Hebden Bridge, 18th March 2020— The All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) is completing the installation of 30 Calrec Brio36 audio consoles into its regional studios as part of a 10-year HD network upgrade program.
Ilya Lebedev, Chief of Regional TV systems Departmentat VGTRK, said, “The challenge was that we needed an audio console that would work seamlessly across different stations with varying needs over a wide territory. We’d known of Calrec’s good reputation, and our integration partner, OKNO-TV, suggested using the Brio console for our studio upgrades. The Brio is a vast improvement over what we were previously usingin these studios, with superb sound quality. In combination with Calrec’s Br.IO Stageboxes, this expands our capabilities and gives us the flexibility and sound quality that we need across various production formats.”
These 30 television studios are part of a huge network of more than 80 television centres that are located at regional capitalsand produce a wide range of content including news and entertainment programming, often both in Russian and the localregionallanguage. Each studio is installing a Brio36 as the main console, a Br.IO Stagebox to expand the I/O capacity, along with an Allen & Heath ZED16 as the backup console. The Br.IO Stageboxes are being used for wired and wireless microphones, speakers, and wireless monitoring transmitters.
VGTRK owns and operates multiple international, national and over 80 regional TV and radio networks. This includes “Russia 24”, which is Russia’s first 24/7 news channel, as well as the popular RTR-Planeta, which is VGTRK’s international service that’s available throughout the world via cable and satellite.
The project was managed by OKNO-TV, a leading systems integrator in the Russian Federation.
Lebedev said, “It was a challenge to work to a single, overall technological ideology, along with common installation processes, across such a vast area and so many companies. This unity of purpose also had to be maintained across this entire 10-year project. But the results speak for themselves and enhance the viewer experience, our ultimate aim.”
“It’s an honour to be working with Russia’s largest media company on such a huge project. Since we launched our Brio consoles, we’ve seen great uptake on a global basis. The power and compact form factor, combined with ease-of-use and premium sound quality, give our customers confidence even with a project as complex as this. VGTRK’s upgrade is ticking all its boxes when it comes to audio,” said Michael Reddick, International Sales Manager, Calrec.