Studio Berlin Adlershof sound engineers produced the first season of “The Voice of Germany” with a Lawo mc²66 console. The program is a musical talent show.
Since the show is focused heavily upon singing, production sound quality is a priority. Uwe Herrmuth, system administrator, and Lars Bieber, sound engineer at Studio Berlin, meticulously prepare for each individual show. Initially they set up the communication paths to the control room, editor’s office and production center, then place the stage boxes and microphones. They also save the settings and effects separately for every vocalist as a snapshot in the mc²66.
“The length of the show varies each week so we had to constantly adapt the GUI layout. Both the snapshots and the ability to copy DSP values from the compressor and the EQ were of great help during effects set-up,” said Bieber.
Both Herrmuth and Bieber agreed that organizing the signals and signal exchange — between the FOH and the monitoring position as well as the setup of intercom modules for example — was a challenging task. But that the mc²66 provided quick and reliable signal routing for a clear result despite the large number of signals. They also said that the customized functions and the ability to assign buttons freely helped create an intuitive workflow.
The Lawo mxGUI, a secondary control interface that allows system intervention without disturbing the sound engineer’s work, as well as the AdminHD tool, which permits extension of the system without having to contact the service department each time, were also major advantages, they noted.
Studio Berlin has used Lawo consoles since 2002 and one of the main reasons for choosing Lawo said Herrmuth, was “the fact that Lawo does not sell ‘off-the-shelf’ consoles, but rather a product that is largely adapted to the specific requirements of the customer.”
