When Canadian OB company Mesh Broadcast Services set out to fit the pro audio capability of a large TV truck into a small audio room for high-profile sports events, Calrec’s Argo M console was the solution.
Installed by Calrec’s Canadian partner True North AV, the 36-fader desk sits in the production area of the company’s Eclipse flagship 40ft unit, which has recently moved onto a 2025 Freightliner dual-axle truck. The maiden voyage for Argo M was during Mesh Broadcast Services’ six-week contract with InLive, the City of Vancouver, and FIFA for the Vancouver FIFA Fan Festival at the Pacific National Exhibition, with the site serving as a central hub for football fans watching this summer’s global tournament.
‘We looked at several platforms, but when Calrec developed and launched the Argo series, we knew we had found both the power, and size to fit our applications,’ says Scott McPhee, co-founder and Production Director at Mesh Broadcast Services. ‘In North American sports, Calrec is the platform of choice for 90 per cent of engineers. With the Argo M, we have an extremely powerful audio workflow. The desk is intuitive enough that new A1s can get working fairly quickly, but seasoned A1s used to the older larger Calrec consoles can still operate a show fairly easily.’
True North AV Technical Sales & Product Specialist Kypros Christodoulides, walked the Mesh Broadcast Services team through several configuration options: ‘Previously the truck was built with a full Dante backbone to avoid large analogue patch bays, and this was something Mesh Broadcast Services wanted to continue and expand on,’ he says. ‘The install was straightforward and Mesh Broadcast is already maximising the extensive capabilities of the Argo M.’
‘We had to choose a console that had all I/O types,’ McPhee adds. ‘Dante is a huge platform for us and it had to be part of the workflow in today’s productions to be able to service all our clients. Combine that with the usual Madi connections and analogue, and you can cover just about any workflow, be it a pro sport like hockey, soccer, or a streaming e-game event. Kypros and True North AV were very patient with us during this process.
‘In 2025, we were the official broadcast facilities provider for the Invictus Games in Vancouver. We purchased a DirectOut Prodigy MX as a Madi and Dante interface for our old audio system, but combined with the Argo M platform, these two devices have increased our capabilities ten-fold. The card slot options for the Argo series are a huge bonus. With a small truck space, we need compact but powerful.’
Mesh Broadcast Services also installed three Calrec Type R analogue I/O boxes, housed in flight cases for use as portable field boxes to provide a compact solution that is easy to move around the field of play. ‘We also wanted to incorporate the 1U-high frame in our racks with a Dante enabled POE switch that feeds our Bolero Comm Antennas in the field,’ McPhee explains. ‘We have a lot of clients that do extreme sports and sometimes our truck parking location and the host booth can be 1,000ft away. With the console and I/O package we chose, we are adaptable for everything from small arenas to downhill mountain biking.’
The truck now covers ten-to-twelve events per month. Mesh Broadcast Services is the production facilities provider for the CPL in Vancouver and Victoria, Battlefield Fight League on UFC Fight Pass, Crankworx Mountain Bike Festival on Red Bull TV, and the Great Outdoor Comedy Festival in Calgary and Vancouver, and is the in-house broadcaster for the Vancouver Goldeneyes (PWHL).
‘Argo M was designed to prove that compact doesn’t mean compromised,’ concludes International Sales Manager, Anthony Harrison, Calrec. ‘It packs real processing power and a high channel count into a small footprint, with multiple card slots for I/O flexibility and native video input built in, so a mobile unit like Eclipse gets true audio production capability, not a scaled-down version of it.’
More: https://calrec.com