As part of an expansion and upgrade project, Bosnia’s Al Jazeera Balkans has
installed a Calrec router core, two Artemis audio consoles, and a Summa console.
The router core provides the hub for a centralised audio network that allows
resources to be shared among all of its studios.

“Al Jazeera Balkans started in November 2011 with one studio and one stand-alone
digital audio console. When we decided to expand our facility, we chose Calrec
because they offer very powerful, rock-solid consoles built with broadcasters in
mind. That’s why Calrec is at the heart of our audio infrastructure,” said Mirad
Isakovic, manager of the broadcast technology department at Al Jazeera Balkans.

“Our operators like Calrec consoles because they are user-friendly, the surface is
clearly organised and arranged in a way that makes sense, and everything is
readily available. Calrec simply makes the operators’ lives easier. Now we have
two television studios and we can share cameras, microphones, and other sources
from one studio to another.”

Al Jazeera Balkans has installed identical Artemis Light consoles in its TV studios
and a Summa console — the first Summa in the Al Jazeera organization — in the
new radio studio. The consoles, along with eight I/O boxes placed throughout the
facility, connect to the router core via Calrec’s Hydra2 networking protocol. By
using the Hydra2 network, the consoles can share signals and resources as needed.

The Artemis consoles also integrate with the broadcaster’s Mosart automation
system. Operators can control functions such as patching, routing, equalization, and
faders if needed, while Mosart controls only the faders. This ability to automate
fader control speeds up operations and makes workflows more efficient.

“Calrec provided excellent support. We had to replace our existing console with the
Artemis overnight so that it would be ready for live news production the next day.
That meant our installation timeline was extremely tight,” Isakovic said. “We had an
excellent work experience with the Calrec engineers and support team. They helped
us ready the Hydra2 network and router core and configure the Artemis ahead of
time, so the changeover went smoothly.”

Currently Al Jazeera Balkans is only using one of the Artemis consoles (in the main
TV studio) for live news. The broadcaster is conducting dry runs with the second
Artemis and the Summa and expects them to go live in February 2016.

“Al Jazeera Balkans needed a fully integrated audio solution that ensures all
resources and signals will be available on any console at any time, which is
precisely what our Hydra2 network is designed to do,” said Mike Reddick,
international sales manager for Calrec.

“Now, instead of having one stand-alone console with limited I/O, Al Jazeera
Balkans has multiple, larger consoles with more faders and layers; more PGM, AUX,
group, and track buses; more functionality; more flexibility; and more efficiency —
all linked on a Hydra2 network. That complete audio-networking capability gives Al
Jazeera Balkans the redundancy that’s critical for any live broadcast environment.
We believe this benefit is one reason the Al Jazeera organization has chosen to
standardise on Calrec whenever possible.”