AMP VISUAL TV Installs Calec Consoles for Le Mans Coverage

Calrec has entered the French broadcasting market with panache. Outside broadcasting (OB) giant AMP VISUAL TV has chosen the company’s Apollo, Artemis, and Artemis Light audio consoles for its landmark new vehicle, marking Calrec’s first sale in France. The new truck, the Millenium Signature 12 (MS12), will be the standard-bearer in the AMP VISUAL TV fleet and will make its debut for coverage of the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance automobile race in June. 

AMP VISUAL TV maintains one of Europe’s largest fleets of OB vans and offers complete, end-to-end services for live and on-location television productions. Boasting the world’s largest surface area — 76 square meters — MS12 includes two video studios, two audio studios, and 40 workstations with full 4K UHDTV production capabilities.

“With MS12, we had a unique opportunity to build the most versatile truck on the market. We wanted to be able to maximize the equipment for any size of international production. The flexibility and modularity of the Calrec desks made them a perfect fit for this vision. The consoles offer full redundancy to give us peace of mind for major events, and their plug-and-play operation simplifies productions and gives us even more versatility,” said Emmanuel Le Marquand, audio operating manager, AMP VISUAL TV. 

“Calrec is renowned for technology excellence in OB deployments, and the presales support we received was fantastic. We know we’ve made a great choice with Calrec.”

In a departure from its chosen audio-console vendor after more than 15 years, AMP VISUAL TV has turned to Calrec Audio for MS12. The truck includes a 56-fader Apollo console, a 24-fader Artemis Light console, and a 16-fader Artemis sidecar that can be used to extend the other two. This offers AMP VISUAL TV the flexibility to use the audio equipment in a variety of different configurations both in and out of the truck. For instance, the Artemis Light can be removed and used in another location, such as a flight control room, and the Apollo can be extended by the sidecar to provide a total of 72 faders. MS12 can operate fully equipped when needed and support two productions at once, or it can run at 50 percent for smaller events.

“AMP VISUAL TV isn’t just our first French customer — it’s also the biggest OB company in France and a major player throughout Europe,” said Florent Chaouby, international sales manager, Calrec Audio. 

“In a market dominated by one of our biggest competitors, the fact that AMP VISUAL TV has placed its confidence in Calrec is a huge milestone for our company. Not only is MS12 a showcase for leading-edge UHDTV broadcasting, but its built-in modularity is truly unprecedented for an OB truck of its size. This modularity is enabled in large part by the versatility of our Apollo and Artemis solutions.”