The largest and leading media company in the Middle East and North Africa region recently upgraded its audio infrastructure with AES67/Ravenna-compliant Lawo IP equipment in control rooms and studios in Dubai Studio City.
In addition to raising the level of audio quality and processing power at its facilities, one important consideration for MBC Group’s decision to base the new installation on IP-native Lawo solutions was flexibility – either control room needed to be able to serve either studio floor in a variety of I/O combinations.
Based on a rights-management scheme, this approach has so far exceeded MBC’s initial expectations. It involves two 48-fader Lawo mc²56 Production Consoles and shared I/O for the IP networked system, set up as a mix of A__stage64 and modular Dallis Stagebox devices. Embedding and de-embedding of audio in/from video feeds is realized with Lawo’s V__pro8 8-channel video/audio toolbox.
While most audio streams are exchanged via AES67/Ravenna (IP), other signals are received via Madi. For reasons of continuity regarding previously installed audio gear, a Nova73 HD router provides a 4-port Dante card, thus allowing the audio engineers at Studio City to leverage a variety of formats in any authorised combination. The user rights management system in the Lawo consoles at MBC’s Studio City set-up allows audio sources to be ‘booked’ by one mc²56 in order to precent setting changes being madde from the console in the other audio control room.
The new system is perfectly capable of handling open-standards AoIP streams, Madi signals and Dante sources in any combination, and at a high channel count. Its native IP support also brought a second benefit in allowing Lawo to provide remote hands-on training from Europe via WAN-based remote fader and screen control that complemented a live video link for swift and effective knowledge transfer when the worldwide pandemic did not allow any travels.
In a wider perspective, the same native remote capability can be used by MBC operators to control on-location stageboxes during high-profile events: MBC's engineers are now able to run audio productions from their familiar Studio City control rooms. Among the advantages this IP-based approach brings is the possibility to use the most talented operators for back-to-back productions, because they no longer need to travel onsite. Similarly, compact flypacks do away with the need to send OB trucks or lorries to on-location events.
More: www.lawo.com
