Bavarian Broadcaster relies on Lawo.
Complete package for radio.
The Bavarian Broadcaster „Bayerischer Rundfunk“ (BR) is one of the biggest public radio and TV broadcaster in Germany, headquartered in Munich with several regional studios.
Tasks·
- Modernisation of the Operating Centre (master control room) for radio
- Modernisation of the two broadcast complexes for the programmes Bayern2Radio and Bayern 4 Klassik each with three control rooms
- Renovation of the four News Center presenter suites
Background
The complete 7th floor of the Broadcast House in Munich was renovated inside. The BR developed a new concept for the room and had all rooms rebuilt completely. Along with this reconstruction the BR wanted to realise the necessary digitalisation which required the adaptation of space, light and air-conditioning.
Realisation
With the renovation of the production and broadcast complexes of ‚Bayern2Radio’‚ Bayern 4 Klassik’ and the Operating Centre, the BR has completed their move into digital technology of the radio section. On July 19th, 2006, all companies involved celebrated the successful completion of this large project.
Main Contractor
BR entrusted the overall responsibility for this project on BFE. This system integrator has realised several other projects with the BR, and Lawo can look back on long years of trustful cooperation with BFE.
The Lawo Solution
Lawo supplied two Nova73 HD routers designed as dual star for the Operating Centre, two monitor consoles, six Nova17 routers for the programmes B2 and B4, six zirkon on-air broadcast consoles for use in the production and on-air control rooms nine z4 editor’s consoles plus 25 Key-20 push-button units with altogether 27 DALLIS frames.
Operating Centre (Master Control Room, MCR)
For the digitalisation of the MCR, Lawo installed two Nova73 HD routers with mutual redundancy, each one offering the capacity of 8,192 x 8,192 mono channels. The 24 DALLIS I/O frames allow for about 3,500 simultaneously switchable signals. Via GPIO boards in the DALLIS units it is also possible to tunnel control signals via MADI and route them through the Nova73 HD which facilitates control by means of audio cabling and thus saves on separate control cabling. Signal control is performed with two mutually redundant monitor desks as well as redundantly designed software (Line Scheduler and Matrix Control software). This combination in interaction with the redundant Nova73 HD routers offers many fallback levels.
The MCR hosts one monitoring matrix with diamond technology. The digital multilevel display is controlled by a PC. An event server with a WEB interface allows the visualisation of connects via HTML client. An alarmlog software, also running on this server, performs the error logging as well as the display of all DALLIS frames and the TCP/IP-connected hardware.
Fourwire- and starpoint lines can be switched and managed from the monitor desk or via the line scheduler software without the need of moving out of the working environment. The monitor desks also facilitate the control of the programme switch and -limiter.
Broadcast Complexes for Bayern2Radio and Bayern 4 Klassik
The Broadcast complexes for the radio programmes Bayern2Radio and Bayern 4 Klassik are identical with regards to their use of technology as well as the layout. Every programme comprises of three control rooms with two studios – one for use with a sound engineer, one self-op studio and one control room with studio for the running pre-production. The latter can be used also for the radio programme if the other one is being serviced or in case of failure. Every control room is equipped with one zirkon, each comprising of one central module and four fader modules equaling 16 faders as well as one integrated T60 push-button module. Two additional Key-20 units for editors are installed per control room. Every studio is fitted with a Key-20 module for T/B, selection of the monitoring modulation and redlight signalisation as well as one Nova17 as the programme matrix. A further Key-20 push-button unit in the equipment room at the program matrix serves for selecting the monitoring modulation and the visualisation of the various states (redlight, programme status, alive messages).
The editing suite for the digitalising of analogue sound media needed at short notice for a programme is equipped with two z4 digital mixing consoles.
BR Newscenter
The BR Newscenter includes one mobile z4 for medium waveband, as well as one z4 in each of the four studios. One Key-20 push-button unit per studio serves for switching the monitoring modulation and signalisation.
With this equipment, the Bavarian Broadcaster now owns the most modern Lawo technology that offers a sophisticated redundancy concept for highest resilience which is of the utmost important for a broadcaster.
Benefits for the client
The installed Lawo systems are easy to operate and execute complex operations or functions in the background. With this technology and concept the BR succeeded in optimising their workflow and efficiency.
Customer’s Comment
The project manager of the BR, Mr von Haller, explains the reasons for commissioning Lawo with the supply of the equipment: “The radio mixing consoles of Lawo have been proved and tested in prior installations of the Bayerischer Rundfunk. Also the current products of Lawo represent a technically well-engineered and cost-efficient solution. In addition, the fact that all of the audio equipment for the central matrices and the broadcast complexes come from one source made us decide to realise the project this way".
Follow-up Project
Customer Profile
Studio Franconia in Nuremberg ist he biggest regional studio of the BR.
Background
The broadcast section of the regional studio Franconia was to be refurbished. Again the overall responsibility also for this project was with BFE. With this new equipment the self-reliance of the regional studio should be maintained also with regard to the details, e. g. with the labelling of the buttons.
Requirements
The project comprised one production and on-air complex (PSK) for use with a sound engineer and a presenter. Furthermore there exist two further on-air complexes (SK) with two news studios (AS). They are designed for self-op use without engineer. One central matrix for the distribution of programmes, lines as well as centrally linked sources and targets like codecs, OB Van and TV crosslinks. Also scheduled was a broadcast matrix for routing the respective outgoing regional lines by the broadcasting studio and the distribution of the incoming regional lines to the control rooms.
Required was moreover an automated recording control.
The Lawo Solution
The production and on-air complex now utilises a zirkon XL; two additional zirkon consoles are installed in the on-air facility. One Nova 17 is used as a broadcast matrix while general signal distribution is managed centrally by an additional Nova17 matrix.
The network scheduling software for both projects was developed by Lawo, in cooperation with the specialised software company DSA-Volgmann.
The broadcast matrix can be controlled from Nuremberg as well as from the master radio control room in Munich.
Reasons for the Decision
The decisive criterium for contracting Lawo was that it’s technology offered an economically reasonable way of realising the concept to remote control Nuremberg’s master control room from Munich.
Customer’s Comment
Ulrich von Haller, BR’s Project Manager, who is responsible for the Munich and Nuremberg installations, states: “Thanks to Lawo’s hardware and software, the expectation of a single-source supplier for an efficient and stable audio system in our master control room, and for the on-air complexes, has been fully met. This is the reason we picked the same system for our Franconian studio in Nuremberg”.
Prospect
- A new visitor matrix at the reception in the Munich Broadcast House shall be linked with the master control room
- In three editing suites the BR will use zirkon2S consoles with short fader modules
- Regional studio Würzburg will install one zirkon in the on-air studio. One zirkon and one Nova17 are already installed there.
