With Wushu, Sepak Takraw and Dragon Boat Rowing joining more familiar sports, the Asian Games 2014 has opened with a spectacular ceremony in Incheon, South Korea.

But with 10.000 athletes from 45 nations eyeing up the medals, the games already have a winner in the competition for audio and IP-networking – German audio and video specialist Lawo. The broadcast infrastructure and onsite implementation, equipment sourced from Lawo rental partner Audio Broadcast Services, and technical support has been provided by Lawo as a complete package.

Second only in scale to the Olympic Games in the world of sport, the Asian Games 2014 is using approximately 110 IP-based Lawo Commentary Control Units (LCU) for the broadcast of commentators’ audio. Their use covers the opening ceremony, through athletic competitions and events at the large soccer stadium, to the Judo competition in the smaller sports halls. For mixing, there are eight mc²56 consoles in the different venues, a further mc²56 in the International Broadcast Center (IBC), and a further Lawo mc²66.

A team of 22 Lawo support technicians is at the event to take care of all of the Lawo equipment, including the LCUs that are connected to the Commentary Switching Center (CSC) in the IBC via fibre-optic link. The router links between the venues, along with monitoring and scheduling of the 45 distribution channels are controlled via Virtual Studio Management (VSM) from L-S-B. Fifty hardware panels and ten software GUIs handle routing control, while two more central software GUIs display the transmission schedule and status monitoring on the main monitor wall in the CDT (Contribution-Distribution-Transmission) centre.

In all, the Asian Games is using eight VSM systems in Korean OB vans, the IBC and a backup OB van.