New Remote Truck

[HughH]

Hello,

Denali Video, the entertainment division of NEP Broadcasting, just premiered our new HD remote production truck for the Stand Up 2 Cancer show at the Kodak theater. It's Denali Summit, and it's extraordinary. This is by no means a press release but a few video highlights include - two expanding trailers form the complete system, 24 Sony HDC1500 camera support, support for 24 vtrs plus 7 multichannel DDRs, extensive monitoring and multiviewer system.

The important part (for me), audio, includes -
Calrec Alpha Bluefin with 96 faders, capable of 480 mono-equivalent full-featured mixable channels with dynamics in combinations of mono, stereo, and 5.1 channels, plus 5.1 Groups and Masters. Four Madi ports plus Hydra.
Alpha Hydra fiber to the stage, with 144 inputs and 48 returns, expandable.
Additional 32 channels each way of line-level fiber.
Multitrack system consists of 4 X-48's plus connectivity for 128 tracks of guest AES multitrack, 128 tracks of Madi multitrack, and 128 tracks of guest analog multitrack, all simultaneously.
1344x1344 mono-equivalent audio router
2 - Cedar DNS1500 units.
4 - Aphex 320D Compellors
2 - Aphex 661 Expressors
2 - Empirical Labs Distressors
3 - Summit DCL200 stereo compressors
2 - channels Universal Audio 1176
2 - TC Electronics D-2 delay units.
1 - Yamaha SPX2000 (for those times when you just need one).
1 - TC Electronics Reverb 6000
1 - TC Electronics Mastering 6000 and UnWrap
1 - TC Icon controller.
1 - Eventide FW8000
1 - Eventide Eclipse
misc dBx compressors and gates
Meyer HD-1 audio room monitoring plus JBL4312 Lfe.
Large infrastructure of DolbyE, hundreds of DAs, connectivity, etc. Lots and lots of connectivity.

It was a hard road getting there and I'm very proud of our new baby. The audio room is quiet, a treat in most video trucks. Hope to see a number of you soon.
It's not on the site yet, and I'll post some pictures when I can take them.

Thanks for listening,
Hugh Healy
Denali Video

[huub]

96 faders?! how huge is that truck??

[Roland]

Originally Posted by huub

96 faders?! how huge is that truck??

More worrying is having a Calrec console now they've ceased trading. I personally wouldn't want to build a truck these day's without a digital console in it, YMMV.

Regards


Roland

[Remoteness]

Originally Posted by Roland

More worrying is having a Calrec console now they've ceased trading. I personally wouldn't want to build a truck these day's without a digital console in it, YMMV.

Regards


Roland

Roland,

Calrec is doing fine and stronger than ever.
It's a standard in the mobile teleproduction arena.

Perhaps you mean Cadac?
Their doors closed a while back.

[Remoteness]

Hugh,

I look forward to seeing the picture you will upload.

Furthermore, I love the redundant multi-track recording set-up.
Can you give us some more details about it's interface and monitoring of all redundant returns?

Awesome! I cannot wait to see and hear more about this fabulous mobile unit.

[0VU]

Originally Posted by Roland

More worrying is having a Calrec console now they've ceased trading. I personally wouldn't want to build a truck these day's without a digital console in it, YMMV.

Regards


Roland

Not only is Calrec very much alive and kicking but, as the OP's listing of its spec indicates, the Alpha is one of the most powerful digital consoles on the market and , in typical Calrec fashion, is amazingly compact for it's capabilities, without compromising the ergonomics to the point of it being a problem.

Sounds like a nice truck for those irritating 'little' jobs needing hundreds of inputs and a lot of redundancy.

[Roland]

Indeed, my bad, I was confusing it with Cadac. No wonder 96 channels isn't a problem being that it's a digital desk, I know that Calrec have a great reputation in broadcast desks.

Regards


Roland

[Remoteness]

I live for gigs with hundreds of inputs and lots of redundancy...

It's a great head to be in.

[Legacy]

Hello Hugh!

Congratulations! You did it - amazing. I look forward to the pictures. Does it expand the way you described in SF?

And here I thought your older truck was impressive...

I hope all is well,
Silas

[HughH]

Hello,

Sorry I haven't posted any pictures yet, we've been swamped with work and I haven't had time. Plus I'm a lousy photographer!

Silas - good to hear from you! I really enjoyed working with you and Adam in SF - you guys were stellar. Sounded great. You had us veeeeeery close to buying Pyramix for our multitracks. Nice system you used.
Yes, the trailers expand on both sides. The audio room is quite large for a television truck, even larger than our Gold and Silver units. Phil Ramone and Jeff Fecteau were in there during the Stand Up 2 Cancer show and they liked it as well.

Steve - On live shows redundant multitracks are necessary as you know because they're computers and fail, and because folks want to bring in their own flavor. We need to accommodate Madi, aes, and analog in that realm simultaneously.
Our multitrack return switching is accomplished by Madi switching the returns back into the desk. For QC all the Madi is DA'd, and there is a separate Madi QC computer for checking.

I'll post pictures when I can.

Hugh

[Legacy]

Thanks Hugh! You saved us on the SF gig - it was as simple as that. Never again will I fly and expect that at least 2 out of 3 backups will arrive safely

Too bad we couldn't quite pull you over to the darkside on the PMX front .

Can't wait to see the pics. Your existing room was quite comfortable-this one must be huge.

Best,
Silas

[HughH]

Hello,

The only reason we didn't go either Pyramix or Nuendo was operator familiarity. I personally can deal with those systems or ProTools, but others don't want the mental overhead of a full DAW. The X-48, while far from perfect, is slightly more toward the "audio appliance" model. Still not great, but lots less time consuming than a "normal" DAW.

Here are some pictures of the audio room.

http://web.me.com/hughhealy

Thanks for listening.
H

[huub]

We did go for pyramix
This is our new, triple expandable, 32 cam HD unit, OBV14
audiohok obv14 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The backlit ghielmetti patchbay is pretty cool I think
This was last week, when I recorded an Il Divo dvd in pula, croatia..
obv14 enpula arena on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

We only have 56 faders though :(

huub

[HughH]

Hello,

Here are some updated pictures of our new mobile unit, Denali Video.

Here's a temp link to the gear -
SUMMIT Audio

Hugh Healy
Denali Video

[BLP]

Wow, Hugh, that is a beautiful truck! It looks like every angle is covered (right down to the awesome multiple video monitors at the producer's desk). I'm truly experiencing a moment of pure, unadulterated jealously right now. Congratulations!

[Remoteness]

Hugh:

Very strong!

[matskull]

Originally Posted by HughH

Hello,

Here are some updated pictures of our new mobile unit, Denali Video.

Here's a temp link to the gear -
SUMMIT Audio

Hugh Healy
Denali Video

Holy shit!
Must be one hell of a truck!

[HughH]

Hello,
Thank you, we're very pleased with it and have been quite busy since it came out in September. We couldn't have done it without the excellent build folks at NEP, they do the best work I've ever seen in a mobile truck. I wanted to post these new pictures, as the last ones were taken by someone who is not a photographer (me), and these actually look good.

If you're at Grammys or Oscars this year please stop by and say hi.

Here are some diagrams of the truck layout - the system is two trailers to make room for everyone. The A unit holds production, audio, and video server playback. The B unit holds transmission, graphics/screens, vid server/tape, and video.

Thanks for looking at these, it's hard to describe the feeling of working this hard to design something, have it come out very well, and then be booked constantly. We're proud of it.

Hugh Healy
Denali Video

[effanel- rand]

I've been in a lot of "audio booths" in video trucks over the years. Pretty unlistenable spaces, by and large. When I stepped into Summit's "Audio Control Room" at The CMA's in Nashville awhile back, I was blown away. The music coming from the Effanel audio truck next door sounded like MUSIC in Summit. Hats off to Tweeter (one of the great audio designers on the planet) and Hugh for a job well done! See you at The Grammys. ((Phil Ramone will at last be able to listen to the Grammy surround mix in the video truck!)) Best, Randy Ezratty

[Remoteness]

Awesome!

[ssaudio]

Originally Posted by Remoteness

Perhaps you mean Cadac?
Their doors closed a while back.

Pro Sound News Europe - Cadac in business again with all jobs saved

[Roland]

Originally Posted by ssaudio

Pro Sound News Europe - Cadac in business again with all jobs saved

It's good to hear that someone steped in to save them, however, I fear that they may have already been out too long. I see from the press release that their new digital console is due out mid 2009, however, many of Cadacs traditional customers have already made the move to other systems, I suspect that is what led to the problems they had. With systems like the Yamaha LS9, M7cl and Digidesign's Venue profile, Soundcraft's Vi series the market is already full of great small footprint options. IMHO, sadly Cadac will have to produce something that is truly groundbreaking or this will just be a death-rattle.

Regards



Roland

[ssaudio]

I couldn't agree more.

I'm not even convinced any of the existing companies are making money from their digital desks...

[Roland]

Originally Posted by ssaudio

I couldn't agree more.

I'm not even convinced any of the existing companies are making money from their digital desks...

I expect that Yamaha are doing very nicely from the M7 and PM5, Digidesign have sold to a fair number of tours and have made huge inroads into the American church market, as we all know this is by far the largest market. I understand they are also popular on London stage shows. Digico seem to have their own loyal following, however good as they may sound, I'm left thinking they look expensive these days, Midas, well price wise IMHO they are just plain silly. Time will tell who survives the market.

Regards


Roland

[ssaudio]

I used the Digico last week - didn't like it at all, horrible UI

The XL8 is fantastic, but yes, ridiculously priced.

The Yamahas are excellent for installs, very intuitive for visiting engineers; I'm a fan.

I still don't think the 'sound' is quite there with any of them, but given the flexibility, that's splitting hairs.

Definitely the future.

[Roland]

Originally Posted by ssaudio

I used the Digico last week - didn't like it at all, horrible UI

The XL8 is fantastic, but yes, ridiculously priced.

The Yamahas are excellent for installs, very intuitive for visiting engineers; I'm a fan.

I still don't think the 'sound' is quite there with any of them, but given the flexibility, that's splitting hairs.

Definitely the future.

Unfortunately we are moving way off topic, perhaps Steve can move this or I could open up a new thread? Much of this stuff is very interesting, particularly as this is the way it is all going. Steve remote uses an M7cl, perhaps he will give us some insight into how it figures in his recording/remote set-up.

Regards


Roland

P.S. I've decided to start a new thread...
Views on the current crop of digital desks for live sound or broadcast/recording.

[jdmmobile]

Originally Posted by HughH

Hello,

Denali Video, the entertainment division of NEP Broadcasting, just premiered our new HD remote production truck for the Stand Up 2 Cancer show at the Kodak theater. It's Denali Summit, and it's extraordinary. This is by no means a press release but a few video highlights include - two expanding trailers form the complete system, 24 Sony HDC1500 camera support, support for 24 vtrs plus 7 multichannel DDRs, extensive monitoring and multiviewer system.

The important part (for me), audio, includes -
Calrec Alpha Bluefin with 96 faders, capable of 480 mono-equivalent full-featured mixable channels with dynamics in combinations of mono, stereo, and 5.1 channels, plus 5.1 Groups and Masters. Four Madi ports plus Hydra.
Alpha Hydra fiber to the stage, with 144 inputs and 48 returns, expandable.
Additional 32 channels each way of line-level fiber.
Multitrack system consists of 4 X-48's plus connectivity for 128 tracks of guest AES multitrack, 128 tracks of Madi multitrack, and 128 tracks of guest analog multitrack, all simultaneously.
1344x1344 mono-equivalent audio router
2 - Cedar DNS1500 units.
4 - Aphex 320D Compellors
2 - Aphex 661 Expressors
2 - Empirical Labs Distressors
3 - Summit DCL200 stereo compressors
2 - channels Universal Audio 1176
2 - TC Electronics D-2 delay units.
1 - Yamaha SPX2000 (for those times when you just need one).
1 - TC Electronics Reverb 6000
1 - TC Electronics Mastering 6000 and UnWrap
1 - TC Icon controller.
1 - Eventide FW8000
1 - Eventide Eclipse
misc dBx compressors and gates
Meyer HD-1 audio room monitoring plus JBL4312 Lfe.
Large infrastructure of DolbyE, hundreds of DAs, connectivity, etc. Lots and lots of connectivity.

It was a hard road getting there and I'm very proud of our new baby. The audio room is quiet, a treat in most video trucks. Hope to see a number of you soon.
It's not on the site yet, and I'll post some pictures when I can take them.

Thanks for listening,
Hugh Healy
Denali Video

Hugh! Seems to be a nice rig. You have a great mix of gear to get live broadcast snapping. What are you guys going to use for multi-track? Pro Tools, Radar? Best of luck! I am/wasn't NEP, but I may have you online for some future stuff if all goes well since Beluga is parked in the shop. The shows we are discussing have NEP on video production.

JD

[HughH]

Hello Jimmy,

Thanks, we're quite pleased with it and our clients are as well.
Our multitracks consist of 2 - X-48s for 96 track primary and a Nuendo system for 128 tracks of backup.

Hugh