Lawo Press

On Friday, 22 November 2019, Coldplay performed two epoch-making ‘Sunrise’ and ‘Sunset’ sets at Amman’s Citadel, Jordan, both of which were streamed live on YouTube to allow the world to celebrate the release of the band’s new album, Everyday Life.

Following Coldplay’s bold decision not to tour Everyday Life for environmental reasons, the band came up with a spectacular alternative for achieving maximum impact: “We wanted to pick somewhere in the middle of the world where we normally don’t get to play,” Chris Martin, Coldplay’s singer told the BBC.

A few days before the history-making Amman performances, Coldplay’s management announced the addition of a one-off live show on 25 November at London’s Natural History Museum. Selected songs of this performance will be available on radio and social media, and the proceeds will be donated to an environmental charity.

As always, what looked easy at show time was the result of intense preparations involving the best people in the industry. Tony Smith (Coldplay’s Audio Designer, FOH Tech and Crew Chief) liaised with Toby Alington, broadcast sound engineer extraordinaire, to find a solution for the Amman broadcast mix. Alington in turn approached Dirk Sykora to discuss a Lawo console solution for Jordan through SR Films. Alington mixed the two sets live in Amman with the help of Coldplay’s trusted Rik Simpson (Producer, Sound Engineer) and Dan Green (FOH engineer).

Both the band and the technical crew had arrived in Amman one week prior to the Sunrise and Sunset performances. According to Sykora, who configured and programmed the Lawo mc²56 mixing console used for the streaming events, a total of 192 inputs were recorded on three separate DAW machines and mixed live on the console for stereo broadcast.

The band rehearsed the new material at a theatre in downtown Amman to allow the technical crew to connect all the technical dots, program the console and tweak countless parameters to perfection.

After the rehearsals and live recordings at the theatre, the gear was carried uphill and set up in tents close to the location where the band performed its Sunrise and Sunset concerts.

Despite assumptions to the contrary, Coldplay’s two Amman performances were “proper” live gigs that were also filmed and streamed, says Alington: “It certainly wasn’t an event filmed to playback. We really needed those 192 audio channels, and additionally rigged an array of ambience mics around the Citadel to capture Amman’s live ‘atmos’ at dawn and dusk. The whole project was magic—everything fell snugly into place.” Sykora of Lawo concurs: “Coldplay’s Sunrise and Sunset gigs at Amman’s Citadel are among the absolute highlights of my professional career.”

After two superb shows whose impact was felt on a global scale, the band and its crew flew to London for the live gig at the Natural History Museum. With FOH mixed by Dan Green, the performance was also recorded and mixed by Alington and Simpson using the Floating Earth OB truck—again with a Lawo mc²56 console based on the settings Sykora had prepared and saved in Amman and later transferred to the console in the OB truck.

Simpson and Alington were extremely satisfied with the equipment supplied by the Dutch company SR Films and the pristine sound quality of Lawo’s mc²56 console. Alington concluded: “This console works the way my brains works. And it sounds superb.”

As part of ongoing upgrades and developments to its studio facilities, Verizon Media – the Verizon digital-media division combining AOL and Yahoo! – has taken delivery of three state-of-the-art mc²36 audio production consoles and a Nova37 Hybrid IP/MADI Plug&Play Audio Router for its studio facilities from German IP broadcast technology pioneer, Lawo.

Renamed Verizon Media Studios (formerly Oath Inc) early in 2019, the renovation and new buildout to the facilities will serve all Verizon Media brands, including Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, Huffpost, Yahoo News, RYOT, Engadget, Tech Crunch and Makers. It encompasses live broadcast and pre-tape studio content with shared resources across different locations. With DSI/Blade Media acting as the main contractor, the upgrade covers three studios; Control Room 1 and Control Room 3 are used for a daily eight-hour live Yahoo Finance broadcast and ancillary shoots, while Control Room 2 is a general-purpose studio for all other of Verizon brands. These have been equipped with three Lawo mc²36 consoles and a Nova37, accompanied by four Lawo A__mic8 microphone interfaces. The intention is to add two further A__mic8s in the near future.

With work begun in 2018, these studios are currently operational with Stage 2 of the project to follow, bringing additional live studio spaces into play.

“We are scaling globally and the ease of interconnectivity, strong system engineering team and customer service that Lawo provides has made planning for the future exciting and easy to understand,” says Dan Brantigan, head of Audio at Verizon Media Studios. “I’ve been exceedingly impressed with Lawo’s willingness to customise based on client needs, and everybody there seems genuinely excited to work through hurdles and even teach programming and intricacies that other console manufacturers would normally shy away from.”

Among the many benefits of the new installation that Brantigan identifies are scalability and customization, alongside ability to work with new IP-based workflows while interfacing seamlessly with all legacy formats. “Also, all our A1s love the ease of use and sound of the consoles in general,” he adds. “Signal flow with RAVENNA has been especially eye opening and is now a format I want to use as much as possible in the future.”

The mc²36 is designed for maximum ease-of-use and value-for-money, to extend the benefits of Lawo’s audio expertise to a broader group of users than previously. With a comprehensive feature set that covers broadcast, theater, house of worship, live and install applications, along with uncompromised sound quality and Lawo-grade mic preamps, the mc²36 desk offers unprecedented value for money. Compact onboard DSP and I/O make the console equally suited to permanent installations with limited space and to rental companies.

Nova37 is a compact 3RU audio router, with a fixed RAVENNA/AES67 and MADI I/O configuration. It is perfectly suited to instant set-up of small-sized audio networks with a maximum of 1536×1536 crosspoints. In combination with mc²36 audio consoles and mc² Compact I/O stageboxes, the Nova37 represents a very smart package for live performance, installed sound and houses of worship: In operation, it is just plug-and-play – connect consoles and I/O systems via RAVENNA/AES67 or MADI, and the audio network is up and running, providing immediate access to all sources. Network user rights are easily managed from the console’s touchscreen, using Lawo’s intuitive one-touch rights management system. As an optional addition to its standard presets, the Nova 37 configuration is fully customisable to specific customer needs. As Nova37 uses inaudible fans, it can be placed anywhere in a setup.

“I went with Lawo because of the experience I had using them in the past,” Brantigan summarises. “I was impressed with the sound of the consoles foremost, but getting deeper into the workflow possibilities the decision is being reinforced on a daily basis.”

Power Core, Lawo’s versatile AoIP mixing engine and I/O node, has become even more powerful — thanks to new features and capabilities debuting at NAB 2019, taking place from 6 to 11 April at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Initially introduced as a DSP mixing engine and modular I/O system for Ruby radio consoles, many broadcasters are using Power Core as a gateway between legacy audio formats and standards-based IP media networks.

The ST2110-30 standard ensures seamless interoperability of audio and video equipment in combined radio / TV broadcast plants.

Power Core features new at NAB include:

• A Dante^® card with dual-redundant ports and sample rate conversion, allowing easy integration of pro-audio equipment into broadcast environments.
• Dual-redundant front-panel SFP ports for AoIP. Now, broadcasters have their choice of optical or copper network connections, sans the cost of external media converters.
• ST2022-7 Seamless Protection Switching, which provides dual-redundant AoIP network connections. Twin active links guard against audio loss should one link be interrupted.

“Power Core packs a staggering amount of DSP and modular I/O into only 1RU,” says Lawo radio marketing specialist Clark Novak. “On the front panel alone, there are 128 dual-redundant AES67 streams and 128 dual-redundant MADI channels. Then there are 8 rear-panel expansion slots. Combine this with 96 DSP channels and nearly 2,000 routing crosspoints, and it’s no wonder radio and TV stations are finding that Power Core increases capabilities, simplifies infrastructure and reduces costs. It’s a win-win!”

“The broadcasting industry’s migration to IP has triggered a convergence of radio and TV technologies,” notes Novak. “That’s why Power Core is quickly becoming the preferred media-aggregation tool for TV broadcasters, especially those fielding OB units. “The ability to connect and convert between AES3, AES67, MADI, Dante and ST2110-30 makes Power Core a bona-fide ‘Über-Node.’”

Power Core is amazingly expandable. Clients can add more capacity with eight rear-panel card slots, which allow a la carte addition of analogue, AES3, MADI and Dante interfaces, and a unique Studio I/O card that provides mic inputs and headphone and monitor outputs.

For the control room that serves its Grand Théâtre hall, Opéra National de Bordeaux (France) has selected a 24-fader Lawo mc²36 audio mixing console, which was installed in late August 2018. After extensive tests involving consoles from six manufacturers, the mc²36 was selected for its superior sound quality, competitive pricing and a compact footprint that fits snugly in the Grand Théâtre’s control room.

Taking advantage of the mc²36’s RAVENNA capability, the console is connected to a Lawo Compact I/O unit (32 ins/32 outs) on stage, which is chiefly used to connect microphones set up in the orchestra pit. An 8-channel Lawo A__mic 8 is available as “mobile stagebox” to connect microphones, amplifiers or active speakers positioned in other areas. The A__digital 8 serves a similar purpose, accommodating amplifiers, wireless receivers, etc., in the digital domain. Outboard effects processors stationed in the Grand Théâtre’s control room are connected directly to the mc²36’s eight on-board AES inputs/outputs. For additional ad-hoc input and output sources, the console’s 32 local ueinputs/outputs are connected to an analogue wall box.

Proud of its Italian-style build and the acoustics that go with it, the opera house in Bordeaux uses sound reinforcement during classical music and opera performances for monitoring purposes, backstage cueing and sound effects, but also for classical and contemporary ballet performances and events.

The Lawo mc²36 features local inputs and outputs for a broad range of applications, with high-quality microphone preamps. The I/O section is complemented by a DSP micro-core with an internal 512×512 port audio matrix. For maximum reliability, the mc²36 is equipped with redundant power supplies and DSP cards. Support for the Waves SoundGrid with storage of plug-in parameters in snapshot and production data is also part of the basic package.

The mc²36’s MADI tie-line port and three RAVENNA/AES67/ST2110-30/-31 Audio-over-IP ports provide future-proof connectivity for additional I/O devices and networking.

Its 21.5” full-HD touch-screens work hand-in-hand with the touch-sensitive colour-coded rotary encoders. Tasks such as VCA allocation, bus or aux assignments, and mix-minus configurations are performed intuitively via the touchscreen. The console can be readily adapted to users’ requirements by adjusting the channel display. The metering automatically scales to the maximum available space, showing all fader levels permanently on the HD display. From its pro-grade microphone preamps to its DSP processing algorithms, the mc²36 provides a level of sound quality never before achieved in this price segment.

“The mc²36’s sound quality is simply stunning,” says Lionnel Soulard, head of Audio Department of the Opéra National de Bordeaux. “And, although the desk has preserved some of the most cherished elements of the Innovason console we used to use, this is clearly an evolved, state-of-the-art mixer whose impressive potential will become apparent as we become more familiar with it.”