
How does it work in terms of IP upgrade path?
Taking the IP upgrade path first, central to the design of ImPulse was the need to embrace open IP standards and COTS IP. Our Hydra2 networking technology is very successful at what it does; removing the hard ties between control room and studio, allowing for audio to be shared flexibly, eliminating rigging and teardown time, and easily plug and play. It provides lots of flexibility and has enhanced many workflows as a result.
But broadcasters want shared networks that allow for the exchange of audio and video more directly, between devices from different vendors, to streamline workflows and reduce cabling/connectivity formats. Hydra2, being proprietary, means it cannot share audio directly with non-Calrec devices. It also does not pass over standard IT switches; consolidating connections to stage-boxes requires relatively expensive Calrec routers so customers tend to run quite a lot of dedicated fibre on larger systems.
To reduce the amount of fibre being run for passing proprietary data, many broadcasters leverage CWDM technology, multiplexing signals by using different frequencies of light for each so they can travel down the same piece of fibre. This alleviates some of the installation overhead and costs, but it still requires format conversion and interfacing to pass media between kit from different vendors. The use of open IP standards for transporting media massively reduces the cost and physical space required for the multitude of connectivity formats that are in use for audio and video today.
Ideally, customers want to be able to use the office LAN and even public internet and Wifi, so that devices can be conveniently connected from anywhere, and this will come, but critical live broadcast demands low latency which requires a well-managed network configured for ST2110/AES67 use to safeguard content while allowing for flexible workflows for day-to-day operational needs. Video presents a huge amount of data compared with audio, but that data only needs refreshing 60 times per second for high quality, whereas each audio channel needs to be processed 48,000 times per second at least to present a quality output.
A key point of ImPulse is that it offers a migration path. Broadcasters do not need to jump to IP with both feet overnight. Many of our customers have made a significant investment in Hydra2-based Calrec hardware over the last decade or so. Open standards prevent customers having their purchasing decisions forced by their previous investment, allowing for choice in each control room while maintaining facility-wide connectivity, but we do not want to write off existing investment in hardware.
To support the migration to IP:
Existing Apollo/Artemis control surfaces can be upgraded to work with ImPulse processing cores.
Existing Hydra2 I/O boxes can be converted to run in either Hydra2 or AES67/ST2110 AoIP mode, allowing customers to upgrade their existing I/O investment to work natively with ImPulse. It also allows remote/outside-broadcast companies that have a large stock of I/O that gets shared/reallocated between jobs, to switch it out on a job-by-job basis, using the same hardware for a Hydra2 job or an AoIP one.
Our H2-IP Gateway provides a bridge between Hydra2 networks and AoIP networks, passing audio, control data and labels between the domains - Hydra2 users can access and control audio in the AoIP domain and vice versa, leveraging the benefits of IP within an existing infrastructure.
As a broadcast vendor, it is very important that we both maintain existing systems and support our customers to migrate at a speed at which they feel comfortable.
More from Calrec
15/03/2023
The Super Bowl by Shawn Peacock Shawn Peacock, Broadcast Audio Engineer A1 for over 20 years, encompassing college football, X Games, tennis and motorsports inc...
21/02/2023
Calrec makes switching to ST2110 more affordable with ImPulse1 IP engine
Following on from its new Argo audio mixing control platform launched at IBC 2022, Cal...
23/12/2022
The Audio Checklist by Freelance A1, Andrew Stoakley Over the course of interviewing, recording and editing my podcast series, Idle Hands: Conversations with T...
03/10/2022
About Audiotonix
Audiotonix is a global market leader in the design, engineering and manufacturing of professional audio mixing consoles and ancillary products...
02/09/2022
IBC 2022: 10 reasons to join us at IBC
We're back!
It's been three years since we've been to IBC 2022, and we can't wait to get back into it w...
15/07/2022
Statement from Calrec July 2022 Recently we have received many comments via social media that mistakenly claim Calrec are in some way supporting Russian state...
14/07/2022
We're excited to be back at the NAB Show in Las Vegas on 23-27th April. Here is a sneak preview of what we will be unveiling!...
08/07/2022
Sounding out the future I don't know what the future may hold, but I know who holds the future. Ralph Abernathy
By Madison O'Reilly...
30/05/2022
One of our International Sales Managers recently attended the ABEX 2022 Morava Montreux 2022, an international electronic media and television conference in M...
01/04/2022
Jean-S bastien Roy, Sound Engineer at Headroom Productions talks to Calrec about his work on Star Acad mie on TVA in Montreal, Canada.
As a Sound Engineer and ...
31/03/2022
Canada-based Myles Carlyle was exposed to the world of broadcast audio at a young age. As an audio engineer, he mixes a variety of live sports and worked at the...
17/03/2022
Audio in 2021: The future is now
By Dave Letson, VP of Sales, Calrec
2020 was a year of necessity; of using technology in ways it had been designed for and so...
17/03/2022
Toby Spiller is a Customer Support Engineer at Calrec....
16/03/2022
IP Primer
Welcome to Calrec's eight-part primer on AoIP!
The IP Primer builds up your knowledge of IP and will enable you to create reliable AoIP networks...
09/03/2022
Calrec IP Primer Part 8: Network Design
Welcome to the final chapter in an eight-part series of articles on AoIP!
Over the last 7 weeks, we have released an I...
03/03/2022
Calrec IP Primer Part 7: Network Switches
Welcome to the seventh in an eight-part series of articles on AoIP!
Over the last 6 weeks, we have released an IP ch...
23/02/2022
Calrec IP Primer Part 6: Quality of Service (QoS)
Welcome to the sixth in an eight-part series of articles on AoIP!
Over the next three weeks, we will be rele...
16/02/2022
Calrec IP Primer Part 5: Latency/Jitter
Welcome to the fifth in an eight-part series of articles on AoIP!
Over the next four weeks, we will be releasing an I...
10/02/2022
Calrec IP Primer Part 4: Bandwidth
Welcome to the fourth in an eight-part series of articles on AoIP!
Over the next five weeks, we will be releasing an IP cha...
02/02/2022
Calrec IP Primer Part 3: PTP
Welcome to the third in an eight-part series of articles on AoIP!
Over the next six weeks, we will be releasing an IP chapter eve...
26/01/2022
Calrec IP Primer Part 2: Multicast
Welcome to the second in an eight-part series of articles on AoIP!
Over the next seven weeks, we will be releasing an IP ch...
19/01/2022
Calrec IP Primer Part 1: Introduction
Welcome to the first in an eight-part series of articles on AoIP!
Over the next eight weeks, we will be releasing an IP ...
06/01/2022
Calrec's IP solution selected for state-of-the-art Sportsnet Studios Two Calrec Artemis consoles with AoIP ImPulse cores and Gateway technology lie at the h...
16/12/2021
Ross Production Services (RPS) recently purchased its fifth 96-channel Calrec Brio audio console to standardize on Calrec technology. The new Brio is installed ...
26/11/2021
IBC 2021 Cancelled: Although we can't meet in person, we can still have a chat
Get in touch for a catch-up, or book a remote demo with Calrec's broadca...
24/11/2021
Not travelling to IBC 2021?
We can still have a chat. Get in touch, or book a remote demo with Calrec's broadcast specialists, to get up close and personal...
23/11/2021
Not travelling to IBC 2021?
We can still have a chat. Get in touch, or book a remote demo with Calrec's broadcast specialists, to get up close and personal...
02/11/2021
Turkey-based Zeynep Mengioglu is the first woman to work in an OB van in Turkey. Her years of growing up around professional audio have helped hone her craft as...
26/10/2021
Rise up and be counted | Rise Mentoring Programme: What, Why & How
By Alexia El Merhebi, Digital Communications and Events Executive...
26/10/2021
About Audiotonix
Audiotonix is a global market leader in the design, engineering and manufacture of professional audio mixing consoles and ancillary products. ...
06/10/2021
Contemporary radio station Pepper 96.6 FM in Athens, Greece is reaping the benefits of a Calrec Type R for Radio console to help deliver jazz, rock, funk and re...
04/10/2021
Welcome to the eighth instalment of Meet Your Maker with Tim Harbour, Calrec's UI/UX Designer. So, what is GUI design, and why should we care?
1. What is G...
29/09/2021
Welcome to the eighth instalment of Meet Your Maker with Tim Harbour, Calrec's UI/UX Designer. So, what is GUI design, and why should we care?
1. What is G...
27/09/2021
Community radio broadcaster Eldos FM in Johannesburg, South Africa, is the latest broadcaster to take advantage of the benefits of IP with Calrec's Type R f...
10/09/2021
South African internet radio station Vibez.Live has moved into the digital realm with Calrec's Type R for Radio
Vibez.Live, an internet broadcaster is taki...
10/09/2021
How All Elite Wrestling kept things moving during the pandemic
By: Ryan Glick, FOH Engineer, All Elite Wrestling
For the past two years, I've had the good...
03/09/2021
Read all about it! Calrec helps Talking Newspaper back to live recording
After 15 months the Talking Newspaper for Todmorden (TNT) is back to live recording ...
30/07/2021
How Calrec ensured that broadcasters were always on
By Sid Stanley, General Manager at Calrec
Although 2020 was challenging in many ways, it proved how resi...
29/07/2021
Steve Gligorovic is a Senior Customer Support Engineer at Calrec.
He was the last Customer Support Engineer to return to Calrec prior to the outbreak of Covid ...
22/07/2021
City TV-Radio Agency in St. Petersburg, Russia, has installed a Calrec Summa console in its first UHD OB truck....
13/07/2021
Sixteen hardy hikers from Calrec are hoping to raise £10,000 for Overgate Hospice by completing the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge in under 12 hours.
On Satur...
23/06/2021
Calrec equips NBC Olympics with consoles and RP1 during its coverage of the Tokyo Olympics
NBC Olympics, a division of the NBC Sports Group, has selected Calre...
08/06/2021
Calrec expands remote commissioning and remote product demonstration capabilities
Calrec has expanded its global remote commissioning, training and product dem...
24/05/2021
Mixing Dolby Atmos: What you need to know
Mixing Dolby Atmos allows you to put the viewers right in the action by precisely placing and moving sounds to delive...
12/05/2021
Dolby Atmos live broadcast mixing: What you need to know
Mixing live broadcasts with Dolby Atmos allows you to put the viewers right in the action by precisely...
24/03/2021
Click the links below to read about our latest news stories....
11/03/2021
Click the links below to read about our latest case studies....
25/02/2021
A large number of inputs and outputs are being shared across the client's facilities. They have a lot of signals that come in and out from this location; t...
04/02/2021
He continued, As a company, owner reliability and support were at the forefront of the decision and we know that Calrec delivers on both fronts. Another big se...
04/02/2021
Training & Feature Reviews
We find that video makes compelling product overviews, says Bas. Manufacturer communication often has to be high-level, and becau...