The transition strategy designed to take the American Golf Channel cable and satellite television network is now in its second year – an overhaul of its entire audio infrastructure to encompass IP-transport, pooled resources, ease of operation and improved workflows. Key to the operation are systems from German manufacturer, Lawo.
‘Lawo’s portfolio of products allowed us to design and build a comprehensive system that seamlessly encompasses audio, video, intercom and commentary into a single vendor solution,’ Golf Channel Senior Director, Engineering & BOC Eric Gardner explains.
Three 64-fader mc256 consoles have now been installed in Golf Channel’s primary production control rooms for live audio, with an additional three 16-fader mc236 consoles installed in hybrid live audio and post production rooms. In addition to the consoles, Lawo Commentary Units are installed in voiceover booths located throughout the Golf Channel campus. Tying everything together is a Nova73 audio router and 11 Dallis audio I/O frames located in Golf Channel studios, control rooms and equipment areas.
‘The beauty of this design is that the messy cabling happens near the core or at the edge,’ Gardner says. ‘Ravenna allows for a sprawling audio network with clean home runs around our facility using both fibre and copper.’
For flexibility, Golf Channel also installed four Lawo V__pro8 audio/video processors to take the complexity out of video and audio channel mapping.
‘The addition of four Lawo V_pro8 units gives us the flexibility to perfectly synchronise any of the eight inputs and outputs with a Madi audio matrix. Live video and audio monitoring is built into the HTML5 web GUI, and the flexibility to build programme, auxiliary and camera paths in minutes rivals any other interface we use,’ says Bob van Deering, Director of Systems Design & Transmission. The V__pro8 units are used as extra resources, with a dedicated unit per production control room and a fourth unit wrapped around the core video router.
‘One feature that our Operations Team has been very excited about is the flexibility of Lawo’s custom functions.’ adds Director of Systems Services, Dennis Milewski. ‘Using the custom function of the mc² series consoles, the operators can program the console to do almost anything they can imagine. Currently, the custom functions are used for specialty audio monitoring situations, back-up microphone routing, and GPIO tasks like studio on-air lights, among many other uses.’
Lawo and Golf Channel worked under a tight schedule to integrate all systems during a December 2017 production hiatus: ‘Lawo was incredible to work with from project start to finish,’ Milewski reports. ‘Our operators found that Lawo’s trainer went above and beyond, making them feel comfortable with extensive training and on-site presence.’ Golf Channel launched the new system in January during its signature daily live news programmes, Morning Drive and Golf Central.
More: www.lawo.com
