Grass Valley’s Ignite integrates with Calrec consoles
One for the live events market: Grass Valley has expanded the features and functionality of its Ignite automated production system with a new software release that, among other things, now supports users with existing or future Calrec audio mixing consoles.
According to GV, this new support for Calrec means that many of the same advanced audio control features that are currently available with Ignite’s built-in Klotz audio console, such as cross fading, back-up sources, and automation panel access, are also available with third-party interfaces to audio board suppliers like Calrec. As well as the ability to control Calrec’s Sigma, Omega, Alpha, and Zeta audio consoles, Ignite 6.1 now also provides enhanced audio controls of mixing consoles from Yamaha, and Wheatstone.
All this means that an existing Calrec audio system can be integrated as part of the implementation of the Ignite production automation system. And of course while Calrec consoles can be automatically controlled via the Ignite interface, a customer’s existing Calrec audio panel can still be used manually whenever required.
“We’ve come to recognize that many of our customers, and potential customers, use Calrec audio consoles to produce their shows,” said Scott Murray, senior vice president, live production solutions for Grass Valley. “We want these users to be comfortable in the knowledge that installing an Ignite system will not change the way they mix audio, and their initial investment in Calrec consoles is secure.”
With the new software, all of the 196 faders on a Calrec mixing console are controllable directly from Ignite. Of these 196 faders, 192 (maximum) are input channel faders, and the remaining four (ibid) are main faders that control the master output.
Ignite version 6.1 also gives users the ability to switch between primary and backup faders, and have the backup faders used for the duration of the show with no requirement by the operator to make modification to later show elements. Ignite 6.1 can also be used to control the fader level of input channels, group and VCA masters; switch Pre-Fader Listen (PFL) on or off for a particular Channel, Group, Main or VCA Master Fader; the ability to “Hold” a source open to enable talent “chat” in an ad-hoc fashion; it can function with Ignite’s “Live” and “Prep” modes; and support for custom-namable Virtual Sources.
As part of Ignite automated shows, the audio processing done by the Calrec audio console will also be fully automated. In addition, users can manually control their mixer from both the Ignite Audio User Interface and from the QUICbox automation panel audio sliders for impressive production flexibility.