HAYWARD, CALIF.—Chabot College has installed the latest upgrade to its Calrec Summa audio console. The upgrade to v.7.0 of the Summa software makes more efficient use of the college's TriCaster 8000 video production system and gives students greater control over audio content since the audio comes into the Summa first and then is passed to the TriCaster.
The 32-fader Summa console is used by broadcast students to mix audio for the TV station's entire lineup of live and recorded programs, and for hands-on training in mass communications classes. The college works in close cooperation with KPIX, the San Francisco CBS affiliate station, which also uses a Summa in its operation and provides one of its audio engineers as a part-time consultant to help students train on the console.
V.7.0 includes an upgrade to the IoS control features, which enable the mass communications instructor to operate and control the Summa using an iPad. Expanded audio-over-IP capabilities make for another improvement, important to the college since it is considering using Dante for moving uncompressed audio over a standard Ethernet network.
The community college installed the desk in its campus television studio in 2015 to enhance it hands-on training and give students experience with the same equipment they will encounter in a professional broadcast environment.
Sujoy K. Sarkar, general manager of Comcast 27 Chabot TV, the campus TV station, said the Summa has made a difference in the college’s ability to prepare broadcast students for their careers. "The students love the fact that they'll be able to go right to their first jobs with more professional experience than many of their peers from other schools,” he said in a press release.
College installations for Calrec in the United States include Chapman University, University of Missouri, New England School of Communications (NESCom) and WPSU, a PBS station out of Penn State's campus.
