Calrec Audio has made its first sale of its Artemis console into Europe, writes Kevin Hilton. The deal with commercial outside broadcast company Telerecord is also the first time the manufacturer has sold into Italy and marks another step in its efforts to expand beyond its core UK and US markets.
The Artemis Beam desk, with 340 channel processing paths, has been installed in a multiple camera HD OB trailer, which is due to go into operation early in the new year. Telerecord was founded in 1976 and works for leading broadcasters and production companies in Italy, including Infront Sports and Media, Sky, Mediaset and RAI. It began working in HD in 2004 and 3D in 2007. The sale of the console was arranged through Calrec's Italian distributor, Aret.
Calrec's sales manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Chas Rowden (pictured, right, with Alessandro Asti of Aret), says Europe is "a very logical area of expansion" for the company. Rowden feels that by adopting FPGA circuits and fixed point architecture for its new generation of console, Calrec has a definite advantage over its competitors, many of which are still using SHARC (Super Harvard Architecture Single-Chip Computer) technology.
Although many large-scale European broadcast centres are being planned, Rowden says such opportunities for equipment sales come round only every five to eight years due to the level of investment and planning involved. Rowden has developed relationships with "every major state broadcaster in Europe" and believes that, as with Telerecord, there are also opportunities for single sales into OB and national broadcast stations.
