“Calrec is the standard for sports broadcasting.”

If you are afforded the privilege to work on a Super Bowl, it’s a moving experience. You find yourself surrounded by the very best in our industry. Everyone you interact with has amazing stories of accomplishment: it’s a humbling experience. This year I was asked to be the Tape Release Submixer for Jamie McCombs, the Senior Audio Engineer, who assigned added EVS sources to me. 

I was on a Calrec Artemis in the Upper Compound and another Audio Engineer was in an adjacent room, also on an Artemis and he handled pre-game content. These two consoles were connected via SMPTE 2110 using a shared Calrec ImPulse Core.

This is a Calrec compound for this broadcaster. There were two Apollos and four Artemis in the loop in total. Calrec is the standard for sports broadcasting. Audio Engineers are very familiar with them as they are the consoles we sit in front of most often. The architecture is recognizable and it’s very similar across their products. This architectural familiarity is crucial.

When you’re working on a show like the Super Bowl, with that level of viewership and importance, the stakes have changed. In this environment you’re at a different level of intensity and delivery: you know you are at the Super Bowl. On other events, I try and play this down while working – it’s just TV; do your job! – but man, when you’re doing this, you know the scale.