Calrec Audio has announced that its configurable Argo audio control surfaces have won the 2023 NAB Show Product of the Year Awards. The official awards program recognises some of the most significant and promising new products and technologies showcased by exhibitors at NAB Show.
   

Argo, Calrec’s new approach to audio mixing, is a modular audio mixing control surface that features a flexible control philosophy which separates processing and control, breaking the traditional geographic dependency between them. Argo's fully modular design includes interchangeable and configurable hardware panels that interact with Calrec's Assist UI, allowing users to switch between physical hardware panels and a remote GUI with ease.

Argo's modular panel system encourages broadcasters to adapt surface hardware to meet their unique requirements, with two mid-level rows of interchangeable panels on the larger Argo Q model and one mid-level row on the compact Argo S model. Calrec has also introduced a comprehensive system of user templates to instantly change the hardware user interface to meet changing requirements and user preferences.

Argo leverages Calrec's hugely scalable ImPulse native IP processing engines to provide audio mixing and routing capabilities from small to massive scale, serving multiple productions simultaneously and geographically independently. The flexibility of control surface options combined with web-browser based control and third-party protocol support provides a powerful and intuitive human interface that can fit into any space to serve any size of production, spread of operators and sub-mix positions.

NAB Show Product of the Year Award Winners were selected by a panel of industry experts in 15 categories, including Audio Production, Processing and Networking and announced in a live awards ceremony at NAB Show on April 18. To be eligible for an award, nominated products had to come from companies exhibiting at the 2023 NAB Show and be delivered within the 2023 calendar year.

"We're delighted to win this award. Argo is the future of audio consoles and the result of over 60 years of expertise and research and development in the science of broadcast audio. The production crew no longer needs to be in the same space as each other, the control room can be as virtualised as the event spaces and the processing equipment. Broadcasters are continually having to optimise the amount of equipment and operational and engineering staff required at event venues and studios whilst maximising the efficiencies of utilisation. They are having to create more content, cost effectively taking advantage of modern, distributed workflows to do so," said Henry Goodman, Director of Product Management, Calrec.