Calrec Audio Ltd

British manufacturer of professional microphones and audio broadcasting mixing equipment, formed in 1964 and based in West Yorkshire, England. After merging with Allen & Heath and DiGiCo in 2014, Calrec Audio became part of Audiotonix Group. All Calrec products are designed, manufactured and tested at the company's Nutclough Mill UK headquarters. Calrec achieved a few notable milestones in professional studio recording technology, such as the world's first stereo broadcast console in 1977 or the earliest digitally controlled assignable mixing console in 1981. In the summer of 1970, Michael Gerzon, an audio engineer and inventor at OUTRS (Oxford University Tape Recording Society), purchased three Calrec CM 652 capacitor microphones, which he used in the subsequent development of "Soundfield" microphone (SFM) — an array of four subcardioid and cardioid (unidirectional) capsules assembled on a tetrahedron-shaped frame. Gerzon collaborated on the project with his graduate student Peter Craven and University of Reading's professor Peter Fellgett, recording the [a945174]'s concert at Merton College Chapel, Oxford on 8 May 1971 to demonstrate the invention. In 1978, Calrec Audio launched the first commercially-available line of "SoundField" microphones, capable of recording three-dimensional signals for surround sound playback. Soundfield went independent from Calrec in '93 and was acquired by RØDE Microphones in 2016; the company still manufactures ambisonic microphones under the brand and offers "SoundField by RØDE" software plugin.