RTV Noord chooses Lawo solution for remote production

The Groningen-based broadcaster serving the northern part of the Netherlands, RTV North, you have just ordered your new mc²36 audio console from Theirs and the A__stage64 audio over IP node for the production of radio, television and online content.

As a result of its online project, launched two years ago, the broadcaster's editing department expressed its desire to create its own streams using a camera and content control button based on the sources available on an internal network, also being able to recover the press conferences of the Dutch government in The Hague for radio and television.

For this, RTV Noord acquired an I/O node and audio DSP Lawo Power Core IP equipped with a Dante I/O card to include your Dante-based radio infrastructure.

RTV Noord's television control room, radio studios and remote ad hoc locations are connected to its red Ravenna AoIP para facilitar el intercambio de señales.

El software de radio virtual VisTool de Lawo, que se maneja a través de pantallas táctiles, se utiliza para controlar el Power Core en programas de producción propia como “Desde la sala de prensa”, así como por los editores cuando preparan las emisiones para el sitio web de RTV Noord o el canal de Facebook. Las tareas diarias que se realizan con VisTool incluyen la apertura y el ajuste de los canales de los micrófonos, el acceso a las fuentes de audio, etc.

As RTV Noord was moving away from its baseband audio core and mixing console, producers and presenters were asked about their future plans and expectations. Remote production scenarios via a dark fiber link connecting the suburban studios to the city center of Groningen were high on the agenda, so a console was purchased Lawo mc²36 All-in-One 32 faders. This console allows audio engineers to produce complete programs from the RTV Noord control room, even if the cameras and stagebox/microphone box are in the remote location. Along with the console, RTV Noord installed a plug-in server Waves SuperRack SoundGrid para el procesamiento de efectos durante las actuaciones en directo.

Las razones para elegir la consola mc²36 fueron, entre otras, que el sólido protocolo Ravenna incorporado transporta cualquier carga de audio a través de una conexión WAN y que la mc²36 proporciona suficientes canales de audio para manejar tanto las alimentaciones de audio entrantes como una variedad de señales de monitorización salientes en escenarios de producción remotos. Obviamente, la mc²36 también se utiliza para tareas “internas” como el programa de entrevistas diario Noord-Vandaag de RTV Noord.

Looking to the future

La decisión de elegir una solución de Lawo se basó en el deseo de RTV Noord de preparar su infraestructura para el futuro mediante la migración a una configuración de audio sobre IP: la consola es compatible de forma nativa con SMPTE 2110, lo que resultará muy útil cuando la infraestructura de vídeo de banda base sea sustituida por dispositivos nativos de IP.

El nodo de audio Lawo A__stage64 se utiliza tanto en el estudio de televisión como en producciones en exteriores. Sus 64 entradas y salidas físicas dan cabida a programas de música en directo con distintas intensidades.

Tim de Vrij, RTV Noord's media engineer in charge of the entire radio and television infrastructure, and a team of engineers performed most of the configuration and programming work. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, authorized staff have been able to connect to the editorial system from home and edit video footage as well as audio assets, while the newsreader has been working from home for over two years.

“The Lawo mc²36's superb audio quality and high channel count give us the flexibility we need,” says Tim de Vrij. “IP is clearly the future, and we are prepared for it,” he concludes.