Continuing its migration to HD digital broadcasting, Russian national broadcaster NTV has chosen a Calrec Audio Artemis Light mixing console as part of a new Moscow-based fly-away production facility.

The NTV Mobile operation complements NTV’s studios and outside broadcast trucks using modular equipment in flightcases that can be reconfigured to suit the needs of different types of live production. NTV Mobile has been using the new set-up on the show Taken and Shown, which is broadcast live every evening, but the console can be moved quickly to accommodate live programming in different locations.

‘We wanted a mobile studio that we could move and reconfigure at a moment’s notice,’ explains freelance engineer Yuriy Kirinov, who designed and integrated the project for Russian systems integrator OKNO-TV. ‘It required that each flightcase have minimal interconnections with the others, which made the job very complex. We looked for an audio console that would be flexible enough to integrate flawlessly into such a setup and technically sophisticated enough to deliver the highest quality of sound. Calrec satisfied these requirements and more.’

NTV installed a 48-fader Artemis Light console with two stageboxes, each with 32 analogue/AES interfaces connected by fibre links to the mainframe via Calrec’s Hydra2 audio routing system, which supports AES, analogue and Madi interfaces in the main rack.

During the selection process, NTV compared the technical and ergonomic characteristics of a number of high-level digital audio consoles placing a premium on sound quality and reliability. Full redundancy was also important, as were compact size and networking capabilities, which were crucial to the set-up’s mobility. A user-friendly interface made it easy for operators to learn to use.

‘The NTV Mobile set-up is different from an outside broadcast truck and is the first such project we’ve done in Russia,’ says Calrec European Sales Manager, Michael Reddick.

More: www.calrec.com