With an overseas audience of 630m in more than 100 countries, Russia’s RT television network has recently settled in a new studio complex in Moscow, where it is readying for HD transmission with Lawo at the heart of its audio infrastructure.

Requiring what Lawo’s International Sales & Project Manager, Phil Hey describes as an ‘extraordinary redundancy level’,  RT now has studios for its English, Arabic and Spanish channels, along with a Green Studio, Production Studio and a Backup Studio in its new facility. The complex is a combination of modern architecture and classic industrial buildings, fully renovated and equipped with a state-of-the art technical installation.

The state-run broadcaster’s programming spans documentaries, debates and talk shows to sports and culture, supported by round-the-clock news. Now fully operational, the new facility represents a massive step forward over RT’s old studios. ‘Our choice of Lawo mc²66/Nova73HD combination was because it allowed us to realise our vision of ultra-reliable audio in complex multi-programme, round-the-clock news broadcasting,’ says RT Head of Phonics. Alexander Kolosov. ‘A big plus is that the mc²/Nova73 HD system provides non-problematic expansion. Our operational experience of the final set of six mc²66 MkII panels and the central matrix Nova73HD proved to us that the promises made by Lawo are consistent with the real requirements of our complex.’

The broadcaster had been using Lawo zirkon consoles for production duties at its old facility and is now using no fewer than six Lawo mc²66 MkII main on-air/production consoles and three crystal desks for voiceover work, along with a Lawo Nova73 HD as its central I/O routing matrix and seven mxGUI servers providing additional remote GUIs.

The new Lawo system has been designed to offer rigorous redundancy, everywhere from the router and control system to its fully redundant signal paths. In addition, its extreme flexibility ensures that I/O resources are accessible from all of the studios and the control rooms with access rights management. This is achieved by connecting all I/O to both the Nova73 HD as well as all of the mixing consoles, while the control software presents it to look and feel like a local signal, regardless of its physical location. The Lawo network takes care of all tieline management and ensures that all tielines have an additional backup path available.

Networked resources and rights management are a customer specific configuration written using TCL (Tool Command Language) script. Widely used for rapid prototyping and testing, as well as to author scripted applications and GUIs, TCL is a common feature of embedded systems platforms, both in its full form and in small-footprint versions.

The audio infrastructure comprises five 48-fader mc²66 MkII consoles, a 32-fader mc²66 MkII and three eight-fader crystal desks, as well as the Nova73 HD. The Nova73 HD router can handle up to 8192x8192 crosspoints, with the RT installation currently supporting currently 2816 in/output signals with up to 480 DSP channels.

Key to its operation is that a very large number of I/O resources are managed very simply, with snapshot portability making transfer of set-ups between production rooms particularly easy.

‘The Lawo consoles provide many features for easy and comfortable operation during live broadcasting,’ says RT Sound Editor, Anton Maksimov. ‘One of these is the mix minus buses – these are automatically pre-configured, but at the same time provide enough flexibility for fine tuning, allowing easy operation during live transmissions with multiple external feeds. One of the most important features is the ability to easily track the signal flow, which can help a new user to learn the details of a previously unknown configuration. Also very helpful is limited control of the source on the second layer, even without switching layers, as well as assignable Free Control modules and User Buttons on the surface for fast access to the most frequently used functions.’

Along with main contractor OKNO-TV, Lawo has proven its ability to deliver on the ‘very high redundancy concept’, with system design, networking, customisation and audio quality, proven to the broadcaster through its use in a previous installation.

‘This is the third Lawo console I have worked on over the past ten years, and the mc²66MkII has again proved Lawo’s leading position in this competitive market,’ Anton Maksimov confirms.

‘Thanks to the close collaboration between RT and OKNO-TV teams at every stage of the project, the new studio complex was completed concurrently with a switch to worldwide HD broadcast – a formidable task,’ says Andrey Bukashkin, RT’s Chief Director. ‘OKNO-TV’s specialists were highly receptive to all our suggestions and demands, whether they came from management or staff operators, and developed truly innovative solutions to meet our needs.

‘We are very pleased with the results,’ he adds.

More: www.lawo.de.