Furthering its capabilities in the production and broadcast of sporting, cultural and entertainment events, Germany’s Media Mobil has adopted Lawo’s AoIP audio infrastructure as the technical heart of its new flagship OB van, UHD1.
The Lawo equipment onboard includes a48-fader mc²56 production console with three WAN-capable A__stage 64 units serving as internal and external stageboxes, with a Lawo A__madi6 bringing in audio from a Riedel system, EVS VIA video server, and the video control room.
UHD1 – a UHD/HDR OB van weighing 15 tons – is 9.5m long and 4.5m wide with the sidewall extended, yielding a working production area of around 40m². Even more workspace is housed in the companion set-up truck, which can be used for editing, graphics or as an EVS workstation. A fully redundant MacMini-based QLab audio feed system is directly connected to the A__UHD Core via Merging Ravenna, so the van can also be used for multitrack recording. The van is equipped with a fully redundant UHD/HD satellite broadcasting system.
After commissioning in November 2020, Lawo delivered and installed the equipment, as scheduled, in November 2021. That same month, the new OB truck passed its baptism of fire with the production of the MDR show Riverboat, one of the channel’s biggest talk shows, followed by the KIKA Awards ceremony live from Erfurt on 26.11.2021.
‘We have had good experiences with Lawo over many years, so choosing the audio infrastructure for the UHD1 was not difficult when the options were compared,’ says MMG Leipzig MD, Robert Hänsel. ‘We looked closely, and decided on Lawo again. Important considerations, besides the quality, functionality and reliability of the mc²56, were the compact dimensions of the console and the immense space, weight and energy savings of the A__UHD core.’
The new-generation Ravenna/AES67-based mc²56, with A__UHD core audio engine, is configured per license to 256 DSP channels. As noted, the console’s compact size is ideal for OB van installation; it is optimised for modern IP video production environments and designed for networking in complex production infrastructures, with full native support for SMPTE 2110, AES67/Ravenna and Madi audio streams.
Additional mc²56 features perfectly suited to fast-paced OB work are LiveView previews of linked video streams, multi-user, upmix, downmix and optional Lawo Kick, audio-follows-video functionality, integrated 3D/immersive mixing tools, parallel compression and Lawo AutoMix. And with the integration of Waves SoundGrid Extreme, sound engineers have access to a huge sound library.
More: www.lawo.com
