NBC Will Use Calrec Audio Technology for the Sochi Winter Games
(OLYMPICS TECHNOLOGY)
The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi are only weeks away and the world will descend on the Black Sea resort town to witness the best athletes in the world for 16 days. With an estimated total of more than $50 billion spent on the games, it will be the most expensive to date for both winter and summer games. The Russian government has spared no expense to ensure this will be the best Olympic Games ever, and the most technologically advanced. Access to the games will be delivered across different mediums to ensure viewers will be able to watch the games from virtually anywhere around the world.
As the official broadcaster of the Olympics, NBC once again will be showing the games in the US. The company announced it is going to be using five Artemis Consoles from Calrec Audio so it can have access to complex audio mixing broadcast capability. It has purchased two 64-fader Artemis Shine consoles as well as renting a 40-fader and two 24-fader Artemis Beam consoles from Calrec.
The audio company is also providing stage boxes in digital, analog and MADI formats to fulfill the I/O requirements along with on-site engineering support before and while the games are taking place. The relationship between Carlec and NBC goes back all the way to the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games.
The technology Calrec provides is designed for professional broadcasters, and since 1964 the company has been globally recognized for creating the most innovative solutions in the industry.
All Artemis consoles feature:
- 12 dual layers of faders
- 6 full bands of parametric EQ / filters on each channel, group and main path
- 2 x compressor / limiters, 1 x expander / gate, and sidechain EQ / filters on each channel, group and main path
- 4 independant simultaneous post fader, pre fader or pre EQ track / IFB sends per channel / group path
- Comprehensive monitoring and metering. User splits and independent monitoring for multiple operators.
- Independent DSP, routing and control processing
- Integral 8192x8192 router with up to 512 audio channels per Hydra2 port. Fully integrable with any Hydra2 network
- Extensive range of Hydra2 I/O available
- Copper or fiber connectivity
- Highly resilient, comprehensive redundancy and fully hot-pluggable
- Low power consumption and heat generation
In order to deliver this content the Sochi Games has put in place one of the most robust networks ever, capable of providing 54 terabits per second (Tbps) of bandwidth. The network will be able to support tens of thousands of Olympic employees with mobile devices, volunteers, athletes, media, and others with an all-IP, fabric-enable, virtualized and multiservice platform.
The network was created by Avaya (News 
- Alert), which was also responsible for the 2006 Games in Torino and 2010 Games in Vancouver.
The Avaya support for NBC will be the eighth Olympic in a row, and it will be providing on-site communication capabilities with several hundred messaging-enabled phones spread across three sites in Sochi, including the international broadcasting center. The sites will be connected to NBC's headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, and the NBC Studios in Manhattan.
Edited by Cassandra Tucker
