In Broadcast - July 2014 - 40

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 33 - JULY 2014

N E W S

InSOUND

Today's Audio Consoles Must Provide
Much More Than Just Mixers
Broadcast facilities need greater versatility from their equipment, which means audio
consoles have to do much more than perform as mixing desks...
By Ian Cookson
Communications Manager
Calrec Audio

I

40

t used to be that all audio signals
in a broadcast facility were routed
through an analogue console using
a complicated and expensive web
of cabling and patchbays.
Each input and output would
require its own cable, and changing
the conﬁguration of the I/O had
to be done manually. This setup
was inefficient, inflexible and
cumbersome. Then along came
digital technology. A digital console
is essentially just a work surface
connected to a central hub. Instead
of a cable for each signal, we can
send hundreds of bidirectional
signals on a single Cat 5 copper or
ﬁbre cable that connects the console
to your network infrastructure.
Furthermore, digital consoles
make it much easier to reconﬁgure
I/O because, rather than having to
patch and repatch cables manually,
you can do it digitally through the
console's interface. Some consoles
even make it easy to add I/O quickly
and easily on the ﬂy - a factor that
is paramount in being able to
accommodate larger productions.
It's clear that today's audio
consoles go far beyond mixing. They
have become sophisticated digital
instruments that take advantage
of network technology to drive
an infinitely more efficient and
streamlined audio process.
Modern broadcasters the world
over are using advanced digital
consoles in everything from
multistudio complexes to outside
broadcast trucks in order to

Calrec Summa offers features
that go far beyond mixing

streamline their workflows and
make better, more versatile use
of their resources to save both
time and money.

Advanced Capabilities

Some advanced consoles are feats
of technology and design that can
easily be networked together so
that any console can utilise any
I/O resource on the network. In
addition, all of a facility's audio
hardware is or can be connected
to the network.
Thus, any microphone in any studio
can be routed to any mixing console
or recorder. This infrastructure
ensures total ﬂexibility in conﬁguring
or reconﬁguring studios, setting up
new productions, or transferring
productions from one studio or area
of the facility to another. It makes
for more efﬁcient use of resources
and time, and ensures that no
console has to sit idle during setup
or transition periods.
Advanced systems also allow you

Powerful technology streamlines audio workflows

to plug mobile I/O resources into any
router port, making them available
anywhere they're needed. The plugand-play nature of such systems
means that a studio is no longer
limited by its permanent resources,
so that you can easily accommodate
larger productions. The network
automatically identiﬁes the boxes;
there's no need to manually update
the system configuration. You
could even plug a mobile mixer
into one of the cores to add extra
faders for a given production. Also,
with modular I/O cards, you can
speciﬁcally choose the required I/O,
which makes for more efﬁcient use
of router ports and ﬁbre capacity
to maximise the capability of the
system. The modular I/O cards
can be easily swapped to change
the range of resources available if
production requirements change.
At the same time, these advanced
consoles provide a solution for
transmitting audio signals around
a facility using any common method,
such as embedding the audio in
the SDI video signal, and can
transfer multiple audio channels
in a single vision circuit. It's a
capability that's especially suited
to multichannel operations.
In other instances, digital consoles
make it possible to create a network
using a single surface and a single
processor rack simply by employing
the I/O you've got hooked up to it.
Besides fulﬁlling sophisticated
audio requirements, advanced
consoles integrate seamlessly
with third-party controllers and
allow customisation to add greater

functionality to the system.

Planning Is Important

When planning a network that
incorporates the latest generation
of digital audio consoles, it's
important to consider the number
of consoles; their location in relation
to the studios, commentary booths,
control rooms, sub-desks, and
mobile mixers, and similar areas of
your facility; and how the audio will
ﬂow through those various areas.
You must account for current needs,
of course, but also keep an eye
toward expandability. Advanced
digital audio consoles have limitless
potential to expand the network to
any size you require, thus ensuring
the longevity of its operational life.

Efficient Workflows

Ef ficiency in the broadcast
workflow is tantamount to a
successful business. To keep up
with the constraints of time and
money, modern broadcast facilities
are demanding more and more
versatility from their equipment,
which means audio consoles need
to be more than just mixing desks.
Fortunately, with the advent of
digital technology, networking has
become affordable and practical,
and you can take advantage of that
technology to streamline the audio
workﬂow. Broadcasters that employ
modern networking practices -
especially in multistudio complexes -
can enable a single console to serve
multiple studios, thus saving time
and money, and maximising return
on investment.

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In Broadcast - July 2014

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