Multichoice migrates from baseband to IP with Lawo solutions

Lawo is remotely carrying out the renovation of studio 6 of Multichoice, Africa's largest satellite TV channel service provider.

Multichoice, Africa's largest satellite television channel service provider, has successfully completed the reconstruction of the infrastructure of its Studio 6, which is primarily used by SuperSport, a content brand under the Multichoice umbrella that specializes in the production of live sports across almost 40 linear channels.

The installation, performed by the local systems integrator and the Theirs, Inala Broadcast, comprises a multi-screen solution Find V__matrix based on vm_dmv and an audio console Their mc²36 combined with a stagebox A__stage64 and a matrix Nova73.

In addition to in-studio production audio workflows, the system interfaces with IP-based commentary booths to enable the addition of multiple languages ​​into the IP audio backend. The general infrastructure of SuperSport is controlled by a system of VSM virtual studio management which also controls 16 galleries used for smaller event spin operations, adding the right logos in the right places.

“The migration from baseband to IP brings new options in the way of doing things, forcing us to redefine the way in which all of us, the technical team at Multichoice, Inala Broadcast, SuperSport Operations and Lawo, install, configure and commission an audio system of this size and nature,” explains the Multichoice technical team.

Anthony Teunen, the Lawo systems engineer, who configured the new Studio 6 setup and oversaw delivery starting October 12, called the new Studio 6 audio infrastructure “an innovative small console, big router scenario.”

The Multichoice studio setup in Randburg, Johannesburg, South Africa is configured remotely from Theunen office in Belgium. For health and safety reasons during the Covid-19 pandemic, almost no one could be on site for some time, and even remote configuration operations were temporarily put on hold, because no one would have been available locally to reboot devices after an update or in case of a programming issue.

SuperSport specializes in broadcasting international channels and live sports from around the world, as well as locally produced content on over 50 channels, with multilingual commentary in local languages.

The great study 1 of SuperSport was equipped with a Lawo-centric setup a few months ago, while its International Control Room (ICR) migrated to Lawo V__matrix-based vm_dmv multiviewers in spring 2020.

Studio 6's newly configured infrastructure is primarily used for sports feeds including football, rugby and cricket, with all footage being transmitted to presenters responsible for producing pre-match, half-time and post-match analysis.

The reconstruction of the Studio 6 infrastructure was completed last week with material from Lawo. As a result of this constant transition to IP, ICR, Studio 1 and Studio 6 are now part of one giant IP network.

Ralf Schimmel, Sales Director for Lawo in Africa and Radio Partners, comments: "We are very grateful to our South African systems integration partner, Inala Broadcast, for their hard work and innovative solutions. This partnership has resulted in a state-of-the-art infrastructure that provides SuperSport's unrivaled operations with even greater flexibility."