Toronto, Ontario, Canada – August 6, 2008 … Just days to go to the next great event of 2008’s ‘super sports’ year. The Olympic Summer Games in Beijing will include 300 competitive events in 28 disciplines. One of the broadcasters taking part in this ‘marathon’ will be the Finnish broadcaster YLE, who will be broadcasting from Beijing for 790 hours (440 on TV and 350 on radio). To handle this challenge, YLE will be using Lawo equipment.
The core of the system will be a Nova73 HD routing matrix, to which five digital mixing consoles will be connected: a Lawo mc²66 for YLE TV 2, a Lawo zirkonXL for YLE TV FST-5, and a Lawo zirkon for YLE Radio Suomi. For Radio Extrem (X3M), a YLE radio station broadcasting in Swedish, an extra zirkon console will be available, as well as an additional mc²66 for the Swedish TV station SVT VT. The Nova73 HD’s audio routing capability will thus cover two Scandinavian countries: international synergy at its best.
Matti Helkamaa, Senior Technical Advisor at YLE, and responsible for system planning and collaboration with Lawo, comments, “Lawo provides an extremely flexible solution to routing: the Nova73 HD connects all Lawo consoles, so multiple signals can be handled in parallel. In total, we are talking here about handling 548 input signals — a very complex production that will be made easy, thanks to the Lawo equipment.”
The first feed for YLE TV 2 will be completely produced in Beijing, using an mc²66 console. The second feed will be prepared in Beijing and completed at the YLE studios in Helsinki. Both international and national productions will each involve some 100 technical and editorial staff from Finland. In order to attain the highest level of efficiency possible during their stay in Beijing, the YLE team will take advantage of Lawo’s all-inclusive customer support, which provides services such as chauffeurs, interpreters, SIM cards etc.
YLE opted for its own national feed in order to present the Finnish athletes better, and provide coverage with a Scandinavian feel. Matti Helkamaa is responsible for this national feed; in closing, he summarizes the cooperation with Lawo as follows, “Modern fragmented audio productions that must run in real-time always present an exciting challenge. For productions like this, you have to rely on flexible mixing and routing solutions, and for that reason, I am delighted that we will have state-of-the-art technology in the form of Lawo products.”
About Lawo
Lawo is a manufacturer of digital audio networking systems and consoles for a wide range of applications from small to large scale audio production in television and radio, post production, and live sound. Established in the 1970s, the company’s manufacturing center is located in the Rhine valley town of Rastatt, Germany. For additional information on Lawo’s mc²66 console and all Lawo products, visit the company online at www.lawo.ca.
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