful in a large multistudio installation like ours, where we handle many complex live productions, including world-renowned sports programmes.”

The deployment included two Artemis Light consoles in the Sports 1 and Sports 3 studios, alongside four Artemis Beam consoles in the remote transmission studio complex. The new consoles are networked via a central Hydra2 router core, first installed by NTV-Plus in 2013, with the system enabling any console to access any I/O on the network. “Now we have even more I/O to draw from. Hydra2 gives us unlimited flexibility in tackling any kind of task or broadcast requirement,” Kolesnikov continued. “Besides that, all of the Calrec consoles have full redundancy, from the input ports to the faders, and Calrec’s Bluefin2 DSP has proved its reliability and good sound quality time after time."

Hydra2 streamlines workflow and setup configuration, providing broadcasters with network-wide control of parameters such as mic gain, phantom power, patching, port protection, alias files, virtual patchbays, and access rights. Michael Reddick, European sales manager at Calrec, said of the technology: "Apart from moving signals around, Hydra2 lets NTV-PLUS control and manage more of its network from any one of its consoles. That means operators have unmatched networking capability and I/O access at their fingertips, which is a powerful benefit in live, real-time operations." 

calrec.com