RTL News rebuilds a Cologne audio control room around Lawo mc²96
RTL News has finished a ground-up rebuild of Audio Control Room TR 1 in Cologne. The room is built around the Lawo mc²96 Grand Production Console and a new IP-based broadcast infrastructure.
It supports 5.1 surround production for live, news and sports broadcasting. The rebuild also covered a new monitoring environment and signal infrastructure, and it allows multichannel audio production and program delivery for RTL and ntv. The Cologne-based news operation produces programs including "RTL Aktuell," "Punkt 12," "Exclusiv" and "Extra," as well as productions for ntv and other RTL family brands.
TR 1 is the next step in the news organization's move to a Lawo HOME-based IP production environment. RTL News had already equipped four audio control rooms with Lawo mc²56 consoles and the HOME platform, and the new room fits into that setup. RTL has relied on Lawo consoles for many years. For its primary audio control room it chose the mc²96, whose control surface is designed for large-scale broadcast productions.
Fewer standalone boxes
Functions that used to need separate hardware, including auto-leveling, signal processing and routing, now sit inside the production platform. Only specialized tools remain outside: CEDAR noise suppression and Waves SuperRack for plug-in processing. The Waves plug-ins can be controlled directly from the mc²96 surface.
"Our objective went far beyond replacing a mixing console," said Gerhard Ruberg, head of audio at RTL News and project manager for the modernization. "We wanted to create a platform that will continue to meet the demands of modern live production while laying the foundation for future IP-based operating models."
The mc²96 combines large-format touch-screen operation with dedicated hardware controls for EQ, dynamics, monitoring and routing. Ruberg said news engineers often have to react instantly, and that the console gives the direct access and operational clarity needed for quick decisions in live broadcasts. The console scales to the signal counts of major sports productions, which can need up to 600 concurrent audio signals with intercom channels included. Its processing rests on a redundant pair of A__UHD Cores.
Like all mc² consoles, it supports native SMPTE ST 2110, AES67, RAVENNA and Dante workflows.
Migration without going off air
One of the project's biggest challenges was keeping on-air operations running. The new console was first installed in Audio Control Room TR 5, where RTL News and Lawo teams tested the configuration and signal paths under real production conditions. After several weeks of testing and operator training, that room went into regular use. Only then was TR 1 modernized. RTL News has used the rebuilt TR 1 for regular broadcast operations since August.
The project also moved signal transport from baseband to IP. The legacy baseband solution gave way to an architecture built around Lawo A__stage audio I/O devices, IP audio streams and the Lawo HOME IP orchestration platform. Studios, control rooms and audio-processing resources can now be interconnected and allocated as needed, and the new architecture also enhances resilience.
Source: TV Tech