DUBAI, UAE—MBC Group has upgraded its audio infrastructure with AES67/RAVENNA-compliant Lawo IP equipment in two control rooms and studios at its Dubai Studio City location.
The media company, one of the largest in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, deployed the technology to raise its audio quality level, enhance processing power and enhance flexibility. MBC Group wanted to be able to serve either studio floor with a variety of I/O combinations from either control room. Based on a rights-management scheme, this approach has so far exceeded MBC’s initial expectations, the company said.
The solution includes two 48-fader Lawo mc²56 Production Consoles and shared I/O for the IP networked system, set up as a mix of A__stage64 and modular DALLIS Stagebox devices. Lawo’s V__pro8 8-channel video/audio toolbox embeds and de-embeds audio in and from video feeds, it said.
Most audio streams are exchanged via AES67/RAVENNA (IP); however, other signals are received via MADI. For reasons of continuity regarding previously installed audio gear, a Nova73 HD router provides a 4-port DANTE card, thus allowing the audio engineers at Studio City to leverage a variety of formats in any authorized combination, the company said.
The user rights management system built into the Lawo consoles installed at MBC’s Studio City allows protection of audio sources booked by one mc²56 to avoid unexpected setting changes from the console in the other audio control room, Lawo said.
The new system can handle open-standards AoIP streams, MADI signals and even DANTE sources in any combination and at a high channel count, it said.
MBC operators can use the same native remote capability to control on-location stageboxes during high-profile events, running audio productions from their familiar Studio City control rooms. This IP-based setup will make it possible for the most talented operators to do back-to-back productions because they no longer need to travel onsite. Similarly, compact flypacks do away with the need to send OB trucks on-location events, the company said.
Lawo provided remote hands-on training from Europe via WAN-based remote fader and screen control that complemented a live video link when the worldwide pandemic did not allow any travel, it added.
More information is available on the company’s website.
