Nine Lawo consoles enhance the audio of the Australian Tennis Open

Nine Lawo mc²56 consoles, around twenty V Pro 8 processors and the Nova73 matrix allow Gearhouse Broadcast and Tennis Australia to achieve excellent audio in the coverage of the first major sporting event of 2015.

Gearhouse Broadcast is using nine audio consoles Theirs mc²56 mix, around twenty Lawo V Pro8 video processor units and a Nova73 HD matrix for the broadcast of the first major international sporting event of 2015, the Australian Tennis Open.

Around thirty fields at Melbourne Park host numerous matches until February 1, attended by some 14,800 fans.

On the occasion of this important sporting event, Lawo technical staff has traveled to Australia to support Gearhouse Broadcast in the start-up and operation of its systems.

Of the nine mc²56 consoles, five are networked via a Nova73 HD matrix to provide sound to host broadcaster, Tennis Australia.

Four of the mixers have been deployed to provide sound to Rod Laver Arena, Hisense Arena, Margaret Court Arena and Courts 2, 3, 6 and 8. The mc²56 table also provides audio for worldwide distribution to broadcast rights holders.

It is noteworthy that all stageboxes are linked together by the Nova73 central matrix, and are assigned through access rights management to the respective audio control centers. The mixed 5.1 surround signal is sent directly to the V Pro8 units for embedding.

Nick Bowey, senior audio engineer, at Gearhouse, admits that “having a system that had great flexibility in layout was key for us during the design process and is why we chose Lawo systems.”

"The inherent resilience of the networked system gave us ultimate control of signals on the fly with expanded use of matrix capacity across six systems. We have also been able to provide back-up audio to all control rooms through the use of networked signals. Host broadcaster Tennis Australia is very pleased with the setup and its redundancy capabilities. Additionally, operators love working with the Lawo consoles," continues Bowey.

Gearhouse is also counting on four additional mc²56 consoles to service ESPN, Tennis Channel, Channel 7 and Wowow.

One of the main technical deployments has been carried out by the local broadcaster Channel 7. In this case, an MKII is being expanded with 48 channels equipped with an attenuator module with 16 additional channels, all of which are fully used in all layers thanks to the use of five DSP cards. The console is operated in Split mode, with two different control outputs.

"Overall, we are very satisfied with the results here in Melbourne. Listening to the final product and its output is a good proof of this," concludes Bowey.