Welcome to the second instalment of Meet Your Maker Q&A! Meet Your Maker is a series of behind-the-scenes videos and blogs that illustrates the wide range of in-house skillsets used to design and manufacture our market-leading broadcast technology whilst exploring the amazing people behind Calrec.
This week we had the pleasure of speaking with Calrec's Lead Customer Support Engineer, Darren Silcock, about the importance of our close customer relationships, bespoke 24/7 support contracts & training and Calrec's no-nonsense approach to customer support.
1. What is your role with Calrec and what does it entail?
As the Lead Customer Support Engineer, I head up the Customer Support team to ensure that all customers receive an exceptional level of service, support and technical advice.
2. How big is the Customer Support Team?
We have seven UK-based engineers including myself, plus a highly technical Customer Support Manager. We support all Calrec customers and distributors around the world and have dedicated Calrec-trained US-based engineers on the East and West Coasts of America.
3. In what ways does Customer Support provide support to Calrec customers?
Customer Support provides a huge array of support facilities. One of the most important aspects of the Customer Support role is that we establish close relationships with all our customers. This allows us to gain a sound understanding of customer requirements, their systems, operational and technical requirements and provide a better, more empathetic level of support.
We also support site visits to customer facilities and OB trucks for commissioning, upgrades, system health-checks and onsite training. Part of this is handling upgrades for customers who operate 24/7 production schedules to ensure as little impact and risk as possible. This not only requires a high level of knowledge of the customer's system but also an exceptional background knowledge into the system/platform; how it's evolved over time, and any changes that have been made to hardware or software configurations.
We undertake system diagnostic work using system logging to allow events to be analysed. There is a large amount of telemetry within Calrec systems to allow us to cover events with extreme detail and accuracy.
And let's not forget training. The support team provides many training courses, often customised to suit customer requirements for specific configurations or site facilities.
And then there's operational and technical consultancy - we're not just here for problems! We are always happy to spend time discussing any new or changing workflow requirements that a customer has to help them identify and implement solutions
4. What is the global coverage? How do you work with other people in other countries?
Some customers we are able to deal with directly, but around the world, we work with an excellent and ever-expanding fleet of distributors.
Working with distributors allows us to provide a much better level of support as it provides customers with dedicated personnel that have been trained by Calrec engineers. It also allows local knowledge and practices to be maintained keeping a personal touch to the level of support.
5. How do you ensure local representatives are fully trained?
All distributors will visit the factory in the UK for an extended period to undertake an extensive range of training on all or specific Calrec products. It allows us to go through all the operational and technical training requirements, a huge amount of practical learning, configuring systems for their specific customer base, Q&A sessions, and a factory tour to see the build and progress of consoles.
Distributors have the complete freedom to immerse themselves into Calrec's world and products; it gives them a chance to not only use the products fully but also meet and get to know everyone in the factory. It's important that local representatives get to know people they will be working with in the factory on a day-to-day basis.
6. What about spares holding? How is that managed?
We hold a large amount of stock within the UK factory at Hebden Bridge and at strategic sites across the globe to ensure an extremely quick turnaround time. It is important that our customers get the parts they need asap to return to normal operation.
This not only covers our current range of products but also our legacy products there's a large amount of the older Calrec products still in daily use around the world!
Every console, asset and module that has ever left the factory is recorded, and this database is maintained daily. A good example of this is a commissioning visit for a new console. Prior to the console leaving the factory, every bit of information is recorded at the point it has completed factory testing. During the commissioning visit by the engineer if there is a new release of software this will be installed during that visit. The Customer Support engineer then makes sure that all records for that console are updated accordingly.
This ensures that any future replacement or additional hardware is configured correctly. Much of our hardware/software utilises a self-managed software process where a verification process is completed by the card itself on fitment. This further ensures spares are always configured correctly.
Calrec operates an AEU (advance exchange unit) for managing and distributing spares. This is a program whereby we ship a replacement part to the customer fully configured, and once fitted the original unit is returned to the Calrec factory for repair where it remains. This speeds up the process and allows facilities to get back up and running quicker.
7. What are the different levels of support contract?
We have three off-the-shelf levels of Support Contract that provide round-the-clock access to support servic
Most recent headlines
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
KPop Demon Hunters Stars Visit Berklee for Weeklong Celebration Andrew Choi and EJAE, who voiced the film's main characters and contributed to its soundtr...
16/12/2025
Hawkins has landed on Spotify, just in time for Stranger Things Season 5, Volume...
16/12/2025
Wherever you are, your favorite music and audio content should go seamlessly with you. That's why Spotify has partnered with NAVER Corp, Korea's leading...
16/12/2025
2025 Wrapped arrived bigger and bolder than ever. This year's experience is designed to be ultra personal and shareable, with new features like Wrapped Part...
16/12/2025
Three 12-kilowatt Advanced Electric Propulsion System thrusters, supplied by L3Harris Technologies, form the core of Gateway's propulsion system. Pictured i...
16/12/2025
The challenge facing America's defense industrial base is not just about speed - its about rebuilding the foundation that makes speed possible. Our nations ...
16/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
16/12/2025
SEVILLE, Spain Canal Sur, the public broadcasting service for Andalusia, Spain, has completed a total technology refresh based on Pebble's resilient, softwa...
16/12/2025
NEW YORK Teleprompting hardware provider Telescript International has acquired all software code and intellectual property previously owned by Telescript West. ...
16/12/2025
As cable operators face increased competition from 5G fixed wireless access providers, a new report from Ookla Research finds that T-Mobile is the FWA speed lea...
16/12/2025
Apple has announced a major upgrade to the Apple TV app for device owners outside the Apple ecosystem with news that the Apple TV app for Android now supports G...
16/12/2025
Space42 grows Direct-to-Device partner ecosystem through a Memorandum of Underst...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON Announces Release Date for Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2025 R...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON's Kyivstar Invests in Renewable Energy in Ukraine with Acq...
16/12/2025
Back to All News
Emma Appleton, Fares Fares, Frida Gustavsson and Jakob Oftebro...
16/12/2025
Back to All News
Docu-reality My Korean Boyfriend Gets a Trailer and Premiere D...
16/12/2025
Harmonic's XOS Advanced Media Processor Improves Streaming Video Quality and Boosts Viewer Engagement SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 16, 2025 - Harmonic (NASDAQ: ...
16/12/2025
RT Sport Awards 2025 live on RT One and RT Player at 8:05pm on Saturday 20 December.
On Saturday 20 December live on RT One and RT Player at the earlier t...
16/12/2025
Singer -songwriter Brian Kennedy has been announced as the final celebrity dance...
15/12/2025
Harlem Globetrotters Celebrate 100th Anniversary With New Brand Campaign From Th...
15/12/2025
Top L-R: La Tierra Del Valor (The Home of the Brave), Mangittatuarjuk (The Gnawe...
15/12/2025
L3Harris will leverage 15 years of experience supporting the E-4B Nightwatch and...
15/12/2025
CONWAY, Ark. In a notable example of how the loss of federal funding is forcing public stations to make massive cuts and operational changes, the statewide pub...
15/12/2025
BOULDER, Colo. Public Media Venture Group (PMVG), Venture Technologies Group (VTG), and WQED have completed a multipart agreement that they say will significant...
15/12/2025
Cape Town, November 13, 2025 - SES and International artist and humanitarian, Fo...
15/12/2025
Luxembourg, December 15, 2025 - SES, a leading space solutions company, and Abra Group launched fast and reliable multi-orbit inflight connectivity service on t...
15/12/2025
How Rivian s Design Puts Drivers First-And Why That Matters Published on Dec 15, 2025 Categories: Business Solutions
LinkedIn Corporate Communications
Sha...
15/12/2025
Space42 and Cobham Satcom completed the full range of advanced terminals for the...
15/12/2025
15 Dec 2025
VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan Delivers First Starlink Direct to Cel...
15/12/2025
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor finds himself the topic of year's cracker jokes
Oasis, David Harbour, Celebrity Traitors and Angela Rayner all feature in this y...
15/12/2025
Comscore Expands Cross-Platform Campaign Measurement to Include Audio and Social New capabilities strengthen cross-platform campaign reporting suite; CCR rebran...
15/12/2025
NVIDIA today announced it has acquired SchedMD - the leading developer of Slurm, an open-source workload management system for high-performance computing (HPC) ...
15/12/2025
RT .ie has reached one billion page views this year and is on track to finish 2025 2% ahead of last year. Average time spent on the site is up 3% on 2024, with ...
15/12/2025
Modern workflows showcase the endless possibilities of generative and agentic AI on PCs.
Of many, some examples include tuning a chatbot to handle product-supp...
13/12/2025
Powering Client Growth: Horizon Deepens Nielsen Partnership, Enabling More Effic...
13/12/2025
In a move that will help it offer more flexible and less costly programming options, YouTube TV has announced that it will be launching YouTube TV Plans with mo...
13/12/2025
SINGAPORE Magna Systems has designed, built and completed what is believed to be the first full UHD and IP-based OB truck in Southeast Asia for a Singapore medi...
12/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Everything You Need to Know for Next Week's Big Sho...
12/12/2025
Hailey Gates at the Atropia premiere (photo by George Pimentel / Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)...
12/12/2025
Last month, Spotify announced a new collaboration with the ATP Tour, the global governing body of men's professional tennis, aimed at bringing the next gene...
12/12/2025
CONWAY, Ark. In a notable example of how the elimination of Federal federal funding is forcing public stations to make massive cuts and changes in the way they...
12/12/2025
Wisycom and DPA Microphones announce the appointment of Ren Moerch as Group Product Director, Wireless, a strategic leadership role that will guide the combine...
Welcome to the second instalment of Meet Your Maker Q&A! Meet Your Maker is a series of behind-the-scenes videos and blogs that illustrates the wide range of in-house skillsets used to design and manufacture our market-leading broadcast technology whilst exploring the amazing people behind Calrec.
