HEBDEN BRIDGE, U.K.—NEP U.K. deployed 15 Calrec consoles, networking, routing tech and I/O boxes for Wimbledon 2019 coverage, the company said today.
Three more Calrec consoles—one each for coverage of Centre Court, Court One and Court Two—were used in NEP outside broadcast trucks covering the tournament.
“We have worked extensively with Calrec over the years,” said NEP Broadcast Services sound engineer Jimmy Parkin. “The networking flexibility and easy scalability of their technology were central to the success of this Wimbledon 2019 project.”
Wimbledon Broadcast Services (WBS) served as host broadcaster for the second year. An IP video network was deployed using SMPTE ST 2110. The Calrec consoles were connected to the host broadcast network.
Ten Calrec Summa and one Brio console, including consoles for the Wimbledon Channel and the media center, were deployed. NEP also worked with a major U.S. broadcaster for coverage, including streaming, using an additional three Calrec consoles—two Artemis and one Brio—in the network’s three control rooms.
“We needed audio operators to be able to easily access any source from any court without having to move anything or plug anything in; any console can ‘talk’ with any other console on the network,” said Parkin.
“We also needed to integrate IP networks with Calrec’s Hydra 2 networking technology and using their interfaces made this very easy. Pre-event offsite planning, using Calrec’s H2O GUI for the Hydra 2network, meant that we could accurately name and label ports before any hardware was connected.”
The entire Calrec deployment “worked seamlessly,” with resources appearing on the network and then being able to be moved across the network effortlessly, he added.
