Over recent years there has been a steady move towards unmanned audio rooms in news operations, using station automation systems. Calrec’s Serial Control Protocol (CSCP) has already provided a very successful transition to this model, allowing the audio console to be configured and driven entirely from the production control room’s vision switcher and remote fader panel.
Increasingly the console surface is not used at all creating a demand for a broadcast-level virtualised console.
The desire for a dedicated broadcast mixing solution with the requisite I/O infrastructure, processing and feature set is still imperative. Resilience and redundancy cannot be compromised, so Calrec has taken the next step with the introduction of the Type R headless console.