Hebden Bridge, UK (June 16, 2023)—Universal Remote.tv recently concluded a remote mixing proof of concept (POC) that enables A1s to work from home using Calrec’s IP-based, compact form factor Type R.
According to Sean O’Gorman, who recently established Universal Remote.tv with fellow A1 Shawn Peacock, the current REMI model isn’t working properly. “One of the results of the pandemic has been [that] many entities have built-out regional ‘pod’-based production facilities to handle remote productions [REMI] across the U.S. and world. One issue with these facilities has been finding high-quality, experienced audio engineers at a competitive pay scale to handle the massive number of events they have to cover; think, regional sports networks [RSNs]. Often, the inexperience of ‘local’ engineers has led to networks having to fly in experienced engineers into these remote facilities. This is not optimal for either party.”
Working with mixed martial arts event producers Professional Fighters League (PFL), to whom they have been providing a range of audio mixing, network and equipment services for a number of years, Universal Remote.tv proposed a POC to show how remote mixing, leaving the overall transmission chain unaffected, could solve the problem. PFL agreed to let them trial the concept on the world feed of its recent pre-season build-up event at Universal Studios, FL, from late January to late February.
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Universal Remote.tv turned to Calrec for the technology to carry out this POC. Peacock says, “We really wanted to work with Calrec because its technology is in 99 percent of the trucks in the U.S. and they are innovative, tried and trusted and rock solid. Crucial to this is the technology form factor of the Type R so it’s economically viable to ship the control surfaces to wherever the A1 is, with the core in the OB truck, which they can then set up in a control room in their house. This is coupled with the fact that it’s IP-based, of course. The Type R really fits this bill as its compact and modular, allowing us to keep all the DSP at the OB truck onsite and then feed the control signals from the A1’s property to the truck.”
For this POC, the Type R was integrated on Universal Remote.tv’s network over Dante and a low latency, WAN-friendly codec was used to ship the control room monitor output of the core in the OB truck to the engineer—in this case, Peacock, at his house. The latency—the delay between the A1 selecting the source and hearing it—was set by Universal at 175 ms. Signals were passed over the public internet using a VPN. “Being able to do this using public internet rather than dedicated connectivity is a huge boon,” O’Gorman says.
“We want to maximize the time experienced engineers are sitting behind a console and minimize the time they’re sitting on a plane,” he says. “On Monday and Tuesday, for example, they could be mixing a dog show out of New York and on Wednesday and Thursday they could be mixing a college basketball game in L.A. Our goal is to bring the work, tools and resources to experienced A1s and ‘swing’ the shows to them, and this POC shows how well this works.”
