Calrec Audio will introduce a mid-tier broadcast console called the Brio Duet at NAB 2026, pitched at regional television operations, OB trucks and studios that have outgrown entry-level desks but cannot justify a flagship system. The base configuration starts at GBP 89,000, with first shipments scheduled for Q3 2026.
What's inside the desk
The Brio Duet ships with 36 physical faders arranged across two layers, giving operators access to 72 channels at the surface. Calrec lists 144 input paths and 48 output buses, with on-board DSP rated at 800 channel-process equivalents — the company's standard yardstick for mix capacity rather than a raw count of summing nodes.
The console sits on Calrec's Hydra2 networked audio backbone, the proprietary transport that has carried Apollo, Artemis and the original Brio. Hydra2 handles router-style I/O distribution across Calrec frames and stageboxes, and remains the path Calrec uses for low-latency console-to-console and console-to-I/O links.
IP audio: Dante, AES67 and ST 2110-30
For interoperability outside the Calrec ecosystem, the Brio Duet includes Dante and AES67, along with SMPTE ST 2110-30 audio-over-IP. ST 2110-30 — the audio essence sub-standard within the ST 2110 suite — carries PCM audio in RTP streams derived from AES67, with defined packet times and channel groupings (the so-called conformance levels A, B and C). Its presence on a mid-tier console matters because it lets the Brio Duet drop into a 2110 facility as a native endpoint rather than via a gateway, with NMOS-style discovery handled by whatever broadcast controller the plant already runs. Calrec's announcement does not specify which ST 2110-30 conformance level the Duet supports, nor whether ST 2022-7 hitless redundancy is implemented on the media interfaces.
Redundant power supplies are standard. The surface uses a touchscreen workflow that Calrec says was shaped by feedback from BBC Studios, though the announcement does not detail which workflow elements that collaboration produced.
Where it sits in the line
The Brio Duet effectively widens the Brio family, which Calrec launched several years ago as a compact desk aimed at smaller productions. By scaling fader count and path count upward while keeping the form factor smaller than Apollo or Artemis, Calrec is addressing a segment that has become competitive in recent years as IP-native consoles from rival manufacturers have moved into mid-market price brackets.
Henry Goodman, Calrec's director of sales and marketing, said regional broadcasters consistently ask for flagship features in a smaller footprint, and described the Duet as offering Apollo-class audio quality in a console sized to fit any control room. The company has not published a direct technical comparison to Apollo, so the audio-quality claim should be read as a marketing positioning rather than a specification.
Availability
The Brio Duet starts at GBP 89,000 for the base configuration. Calrec will demonstrate the console at NAB 2026 on stand C2024, with shipments slated for the third quarter of 2026. Buyers evaluating the desk against an ST 2110 build-out will want to confirm conformance level, PTP profile support and any redundancy options directly with the manufacturer, as those details are not in the launch materials.