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november 2011 4hm and lawo are a hit at bve north

the first bve north exhibition took place at the manchester central arena this month and sound intention were there with a booth for 4hm and parked at the entrance was the arena tv ob truck with the large mc²66 audio consol from lawo.

this was a great show, attracting a few thousand visitors of which 70% have never visited the london bve.

the 4hm booth had the sam64 and asbo on display which attracted several very good opportunities for installations in Scotland and the north of England.

ob14 from arena parked at the front of the exhibition halls with plenty of lawo signage helped make the lawo consol one of the main attractions of the two days.

bve north just worked very well for sound intention and we are already looking forward to exhibiting there again next year.

october 2011 gearhouse and sound intention at the rugby world cup 2011

itv sport has appointed television broadcast services specialist gearhouse broadcast to supply both project solutions and broadcast equipment to integrate itv’s coverage of the irb rugby world cup. their technical operation centre in auckland and hosting studio in viaduct harbour will link to itv’s studio and transmission facilities in london. The Broadcast operation will be in High Definition 1080i 25hz 16:9 with 8 channels of audio.

bel was the supplier of choice for all the in rack audio monitoring requirements including that of all the encoded dolby signels.

gearhouse also supplied two lawo mc²56 audio consols to sky NZ for the main host mix.

kevin moorhouse, gearhouse broadcasts chief operating officer said “we have been working with itv sport for many years on various international sporting events including the last two world cups. we have a very good working relationship with them and we pride ourselves in the consistent provision of high standard broadcast solutions and facilities”.

september 2011 sound intention win special award at ibc in amsterdam

traditionally lawo, the day before ibc host a representatives meeting followed by an evening function where the “rep of the year” would be announced.

because the relationship sound intention has with lawo is unique we have never qualified for this award. rainer kunzi, head of lawo international referred to sound intention as being a semi rep!!

on this occasion however because the sales turnover of sound intention was significantly greater than any of the other international representatives lawo presented sound intention with a special award.

pictured above left to right are barry revels (sound intention), tobias kronenwett (lawo international) and rainer kunzi (lawo international)

august 2011 presteigne charter orders three large lawo consoles for america's cup

presteigne charter, one of the world’s leading broadcast dry hire and systems rental specialists, has ordered three mc²56 digital audio consoles and nova29 router from lawo, for one of the most glamorous sporting events in the world – the inaugural america’s cup world series 2011-2012, a global programme of regattas designed to bring the sport of high-performance sailing to a wider audience ahead of the legendary America’s Cup itself.

this purchase extends a successful working relationship between lawo and the presteigne charter group and sound intention, which first deployed mc²66 consoles in 2008 for coverage of the french open tennis championships and subsequently the olympic games in beijing. these high-profile events underlined the flexibility of lawo design; the low-weight consoles proved easy to set up in on-location control rooms, without any compromise of the full broadcast performance specification.

each mc²56 console will have 48 faders (16+16+16), with similar hd cores using up to 8 MADI interfaces with a dallis stagebox. on location, the desks will be installed into temporary control rooms, linked via MADI through a Nova29 MADI router. presteigne charter’s choice of the nova29 universal router for the heart of the broadcast facilities provides the ideal standalone solution, providing the network with 1024x1024 I/O which can be switched transparently.

one of lawo’s crystal on-air consoles has also been ordered for the task of mixing multi-lingual commentary, primarily for internet and large-screen coverage.

june 2011 vsm is the control system for media city

television systems limited decided in favour of the vsm control system manufactured by l-s-b broadcast technologies gmbH for the large-scale project media city UK. tsl has been commissioned by peel media with the conception of the technical equipment and the system integration of the extensive studio complex in Manchester. From the mid-May five departments of the BBC are to move to the new £650 million site and start producing content. the virtual studio manager (vsm) integrates the major components in the designated studios such as vision mixers, multiviewers, intercom systems as well as control-, audio- and video routers. in addition the vsm provides interfaces connecting the umbrella control system seamlessly with the tsl umd and tally system.

sound intention acted as the main facilitator throughout the design phase of this project.

mediacityUK is a large-scale project developed and funded by the peel group and is the new home and production site for bbc, itv, coronation street, sis and the university of salford. a modern media city arises on the banks of manchester's historic ship canal on a total of 37 acres (potential to develop up to 200), housing one of europe's biggest hd studio complexes. from mid-May the bbc will start their relocation of five departments including bbc children’s, bbc children’s learning, parts of bbc future media & technology, bbc radio five live and bbc sport and breakfast tv to the new location salford. as well as the studio block 400 apartments, a wide range of office space, a hotel and a tram stop in the heart of a five acre piazza have been delivered.

may 2011 arena tv design bel and lawo into ob14

ob14 is a powerful new truck designed to provide optimum internal space and yet cope with venues where access and/or parking are restricted. the truck features a single “super-expanding” side. the overall space within the unit compares favourably with arena's double-expanding OB units.

this is the first hd ob truck built in the uk with a lawo desk at the heart of the audio platform. tim rowden, head of audio commented “the lawo desk has provided arena with the most flexible audio platform which will enable ob14 to excel in sport, light entertainment and all other types of production.”

pete love, head of operations also commented “you will notice as you walk into each space within ob14 you will see a many audio monitors manufactured by bel. we selected bel because of the intuitive operation the reliability and quality of audio they provide our engineers”

april 2011 dolby uk install a lawo mc²66 in wootton bassett

sound intention facilitated the selection of a large mc²66 audio consol to be installed at the european headquarters of dolby inc in wootton bassett. the lawo consol was an integral component in a new broadcast suite which was commissioned to give the dolby engineers access to a fully operational broadcast facility where they could simulate customers broadcast chains.

mick dwyer commented, we chose lawo over other audio desks because we believe it was the most advance audio tool an engineer could have.

dolby have since upgraded the surface with the extra fader option which increases the fader count to 48 plus the additional surround sound spill panel.

this exceptional facility is also available to lawo for customer training and demonstrations.

november 2010 sony purchase a lawo solution for the Vatican ob truck

since 1983, ctv has broadcast the pope's pastoral ministry and other activities of the holy see, each year covering about 200 events from inside the vatican as well as the pope's travels in italy and abroad. events of such importance need the support of extremely reliable technology where quality and versatility are guaranteed.

sound intention was proud to support the requirement of such an important project with the supply of a 48 fader mc²56 lawo consol.

“it is our hope that this new technology in the service of evangelization will serve as a conduit,” he announced, “bringing to every corner of the earth the word of God ... in the most technologically clear and advanced manner that has ever been possible, and transforming the lives of countless people.”

october 2010 gearhouse up grade australian ob trucks hd2 and hd4

once again gearhouse have chosen sound intention in partnership with Lawo and bel as providers for the audio solution for their two newly refurbished outside broadcast trucks in australia.

within hd2 gearhouse have installed a large 64 fader mc²56 lawo consol with a complete redundant core and interconnection. Bel have supplied all the vt audio monitoring positions and the dolby monitoring in engineering. sound intention also supplied video monitoring screens from penta.

hd4 has a very similar configuration with a lawo audio consol and bel audio monitors.

september 2010 sis live upgrades ob coverage of formula 1 for bbc sport

sound intention was at the heart of the system concept which brought f1 in hd to the uk viewers. sislive purchased a lawo mc2 56 audio consol to provide the 5.1 mix and the 4hm SAM64 provided the de-embedding solution from the host broadcaster.

sislive has upgraded the technical facilities for bbc sport’s coverage of formula 1 motor racing. the uk-based company has designed and built a brand new hd-ready flyaway unit and OB truck to capture bbc sport’s race-weekend footage for bbc one, bbc red button and bbc online. the £2 million system was first used at the belgian grand prix at the spa-francorchamps circuit, 27th-29th august, and is heading next to monza, italy, for the grand premio santander d’italia, 10th-12th september.

ian haynes, sis live's engineering manager, formula 1, says: “When fully rigged, the system provides bbc sport with a production gallery, vt area, two main edit suites and two smaller edit suites. for long-haul races, the containers can be transported by cargo plane and the control services equipment is set up in a portacabin in the paddock area of the grand prix circuit. in europe, the same equipment is rigged in our refurbished gppu (grand prix production unit) ob vehicle and driven to the circuit for all the weekend’s race coverage. a separate flat-bed truck drives the two containers with the production equipment to make for easy rigging. the system was first used live at the belgian grand prix, where it was a success and everyone was very happy.”

june 2010 sound intention is on the table top of the world

this was the biggest sporting event for sound intention so far.

at the heart of the main audio systems for the bbc, itv and espn were lawo cores and surfaces which were supplied through presteigne charter and gearhouse broadcast. The espn system was the largest which comprised of 4 hd cores and three mc² surfaces all networked together.

bel were the main supplier of audio monitors to many of the national broadcasters. There were over 50 bma2-e8shd units monitoring stereo, 5.1, and dolby feeds.

itv and bbc were also using the new sam-64 from 4hm. the sdi feeds were having the audio de-embedded and processed into a madi stream which provided an excellent interface to the main audio router.

the south Africa fifa world cup experienced proved that the sound intention business model provides outstanding broadcast solutions to an industry where value is also a priority.

may 2010 red bull race with lawo

gearhouse broadcast limited are using the lawo mc2 56 audio mixing desk to provide the optimum sound quality and control.

the red bull air race, established in 2003 and created by red bull, is an international series of air races in which competitors have to navigate a challenging obstacle course in the fastest time. pilots fly individually against the clock and have to complete tight turns through a slalom course consisting of pylons, known as "air gates".

the races are held mainly over water near cities, but are also held at airfields or natural wonders. they are accompanied by a supporting program of show flights. races are usually flown on weekends with the first day for qualification then knockout finals the day after. the events attract large crowds and are broadcast, both live and taped, in many nations.

april 2010 telegenic build the first 3d ob truck

bskyb has commissioned telegenic to build its first outside broadcast truck specifically for stereoscopic 3d production.

all 16 of the vt operator positions are using bel audio monitors. dave rowley commented “the bel 1u audio monitor gives the best and truest sound available in todays market”

4hm product made its debut performance. the signals from the 3d camera rigs were fed to a sam-64 in which the audio was de-embedded to aes for further mixing.

february 2010 it was the right type of snow for sound intention

the winter olympics in vancouver provided a great platform on which to launch 2010 as a huge year in sporting events for broadcast.

all products supplied by sound intention played a vital role in bringing the stunning pictures and sound from vancouver to a worldwide audience.

bel ‘s audio monitoring and dolby monitoring in the toc (technical operating centre) provided the worlds broadcasters the confidence in the stereo and 5.1 sound transmission.

through sound intention some of the world’s biggest broadcasters including bbc, itv, nrk and orf were using lawo mixing desks to bring the Vancouver magic to the pictures.

lsb provided the control system on the downhill to co-ordinate the cameras and sound, so the viewers at home could enjoy the experience to the full.

june 2009 visions monitor every grunt at wimbledon with bel

at this year’s wimbledon lawn tennis championships nep-visions ob vehicle provided mcr facilities for a number of major usa tv stations. nep-visions chose bel rack mount audio monitors to de-embed and verify the main hd and sd sdi feeds. paul fournier, head of sound, made the decision to use bel based on the product’s reliability, “we use bel because we like the reliability of the equipment in such a mission critical environment. the product just does what it says on the box and we can forget about it.”

the monitors used by nep-visions were the bm-a2-4shd (a 2U audio monitor with 2 x sdi inputs and separate AES and analogue inputs) and the bm-a2-e8shd 2U dolby® e monitor. Audio levels are metered via 53 segment tri-colour led bargraphs

may 2009 sis live take delivery of bel’s 200th production dolby monitor

bel (digital audio) ltd., delivered the 200th production unit of their flagship bm-a2-e8sdh in-rack dolby® d and e audio monitor to milton keynes based sis live. sis live (europe’s largest ob and uplink supplier) use the bm-a2-e8shd to de-embed, decode and monitor the incoming and outgoing hd video streams in their dual antennae uplink trucks.

david george of sis live commented “bel’s dolby monitor offers simple and intuitive operation of what is, in reality, a complicated requirement. sis live operates the largest fleet of uplink vehicles in europe and it is imperative that operation within each is as straight forward as possible.”

bel’s dolby® d and e monitors are fast becoming the monitors of choice for decoding dolby sources across many broadcast facilities within Europe.

april 2009 sabc chooses vsm and lawo for four new ob vans

the south african broadcasting corporation (sabc) has taken delivery of the first of four new outside broadcast vehicles, commissioned for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and other prestigious events. all four OBVs have been equipped with identical Lawo mc²56 digital audio consoles and the vsm controler.

the first two vehicles have been delivered by sony basingstoke, and have immediately been put to use on the premier soccer league broadcasts for sabc, and international fixtures that were broadcast in stereo in other countries. these events were the perfect warm-up for the 2009 fifa confederations cup, which, in turn, gives sabc and host broadcast services (hbs), the host broadcaster appointed by fifa, a testing rehearsal ahead of the 2010 world cup.

the 4-yearly ‘confed cup’ tournament runs from 14th to 28th june and sees the national teams of brazil, italy, spain, usa, egypt, south africa, iraq and new zealand descending on south africa with games being played in four cities across the country. broadcasters in all these countries take audio and video feeds from the host broadcaster in south africa, so hbs cannot risk the slightest technical uncertainty.

mervin buthelezi, the technical manager of the OB Units for sabc, highlighted reliability as one of the chief reasons for choosing lawo for the sound side of the ob vans. “after evaluation, research and testing by our own sound engineers, we all felt that the lawo mc²56 had the power, flexibility, reliability and redundancy we were looking for. it also integrates perfectly with virtual studio manager.”

september 2008 the new look bel have a successful ibc

bel (digital audio) ltd attended ibc in amsterdam in style as they showed off the new company image with a fresh new look. ibc was the first exhibition where bel exhibited solely under their own brand. earlier in the year bel developed a new marketing strategy, bringing in house all sales and marketing activities to better meet the needs of their customers. feedback from delighted customers at the show clearly confirmed that better product availability and commercial terms now available on bel products were assisting the dramatic growth in market share currently being experienced.

the new bmav3s was on display for the first time which created even more interest at the front of hall 9 of the ria. the bmav3s is a 3u audio video monitor with a big sound and a big 7” 16:9 screen to give ultimate confidence monitoring with sdi and composite video plus analogue and aes audio.

europe’s largest broadcast exhibition brought to bel more new business opportunities ever experienced from a single trade event in the past. over the next 12 months the company will be launching new products to enhance the portfolio with the hope ibc 2009 will be even better!

august 2008 more than 50 lawo mc² consoles for beijing 2008.

in august, beijing will resound throughout the world — and also in our ears. for when this year's biggest sports event takes place, the audience will experience an outstanding performance from the audio. no surprise then that lawo will be present in the chinese capital, providing its excellent technology from Rastatt/Germany.

while teams from over 200 nations compete for fame and honour in their chosen disciplines, lawo will also have a top squad on the starting blocks. this team, however, will not excel with fast sprints and high jumps, but with superb technology, maximum reliability and perfect audio quality. we are talking about the multiple lawo mc² consoles that will give excellent results and create contented faces in the ‘land of smiles’.

cutting edge technology from lawo has not only won the race for 17 surround control rooms in beijing. many european and asian ob vans will also employ mc² consoles, which sums up to a total of more than 50 mc² consoles that will be in use — the sheer number reveals that these latest-generation mixing consoles have become an international reference.

the OB van fleet from europe with mc²66 consoles on site in beijing for broadcasting the world feeds includes many alfacam trucks as well as ob vans of outside broadcast and prisma ob. yhe mobile audio technology is expanded by several audio control room cabins with installed mc²66 consoles. two of them will be also used by the finnish broadcaster yle. among the asian companies that will use mc²66 desks for the olympic games are the chinese state broadcaster cctv (chinese central television) and ob vans of fujian tv and hainan tv.

lawo's subsidiary for the rental business audio broadcast services (abs) is installing 17 surround control rooms with mc² desks in beijing for the sound mix. abs is also responsible for planning, delivery, project engineering and on-site support.

august 2008 bel move with the best this summer.

this summer more products than ever are on the move sporting the bel digital audio logo. maintaining their association with major international sporting events, 2008 sees bel in-rack monitors, delays and utility products in high demand for the key sporting events of the year.

the recent uefa euro2008 championships saw bel digital audio providing full audio monitoring facilities, across all venues, within the toc's (technical operation centres). bel, a dolby E partner, provided the tools necessary to monitor multi-channel audio encoded into dolby e streams and embedded into both hd and sd video sources.

bel products will also be in operation at the 2008 olympics in beijing, where once again they will give confidence to broadcast engineers worldwide. beijing 2008 has generated the largest production demand bel has ever received. the products travelling to the olympics in large volume include the new bm-a2-e8shd+, monitoring audio from aes to high definition with the ability to decode dolby e and ac3 encoded sources; the very versatile 2120B sdi audio shuffler and a range of synchronisation delays including the very popular 7150, which is bit accurate enabling dolby streams to be delayed.

bel has once again proved that they can offer products that meet the technical demands of broadcasters whilst still providing the user an interface that makes sense at a glance. kevin moorhouse, technical director of gearhouse broadcast ltd elaborates. “we like the bel products, not only can we rely on their quality but engineers all over the world can operate the intuitive user interfaces fast, which we require in big live events”.

following this summer’s international events, bel digital audio products will continue to assist outside broadcasters to bring football and rugby to our screens from all over Europe.

june 2008 two networked mc²66 used for the french open.

one of the most prestigious international tennis events, the french open, is in full swing. traditionally, the toughest games always take place on the red clay of paris, as clay courts are significantly slower than, for example, hard court surfaces. in order to provide the right audio backdrop for broadcast, the presteigne charter group, a prominent worldwide provider of broadcast rental equipment based in london, picked lawo mixing consoles; certainly no cracking serves or balls skimming the edge of the net will be missed by tv viewers.

for the first time ever, two mc²66 consoles, capable of accessing shared inputs and outputs, are being used for the roland garros grand slam tournament. each console has 56 faders and 144 dsp channels that can be routed via a 3072 x 3072 matrix. during the french open, the consoles are being used for programmes broadcast by espn and ttc (the tennis channel). the consoles are located in a ‘container village’, built by the organizer specifically for this event. apart from live broadcasts of the matches, the mc²66s are also used in their container control rooms to mix the sound for panels of experts and interviews with the tennis players.

the presteigne charter group deliberately decided on the mc²66 consoles from lawo, as it was imperative to have an easy-to-set-up, highly flexible system, with low weight but the full performance specification of a broadcast console. another crucial factor was the networkability of the two consoles, and common access to all inputs and outputs; these two points ensured that lawo became the winner of the game, set and match!

april 2008 vsm and lawo race with formula one host production.

formula one motor racing is one of worldwide TV’s top events. to meet the complex requirements for a perfect broadcast, the fom, short for ‘formula one management’, has decided to use a lawo mc²66 as the mixing console used to produce the international formula 1 host feeds. so, from now on, lawo will be the proud ‘supplier of mixing console for formula one host production’.

when a formula 1 racing car accelerates on the racetrack it sounds more like a jet fighter than a car. in few seconds, the car is travelling at more than 300 km/h, and this is accompanied by the deafening noise of the engine — an unforgettable experience for anyone who witnesses this at the actual racetrack. when the engine reaches 19,000 rpm, tv viewers at home should also hear — or even better, feel — this sound; the lawo mc²66 will now deliver this overwhelming sensation into racing fans’ homes around the world.

the mc²66 convinces on the highest possible level — its usability in mobile sound control rooms. the console used by the fom is installed in a container that, together with all the necessary technical and peripheral equipment, is transported to all the formula 1 races around the world. in this situation, the mc²66 will demonstrate that it can not only release its full mobile potential when installed in an ob truck, where it has pretty much established itself as the standard, but also when housed in a container-based control room.

with a full set of features, an unbeatable audio-follow-video function, and the convincing performance of its hd core, the mc²66 will be on the road for the complete racing season, producing international feeds for use worldwide.

the ‘high-speed’ Lawo console is fitted with 48 physical faders, 5 dsp cards with over 240 audio channels, full redundancy within the signal path, and a router providing the required 1920 x 1920 inputs and outputs.

A vsm controller links the mc²66 to the installed tally controller. a 19” vsm panel (virtual studio manager), integrated in the console surface, facilitates the direct assignment of audio-follow-video events to the camera tallies, either exclusively or by "or" assignment.

another feature widely used in ob trucks is direct control of camera microphone gains via a so-called gpc (general purpose channel) fader on the mixing console. conversion of gpc values to mic gains is also carried out by the vsm controller. a more comforting operation of all audio-relevant settings is hardly imaginable.

Copyright sound intention ltd 2009
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