Calrec is showcasing new capabilities for its Distributed Mixing Framework at IBC2026. ImPulseV processing is offered in configurations of 96, 140 or 256 paths, allowing operators to allocate software-based mixing capacity at different scales.
The demonstration includes NDI audio support for up to 256 mono channels across 16 streams. Calrec also lists Cloud-Init and Terraform support for automating infrastructure deployment, while MXL connectivity is planned as part of the roadmap.
Why it matters
Distributed mixing separates the control surface from a fixed local engine and allows processing to be shared between studios or productions. Infrastructure-as-code tools can make those systems repeatable, but broadcast audio still requires predictable discovery, clocking, routing and recovery.
NDI support can connect production audio with software video environments that do not operate as full ST 2110 facilities. Engineers should verify channel mapping, redundancy, synchronisation and monitoring when moving between NDI, AES67 or other network domains.
What remains open
MXL is described as planned rather than generally available. The report also does not provide detailed density, latency or failover benchmarks for each ImPulseV configuration, so those need workflow-specific testing.
