ARD Radio aired the UEFA Euro 2012 live with the help of broadcast equipment maker Lawo.
The German broadcaster expanded its existing pool of Lawo equipment by renting from Lawo rental partner Audio Broadcast Services (ABS) two crystal consoles, one mc²56 console and a Nova29 MADI router. ARD will put the entire setup to use again at the Olympic Games in London.
According to Lawo, the self-produced material, including voice recordings and commentary with sound bites, were edited, saved and transferred from the ARD’s master control room, located in the International Broadcast Center (IBC) in Warsaw to Germany using one extensive, mobile production network.
For connecting commentator booths in the stadiums to the master control room at the IBC, the host broadcaster made use of exclusively reserved ISDN lines and Ethernet routing. AoIP connections were also available so the broadcaster was able to choose either technology.
The host broadcaster delivered all relevant feed signals in the master control room via MADI to the Nova29 matrix. The software tools developed by ARD, such as the Cassandra central control module, worked closely with the Nova29, Nova17 and Nova73HD routers as well as the crystal consoles.
Manfred Brass, technical director, ARD Radio explained that the Lawo equipment provided the basis for the many in-house developments.
“The Lawo gear complements our portfolio and helps us move toward creating a perfect user-oriented workflow. The openly designed interfaces provide the ideal condition for this,” he said. “Above all, the free and flexible configurability of the crystal consoles, carried out by trained staff, allows for quick adjustments and stands out as one of the most important features of the Lawo system, aside from the clarity of the console surface and the overall ease-of-use.”
