Ukraine’s 1+1 Media Group has installed Calrec digital audio consoles in two of its HD OB vans. The installations are part of an upgrade to meet UEFA technical requirements for 5.1 sound production and Dolby E encoding.
“The Calrec consoles give us a reliable way to handle two live feeds of 5.1 sound at once, which is not only a UEFA requirement but something we simply couldn’t do with our other consoles,” said Aleksey Marko, head of procurement for 1+1 Media Group. “Previously we had to use two OB vans in order to meet the requirement, but now we can accomplish the same thing with a single console in a single van, which saves money and leaves the second van free to cover other events.”
One of 1+1 Media’s OB vans houses an Artemis Light console equipped with 40 multilayer faders, along with Calrec’s Bluefin2 high-density signal processing technology and Hydra2 plug-and-play audio routing capability. A similar Artemis Light console in the second OB van has 48 faders. The vans cover football, basketball, boxing, and both live and recorded entertainment shows. Each console can produce two programmes of digital 5.1 sound that are ready for UEFA-mandated Dolby E encoding.
“1+1 Media Group is the first Calrec customer in Ukraine and, because of its size and number of media holdings, is a major source of programming for the Ukrainian people,” said Michael Reddick, Calrec’s European sales manager. “Calrec technology will help this media giant streamline its OB operation and cover more ground, which we anticipate will influence other broadcasters in the market.”
