Part of a large-scale technical modernisation project, Austria’s ORF is to equip its nine regional broadcast centres with new TV broadcast workplaces. The move sees the federally organised, nation-wide public broadcaster placing a selection of Lawo audio and video equipment at the heart of its operation.
Driving the adoption of Lawo is ORF’s transition to HDTV production, which has necessitated the renewal of its technical infrastructure – more than 12 years after the last technical equipment upgrade.
All of the new workplaces are identical, and will use Lawo mc²66 mixing consoles, Dallis I/Os, and V__pro8 video processors. Key to the renewal are two identically constructed Lawo container broadcast control rooms that can be docked to the broadcast houses during the modernisation to allow production to continue uninterrupted.
Each TV broadcast station operated by each of Austria’s federal states in (including Vienna) is also to be equipped with a Lawo mc²66 mixing console in a 16-8-8 frame, plus an HD core with three DSP cards providing 144 DSP channels. Connectivity extends to 20 Madi ports, 4x32 AES inputs and 4x32 AES outputs. Alongside the sound quality, clearly arranged console surface and flexible operation offered by the mc²66 systems, each control room has a routing capacity of 8192x8192 crosspoints.
The modernisation includes two Dallis I/O units that support future-proofing through the connection of additional Dallis stageboxes. A Lawo V__pro8 video processor is also installed at each TV broadcast workplace, offering glue features such as format conversion and colour correction, as well as audio embedding and de-embedding. Its Madi audio connections create a bridge between video and audio within the studio infrastructure. The V__pro8 acts as a flexible router thanks to its 8x8 video matrix and a 384x384 audio matrix, ensuring each channel can be switched to any other. A modern GUI based on HTML5 guarantees ease of operation during daily work.
ORF selected the Lawo systems following a formal tender procedure on their suitability and the efficient use of available financial resources. In addition, the use of uniform equipment and the Lawo systems already installed in ORF stations ensures a short operator-training period for the new workplaces. In future, ORF’s sound engineers will find a familiar work environment at each regional broadcast centre, so that they can quickly focus on their tasks.
More: www.lawo.com
