Cloudbass Builds Next-Gen OB Trucks Around Calrec Argo M

OB specialist Cloudbass has expanded its fleet with two outside broadcast trucks designed specifically for remote production, each built around Calrec's Argo M console.

Under a four-year contract to deliver 104 football matches per season, the company has equipped OB20 with a 48-fader Argo M, dual Calrec ImPulse1 cores and an RP1 remote production engine, while OB21 carries a 24-fader Argo M alongside a second RP1. The trucks were purpose-built by dB Broadcast and engineered around SMPTE 2110 workflows.

"The integration of the Calrec Argo M consoles into the IP layer was fairly seamless. The ability to have an almost unlimited amount of streams in and out has made the design process really simple," said Mike Beaumont, Technical Director at Cloudbass.

Sound Guarantee Nat Jones joined after the design phase to concentrate on installation and configuration of the new desks. "In OB20 and OB21, we gather all incoming field sources and use the Argo M consoles to ensure they are clean and are arriving at the right levels," he said. "We then pass them on to the broadcaster over AES67 streams. We also send them to the RP1 in the truck to provide local ear mixes."

Jones added that moving to IP enables audio and vision teams to share infrastructure in the field. "It means we can put a single pair of switches out in the field and it doesn't matter if we plug in a Hydra, some vision equipment or a camera, it all works over the same backbone."

Headquartered in the East Midlands and with more than 25 years' OB experience across sport, music festivals and state occasions, Cloudbass has seen several technology shifts. "The outside broadcast industry is changing quite rapidly,” says Beaumont. “There’s a lot of new technology out there, some of it works well for remote production, some of it doesn’t. Much of it is software-defined, and the way companies approach building OBs is changing. But the one thing that isn't changing is the need for a physical surface. Yes, you can work on touchscreens, but it doesn’t have the same immediacy as a real fader."

Rapid turnarounds are routine for the new units. "Last season, OB21 in particular covered the 3pm Saturday match and then bounced to a different venue for the 2pm Sunday game," said Beaumont. "It doesn’t leave much time for setup but having the Hydra boxes outside accelerates that."

"We've used Calrec exclusively in all our outside broadcast trucks, so it was the natural choice to move to the new generation of the Argo M," said Beaumont.

calrec.com