The latest addition to the facilities operated by German broadcast services company TV Skyline, the Ü7 reckons to set new standards in design and workflow for high-end OB trucks.
The Ü7 is equipped for ambitious production tasks, with three studio control rooms and up to 32 workplaces. The audio area is built around a Lawo mc²66 digital mixing/routing system optimised for live broadcast of major sports events and music festivals in 5.1 surround. These also offer parallel production of stereo material.
‘An mc²66 mixing console was installed in our Ü5 OB, which was completed 2006, and we have had only positive experiences with it,’ says TV Skyline founder and CEO, Wolfgang Reeh. ‘It is very stable in operation, provides optimal functionality and is reliably doing its job. Another reason for our choice is that Lawo constantly develops and advances itself and its systems. With the current generation of the mc² mixing console, Lawo has brought a high-quality and ergonomically optimised product to the market. With the functionality of its console core and Dallis I/O system, it allows signal processing to a high level.’
The mc²66’s HD core provides 8192x8192 crosspoints, and supports 144 DSP channels in recording mode and 288 DSP channels in the broadcast mode, plus 28 Madi ports. The system’s Dallis stageboxes are connected via fibre-optic links.
The 16.6m, 38 ton Ü7 trailer is fitted with one movable 1.60m side and two 60 cm drawers on the other – one of these houses the audio control room. The 5.1-channel set-up is based around digital Dynaudio Air speakers, plus a K+H system, with Wohler audio control. The abundantly equipped area is able to handle multitrack recordings of up to 256 channels, with processing and limiting from TC Electronic. The truck’s silent air-conditioning, fabric-lined walls and carpet, together with the ergonomic overall design of the room – which also has a ‘tonmeister workplace’ – is designed to offer the highest levels of technical and artistic production.
One of the three control rooms is accommodated in an auxiliary truck dedicated to the Ü7, another 16.6m, 29-ton heavy trailer that offers an additional multi-function cabin.
According to Wolfgang Reeh, these three control rooms are an important consideration in the future applications of the Ü7: ‘For sports events, that the host signal is typically created in one control room, with a second and third control room needed to generate the unilateral feeds with highlights as well as edited versions of the programming,’ he says.
When designing the OB van, TV Skyline took an ‘alternative approach’ to determining the requirements it should meet: ‘The reason why the Ü7 OB truck is so different from our other OB trucks is that it is based on two-year long observations regarding the requirements of the marketplace and of our company,’ Reeh explains. ‘Thus we devised a new room concept with up to 32 workplaces, and a technical infrastructure and ambience that translates our ideas on the future of production. In this way, we can cover everything from soccer broadcasts to high-end classical music events.’
