German production company goes HD for new OB truck
Dec 23, 2008 11:28 AM
Media Mobil has selected a full suite of Lawo mixing and networking products for use in its first HDTV OB truck, dubbed the Ü8.
In only a few weeks time, Media Mobil’s spotless white OB truck fleet, based in Leipzig, Germany, will be expanded with a new truck: the Ü8 (OB8). MMG’s first HDTV OB truck, the OB8 will be equipped as the company’s new flagship, including a Lawo mc²66 console in the audio control room and z4 compact mixers in the edit suite and at the audio playout desk. This new OB truck will be launched in February.
MMG sound engineer Torsten Streithof, who was also involved in the design of the Ü8, states, “The whole purpose of the Ü8 is to cover every conceivable application — mainly for MDR [a well-known German public broadcaster], but naturally, also for other customers, with the best possible production values.”
Particularly innovative in the new OB truck is the optical fiber connection between audio stage boxes and the Telecast converters. “The standardization of optical fiber enables us to attach additional video stageboxes to any of the external DALLIS stage boxes, even after the setup; in either case, this will give us tremendous flexibility. Also, having the Riedel matrices in our OB trucks networked with Lawo, and the linking of the intercom panels with the mc² HD core via optical fiber, are all important facilities,” Streithof said. “Further innovations can be found mainly in the field of GPIO handling between Lawo and Riedel.”
The central component of the OB8’s audio control room is an mc²66 console, offering 48 faders in a large frame. Its HD core provides 192 AES I/Os, and four DALLIS units supply a further 256 analog interfaces. When asked why MMG decided on a Lawo console, Streithof answers, “The easy integration of the Riedel Artist systems, as well as extensive controllability of the core were crucial factors.”
“In addition, elegant solutions such as MIDI control of the cameras’ mic preamps appeared very useful to us. Another important decision factor: the wide geographic distribution of mc²66 consoles, and therefore the extensive availability of trained personnel.”
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