Calrec Complete 021’s Magnificent Seven
Birmingham, UK, based OB specialist 021 Television has teamed up with Calrec for two brand new HD units, with the purchase of Alpha with Bluefin and Sigma with Bluefin consoles.
Launched in January 2007, Unit 8 is a double expander and features a 60 fader Alpha with Bluefin console. A 60 fader Sigma with Bluefin console will feature in Unit 7, a brand new single expander unit.
Both trucks compliment 021’s current roster of five scanners, four of which contain Calrec S2 analogue consoles.
“With Bluefin I am confident I am not going to run out of processing power for quite some time,” says John Clements, Head of Sound at 021. “Calrec has really stepped up the technology with Bluefin, doubling the DSP and reducing card size, but what really impressed me about Calrec were the manufacturing facilities at their headquarters in Hebden Bridge.
”Calrec’s manufacturing process is very impressive, and it is really beneficial to have such capabilities on site. The fact that so much of the manufacturing process is done in house inspires a great deal of confidence in the longevity of the equipment, not only during the warranty period but long after it has expired.”
021 also use a number of Calrec’s modular mic boxes, connected to Calrec’s Hydra network. This enables 021 to simplify set up for large entertainment productions, and with the launch of Unit 7 will enable 021 to share network I/O resources between the Alpha and Sigma consoles.
”Hydra gives us enormous flexibility,” says John. “As host broadcaster for Champions League football we will be able to use Unit 7 (Sigma) as the unit mixing the match, which would include the international mix, with Unit 8 (Alpha) mixing the channel presentation. With Hydra we can share I/O resources between the two units, which not only simplifies cabling enormously, but enables each console to act as a back up to the other.
”We will also be using Hydra at big special events to pull in a large number of feeds from the host broadcaster over just two Cat 5 cables!”
O21 Television have an extensive client list and have provided Outside Broadcast facilities for some of the UK’s most popular television shows notably Champions League Football, ITV Boxing, Sky Football First, Top Gear, and Question Time.
