Liberty University in Virginia, United States, has expanded its roster of Calrec technology with a trio of new Artemis and Brio consoles. It has also gone remote with the addition of Calrec’s VP2 virtualized mixing system.
Liberty already uses Type R for Radio, Summa, Artemis and Brio consoles and has expanded its network with two further installations carried out by systems integrator DVG.
The university implements the Calrec equipment across a variety of live and pre-recorded sports and entertainment shows. Students also use it for one-on-one broadcast audio training on industry-standard technology. Students receive hands-on experience on Calrec consoles and the opportunity to operate as an A1 on specific productions. Additionally, academic classes can utilize the school’s production control rooms during classes.
“Our consoles are used to live stream various NCAA Division 1 sports competitions on ESPN+ as well as three linear FBS Football Broadcasts on other ESPN networks. We also use the studios for our weekly Emmy Award-winning syndicated live sports talk show Flames Central, as well as for more corporate and entertainment shows,” said Louis James, manager of broadcast operations at Liberty University. “These include Liberty University Convocation, which is hosting guests this semester such as Dr. Tony Evans, journalist Shannon Bream, and New York Times Best Selling author Jon Acuff. There is also a music component to these shows, with a full band that can include up to eight vocalists.”
The Type R for Radio was purchased as part of a new radio studio build for live radio shows and podcast recordings. The university purchased the second Brio to upgrade a smaller control room and the second Artemis to replace a Summa console, which is now in Liberty’s mobile production unit. The school also wanted both its main production control rooms to have the same console, making it even easier to move shows between rooms.
James added, “Based on what we experienced and learned while doing production during the Covid-19 pandemic, we purchased VP2 for our Artemis consoles so that it can handle remote shows more flexibly.”
Josh Roberts, director of broadcast communications at Liberty University, said, “Calrec’s shared Hydra2 router core gives us the flexibility to adapt to whatever we are tasked with, so we’re able to accomplish a lot of different projects with little lead time. Perhaps the biggest advantage of using Calrec is the ability to build a show from scratch quickly. Also, the integration with Evertz via Hydra2 to TDM allows us to have 1,024 channels going from our six Calrec consoles to our router. This provides an incredible amount of versatility.”
