Lawo partner Professional Audio & Television (PAT) has struck a technical partnership with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO), for the rebuild and fit-out of the historic Wellington Town Hall.
One of the world’s oldest national symphony orchestras, the NZSO has charmed audiences with concerts and recordings since 1946. In 2016, the orchestra was nominated for Best Orchestral Performance at the Grammy Awards, and has recorded music for film and game projects, including Wish Dragon, The Hobbit, The Lovely Bones, Krampus, Emperor, Escape Plan, Mortal Engines and Titanfall 2.
PAT has provided the 72-fader Lawo mc²96 audio production console that sits at the heart of the installation, complemented by a 16-fader Lawo mc²56 console. Both consoles pool their DSP resources from two fully-redundant, 1U-high Lawo A__UHD Cores. Lawo A__stageboxes feed audio in and out of a redundant SMPTE 2110-30 AoIP network, which is clocked by a Meinberg microSyncRX, offering a high level of efficiency, versatility and impresses with its high port density. Lawo’s Home cloud-native management platform for IP-based media infrastructure handles connection, management and security all aspects of the live production environment.
PAT has also integrated Merging Technologies Hapi interfaces into the Lawo environment via Home, as well as into the 2110 network via Microsens Fibre bridges. This has boosted the I/O capacity and provides a unified interface for control room operators and to several Avid Pro Tools terminals throughout the facility. A Lawo PowerCore fitted with a Dante IO expansion card and StudioHub XLR breakout panels provides central comms and talkback. This is controlled by Densitron’s IDS Core software via Ember+. The Densitron core will also be used to orchestrate and control lighting, digital signage and video elements between each of the performance and educational spaces. The Densitron solution will be used to display performance space booking and status information outside many of the Town Hall’s rooms and will keep conductors and music score readers on track with Beats and Bars information during performance recordings.
‘When the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra started designing its new audio recording studios, we wanted to work with not just any supplier, but a partner who would be right with us from inception through to operation,’ says NZSO Senior Manager of Projects, Craig Thorne. ‘In PAT we got just that – a family of genuine, supportive, specialist designers and engineers who understand our business and collaborated with us to supply the right solutions for our specific needs. Our Lawo production consoles are already the envy of many sound engineers, and once open for business, NZSO Studios will rival the best in the world.’
‘Being involved in this project has already become a career highlight for me – everyone from the construction supervisor to project managers and our own team has a common sense of care, genuine interest and passion towards an outstanding end-result,’ says PAT Senior Solutions Architect, Mike Heard. ‘I can’t wait for the doors to open and to sit back and listen to the magic on opening night. The world is watching this one, but we know that we have the skill and technology to pull it off and to deliver something that will turn heads.’
‘The whole team at Lawo are honoured to be a part of this prestigious project for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra,’ adds Lawo APAC Sales Director, Keith Prestidge. ‘Planned, coordinated and installed by our trusted partner Professional Audio & Television in cooperation with the customer and the Lawo team, the NZSO are now equipped with best-of-class mc² production audio consoles along with media infrastructure that is scalable, secure and truly future proof. Thank you to everyone involved for making this project possible.’
