Outside Broadcast equips 3 TV trucks with mc²66 desks.

The mobile TV studios are best suited for challenging HD and surround productions.

Outside Broadcast, a company based in Rotselaar (Belgium), operates a fleet of six OB trucks as well as possessing two flight-case control rooms and three container units. To increase still further the quality of its productions, in mid 2007 the TV service provider furnished three of its OB trucks, Unit 8, Unit 9 and Unit 14, with mc²66 desks from Lawo. All three desks are identically equipped, with 48 faders and 96 DSP channels. This makes the mobile TV studios particularly suitable for high-quality HD and surround productions.

The ideal mixing desk for high-calibre events

Outside Broadcast made enquiries in the United Kingdom, Germany and France as to how best to equip its audio control rooms. The arguments in favour of Lawo consoles turned out to be irrefutable: their high technical standard, the design of their interfaces, their operating philosophy and – an especially important factor for outside broadcast vehicles – their compactness.

Since being retrofitted with these state-of-the-art Lawo consoles, the three OB trucks have already been deployed at a number of spectacular events: among Unit 9’s references are to be numbered the Glastonbury Festival, the Last Night of the Proms (in HD + 5.1 Surround Sound – a technically demanding production with surround feeds from four different cities in the UK) and the Champions League Final 2007 in Athens. Unit 8, for its part, has been deployed to cover the Belgian national football league, the Tour de France (for US Sports Channel), the Robbie Williams show in Knebworth (live broadcast and DVD recording) and the MTV European Music Awards in Rome. Meanwhile Unit 14 has been setting the tone inter alia at the National Eurovision Song Festival (elimination round) and the Queen Elizabeth Classic in Brussels.

A real production highlight awaits the mobile TV studios Unit 9 and Unit 14 at the Olympic Games in Beijing. Unit 9 will be responsible for covering the table tennis competitions. A demanding task. Since they’ll be playing matches on four tables simultaneously, the following logistics have been developed:

• Table 1 (Top Table): Unit 9 for video and audio
• Table 2: Video will be produced in Unit 9’s second image control room and the sound in an external container control room equipped with an mc²66 desk
• Tables 3 and 4 will be produced in their entirety from control rooms in container cabins; in these, too, mc²66 consoles will be used for the mixdown

The companion OB truck Unit 14 is scheduled to provide coverage (audio and video) of the shooting competitions at this, the sporting highlight of the year.

Outside Broadcast’s special modus operandi with its OB trucks

Two sound engineers are able to work independently of one another at a single console by using the ISO capabilities of the fader groups. At the same time, each sound engineer is afforded unlimited access to the  EQ, DYN, AUX and MISC pages relating to his ‘own’ channels. As a further convenience, each of the ISO channels is available on a separate PFL buss, which makes a truly independent manner of working possible.

Free Controls are another tremendous aid to efficiency making it possible to tailor the desk to perfection to a particular application: the assignment of the Free Control functions can be specialized in such a way as to offer the swiftest possible access to a given control element. Moreover, the audio routing is performed in the HD Core of the console itself and appears on the desk’s display. This increases considerably the ergonomic efficiency of the configuration process as the details of every signal chain can be taken in at a glance.

The most important advantages to the customer of the mc²66

The main advantage to the customer is the reliability of the desk, which is notable for its extreme system stability. Furthermore, the already slender risk of failure is obviated through the introduction of numerous safeguards – most notably a redundant power supply, redundant routing cards and MADI ports. Thanks to the ergonomic efficiency of the desk – the product of a carefully considered design – even freelancers quickly find their way about on it. Sound engineers are therefore able to concentrate upon their actual work without being distracted by the technical aspects. Also important is the ease with which the system can be expanded: the mc²66 is suitable for every conceivable situation because it can be retrofitted at any time with whatever I/Os and DSP cards are needed to meet the demands of even the largest productions.

Outside Broadcast

Outside Broadcast was founded in Rotselaar in 1989. Initially, the company concentrated on multi-camera OB productions and swiftly assembled a fleet of vehicles suitable for entertainment shows, music programmes and football matches in Belgium.

Since 1998, Outside Broadcast has earned a reputation as a first class TV service provider and now possesses a fleet of outside broadcast vehicles boasting the very latest technology and the finest equipment. Outside Broadcast operates successfully throughout Europe.