Cyril Mazouer of French OB specialists Boîte à Outils (BOB) discusses how his company have been keeping customers on-air during the last few months
With the Covid-19 outbreak creating a new set of challenges for broadcasters, questions continue to be raised about how best to carry out operations whilst respecting social distancing guidelines.
And with governments advising workers to continue working from home where possible, there’s now a real focus on solutions that enable sound engineers to work remotely, often in a completely different location to a production’s main base.
As a leading manufacturer of broadcast audio consoles, Calrec has a range of solutions designed for remote operation, including the modular IP-based Calrec Type R, which has enabled French OB specialists Boîte à Outils (BOB)’s operators to mix and monitor directly from their homes via ST 2110.
BOB’s CEO Cyril Mazouer was behind the recent technical control room setup for Clique, a popular entertainment and current affairs programme, broadcast from Paris on French TV channel Canal+.
Remote Production with Calrec Type R
“Producing at a distance shouldn’t be synonymous with lower quality”, explains Cyril. “We were able to produce the show with all 14 people on the shoot working remotely from their homes, using our existing technologies. The technical choices we made when we built the control room made it easier to set up as a remote production as most of the equipment could already be operated virtually.”
“Clear and reliable communication has always been a crucial element of live production, but it becomes even more important with virtually all staff working remotely.”
“Calrec’s Type R console was the perfect choice for this remote production setup and it was used over ST2110. The surface is made up of several blocks of six faders and a large soft panel touchscreen (LSP), all of which were easily installed by the sound engineer over Cat5 POE.”
Browser-based control with Calrec Assist
“Remote control is easily achieved using Calrec’s virtual mixing UI Calrec Assist” Cyril continues, “giving access to console features such as aux sends, Automix and monitor feeds. IP latency was minimal.”
“Because it’s a Web UI, Calrec Assist can of course be accessed by multiple people on multiple devices so different team members can use it. All the console’s functionality is therefore not only accessible to the Sound Engineer, but also for the technical team to control the audio router, GPIO, Ember +, label transfer etc. The processing rack and its stage box are installed at the venue and controlled in the technical rooms.”
Dave Letson, VP of Sales at Calrec, adds “It’s great to see our partners around the world helping customers to embrace new ways of remote working. Of course, Calrec Assist is designed from the ground up to work remotely, providing clear and easy-to-use Web-based virtual mixing. Indeed, we are now offering online demonstrations to show its capabilities, which you can book via our website.”
Cyril was speaking to Calrec’s French distributor Audiopole.
Our thanks to Cyril Mazouer / Boîte à Outils and marine_martignac on Instagram for the amazing remote setup pics!
Looking for a Remote Working Solution?
Recent events have accelerated thinking and stretched our systems. Remote broadcasting has undergone a huge shift and has evolved into remote working and virtualization.
Calrec have a strong foundation in helping customers with remote operation, working to create and maintain live broadcasts safely and reliably, but virtualization has since taken on a new pattern.
Broadcasters all over the world have been using Calrec’s remote and virtual products to stay on-air by connecting to hardware from remote locations, using portable hardware in remote locations, and making integrated use of station automation systems.
We Can Help!
The smallest consoles in the Calrec family, both the Type R and Calrec Brio consoles provide broadcast-focused feature sets in a minimal footprint, making them ideal for smaller OB trucks and remote production setups.
The browser-based Calrec Assist interface enables the creation of a virtual console environment, and making it ideally suited to remote working.
Calrec Assist runs in a web browser on Mac, Windows, and Linux devices, giving comprehensive control for Calrec’s RP1 remote production core, the VP2 Virtual production engine, Calrec’s Type R IP core and other Calrec production consoles.
Click here to Book a 1-2-1 Remote Demo
If you’d like to know more about the Calrec Brio and Hydra2 network, or would like to arrange a practical demonstration, give us a call on
01727 821 870 to speak to one of our team.