LIÈGE, Belgium— WNM is a Belgian company specializing in audio and multicamera distribution as well as ENG activities and intercom provisioning. It also provides technical services for global sporting events and consultancy for broadcast infrastructure projects.
For top-tier events like the recent UEFA European Football Championship, where nothing must go wrong, focusing on the split-second delivery of the highest-quality content is obviously important, although the final result also depends on the tools you have at your disposal. Audio is a core ingredient of any TV production and getting this part right essentially hinges on the flexibility afforded by the mixing system.
Championship Mix
The ability of Lawo’s mc² consoles to function in an open-standards IP infrastructure makes it easy to distribute the required signals to the right destinations. This networking aspect is critical in large venues with a distributed pool of audio stageboxes. IP allows me to easily send audio essences to other sites where they can be reshuffled and embedded as necessary.
This is the kind of audio and video flexibility I needed for the European soccer championship in Germany, for instance. I love the ability to reliably patch audio streams directly on my mc² console, because speed is of the essence when the world is watching.
The A__UHD Core provides a stellar density of fully-featured DSP channels in a compact footprint. While 1024 DSP channels may seem overblown, I quite like having one channel per signal with no need to compromise on the number of inputs and outputs. End-to-end redundancy is another big plus. At the Euros in Germany, for instance, the ability to quickly select all relevant audio channels made my mixing job a lot easier.
I often use the Remote Desktop functionality to tweak parameters in a software application running on a remote computer right from the mc²’s screens. Whether management software, playout apps or external effects—remaining in the sweet spot without the need for a KVM system allows me to stay in the flow.
The Right Dynamic Range
I’m also able to conveniently handle 5.1(.4) productions and other delivery formats in parallel. Then there is the sound quality: the dynamic range of Lawo’s preamps is just perfect for sporting events where levels tend to span the gamut. Basically, you can throw any signal at the A__stage I/O boxes and still get a natural and crisp sound from a mix of on-camera, referee, field-of-play and ambience microphones.
The mc²’s physical and graphic user interfaces have a clear structure, with consistent color-coding for easy identification, and a layout that plays to my muscle memory. I can access the functions fast and intuitively, so that I can tweak settings without even looking at the controls in question.
Did I already mention that I just love the fact that I can assign any parameter to a fader? This is a major timesaver for my typical workflow. During the championship match in Germany on July 14th, for instance, I used this functionality to manage the stereo width and digital gain of my ambience bus as well as to fine-tune the delay settings. These General-Purpose Controllers (GPC) can also be linked to the Audio-follows-Video function in order to tweak a resource’s settings by means of a video event.
So, there you have it: I am extremely fond of Lawo’s mc² consoles, the A__UHD Core and the A__stage I/O boxes. They allow me to focus on the mix and deliver world-class audio content.
More information is available at https://lawo.com.
