As a France-based broadcast audio expert, Marine Martignac has multiple roles, exposing her to many and varied ways of working. She believes it's in the industry's best interest to move forward with IP technologies. I think we're living a revolution, she says. Read on to find out her thoughts on this and how Calrec technology is helping to shape the future.How did you become an Audio Technician and what inspired you to go into that field?
I graduated in 2016 and soon after I was hired part-time by an outside broadcast specialist called BOB (Bo te Outils). At the same time, I started working as a freelancer for another company called Imagina. Working part-time for BOB, while being a casual worker for other companies, allowed me to discover and learn new working approaches and to use a variety of equipment. It also gave me the opportunity to take part in longer-term projects, such as control room integrations with BOB.
Are you working full-time at BOB, or are you freelancing and working for other companies?
I work part-time for BOB and with what's left of my time I work as a freelancer for France T l visions (for both studio and outside broadcast productions), Mediapro France and formerly Imagina EU (for beIN Sport France control rooms operations), and I also work with Masterfilms, CFRT and beIN Sport.
How long have you been working as an Audio Technician?
I started working for BOB and beIN Sport (Imagina) as soon as I left school, and then I got the opportunity to work for other companies such as Alive and Gearhouse.
In 2018, I started working for Masterfilms and Ixi Live and in 2019 I started doing freelance work for France T l visions too. In 2020, Mediapro set up its own TV channel after obtaining L1 and L2 broadcasting rights and AMP Visual TV became beIN Sport's technical service provider. AMP Visual TV then became my new employer following Mediapro taking over beIN Sport control rooms operations.
What do your current roles involve?
BOB
BOB handles both services and integrations. Our job is to provide services such as sporting event recordings (futsal matches, synchronised swimming championships, Roland Garros ), cultural event recordings (fashion shows, opera and theatre performances), but also control room integrations. We focus on our customer needs and then deploy every human and material resource we have in order to meet those needs. This goes from designing a flypack to a fixed control room. My job is mainly to take care of the audio aspect, whether it's providing a service or working for the design office. This means that I listen to what our client needs in order to draft an invitation to tender. Once the company is chosen, I keep monitoring and I make sure the company is doing its job correctly, and fully satisfying the tender requirements.
France T l visions
At France T l visions I am a Sound Operator which means I assist the Chief Operator during broadcasts, working on-set, mic up necessary equipment and perform other sound-related duties.
Mediapro Mobile
I am a Sound Operator for Mediapro for mobile. Mediapro is the technical service provider for the contribution side of the top two football leagues in France. I'm responsible for setting up the OB van as well as patching the sources, configuring intercoms before the match, and mixing the international feed during the matches.
Telefoot
Mediapro set up its sports channel in August 2020. I am a Sound Operator; I mix all non-voice sources like the playout servers (for example, EVS Live Slow Motion (LSM) or IP Director) music, international versions for the matches etc.). I also have to manage the intercom for the control room too. The Chief of Audio is responsible for mixing all of the voice sources (micro, skype, duplex). They use a Calrec Artemis.
AMP Visual TV pour beIN Sport
I mix matches from different European football competitions or US sports, such as the NBA.
When did you first start working with Calrec products? What Calrec consoles have you used over the years and for what projects?
The first time I became really interested in Calrec products was at an IBC show when I was looking for a console to answer a customer's request for a fixed installation.
I discovered a new console from Calrec that met my criteria: it was the Brio 36. After several discussions, we chose this console for this project. Meanwhile, Audiopole became the French distributor for Calrec and we were already working with them on other products. For the past three years, the Brio36 has perfectly met all the demands of the TV show Clique, a daily talk show broadcast on Canal +.
Then SMPTE-2110 IP standard was released and has undeniably became the future for productions - especially for its simplicity of wiring and its flexibility. We therefore continued with Calrec's Type R console natively using SMPTE-2110.
We were working on IP integration of different products when Covid-19 changed things and other matters became more important. We are a technical service provider with BOB for Clique. During the first lockdown, we proposed to set up a remote production in order to follow the new Covid protocols without interrupting the filming. The show had already been simplified in terms of the number of contributors and guests on set. We therefore designed a setup with the Type R and a Clearcom matrix to be able to control the console remotely without transporting audio (outside of monitoring) and providing an intercom system.
Since August, I've worked with an Artemis console for T l foot and I am working on an OB van project that contains two Calrec sound consoles.
Can you describe a remote working project you did with BOB for Clique where you've used Type R and what standout advantages the console gave you?
Calrec's Type R is a modular mixer with ST2110 compatibility. All of the fad
