Montreal's Bell Center upgrades audio at Canada's largest indoor stadium with a Calrec Argo S console

Canada's largest indoor stadium, Bell Centre, Transform your live production capabilities with an ST infrastructure 2110 complete and the compact Argo S console from Calrec.

The update, supporting everything from NHL games to live concerts and digital content for fans, offers great flexibility enabling cross-platform audio workflows, Faster response times and greater fan engagement.

The Bell Center in Montreal, with capacity for 21 000 personas, hosts a wide variety of events, from intense NHL games to complex live music concerts and large entertainment productions. With the aim of developing its broadcast and live production architecture to make the most of its multipurpose spaces, the venue has adopted Calrec's Argo S console, which saves space thanks to its reduced height.

As the home of the Montreal Canadiens hockey club of the NHL, Patrick Cyrenne, in charge of audiovisual systems at the Bell Center, believe that the modular and open nature of the Calrec ecosystem will help the venue foster greater creativity and efficiency, and to develop more experiences for fans, regardless of where or how the content is consumed.

Cyrenne points out that “Argo has been a revolutionary change to manage the rapid transition between different types of events. Its modular and flexible architecture allows us to easily reconfigure the console for different situations, which is essential to meet our tight schedules and varied technical demands. during a hockey game, our audio workflow focuses on television broadcasts, and Argo allows us to create specific designs for each show and retrieve them instantly”.

Argo S is also used for produce and improve more fan-focused content and in niche markets on multiple platforms, especially for social media and digital engagement. Cyrenne emphasizes that “The ability to manage simultaneous mixes allows us to adapt the audio for alternative broadcasts without interrupting the main broadcast workflow. We also use it to record voiceovers and podcasts, as well as for viewing parties where we generate audio signals for in-venue entertainment and custom audio mixes for social broadcasts, interviews and special segments that air in conjunction with the main event”.

In fact, with internal and remote production, signs in several languages, digital content and social media products, Cyrenne says Bell Center production and quality control per event has increased dramatically.

“Features like integrated automatic mixing allow us to take on more work without sacrificing quality or reliability. Ultimately, Calrec helps us offer high-quality content more quickly and flexibly, allowing our team to stay agile and meet the growing demands of modern live event production”, comment.

A compact table

The Argo S, compact and low height, met the ergonomic requirements of the Bell Center, while a combination of Dante and MADI cards ensures you can serve any mobile broadcast unit that needs access to your audio network. Besides, Its interoperable IP backbone means it works seamlessly with other key components of the stadium network.

“The Argo functions as a central audio engine within a broader, interconnected production ecosystem., and communicates directly with a number of IP-enabled systems”, says Cyrenne. “This eliminates the need for traditional audio connections and allows us to dynamically route and manage audio throughout the facility.. Our Ross Ultrix FR12 and FR5 routers act as central routing hubs for video and audio signals, and tight Argo integration enables synchronized routing of embedded audio along with video across multiple production paths. This gives us complete flexibility to handle mixed media workflows during rapid event transitions.”.

Finally, highlights that “Argo also integrates directly with Cinedeck recorders for multi-channel audio capture, Prodigy I/O interface for connecting analog or MADI sources, and our audio track system EVS for reproduction, production of highlights and archives. Besides, its integration with EVS Cerebrum allows us to monitor and control Argo, FR12 and FR5 routers, and all associated devices from a single interface, as well as make connection changes and recover configurations for different events, such as hockey matches or special productions such as Télédon or fan parties”.

Cyrene explained that “on match days, most of the interconnectivity The audio connection to the main broadcaster is direct and our match production can be easily incorporated into our broadcast partner's program signal and vice versa.. Having the flexibility to transport the audio signal in a variety of ways is useful, since some operators prefer to continue using traditional technology; We use Dante in the stadium for public address and for audio distribution throughout the lobby and interconnection room, which gives us access to all the audio sources in the venue”.