Sky Sport Deutschland is installing 12 IP-native Lawo diamond broadcast mixing consoles as part of a comprehensive technical overhaul, Lawo said today.
The consoles are being deployed to optimize its sports and television workflows. Based on the open AES67/RAVENNA Audio-over-IP network standards, the diamond consoles are inherently also SMPTE ST2110-30/-31 and ST2022-7 compliant, it said.
The setup also includes Lawo Power Core units as DSP engines and to provide the diamond consoles with expandable I/O connectivity for AES67, MADI, analog, AES3 and Dante® sources and destinations. For broadcast control, Sky uses the VSM system (Virtual Studio Manager), a comprehensive control and workflow solution for IP-based broadcast infrastructures, the company said.
The selection process hinged on a proof-of-concept session to which several manufacturers had been invited. The Sky team eventually settled on the diamond broadcast console for radio and TV applications together with the VisTool graphical software interface and VSM. Driving the selection was Sky’s desire for more efficient workflows and support for VSM with the newly installed backbone infrastructure, it said.
“The infrastructure needs to provide the highest possible degree of technological integration. Scalability also played an important role, as the envisaged mixing consoles needed to cover anything between mono voice-over assignments and Dolby Atmos productions while being easy to operate. The diamond makes it easy to map Sky’s custom workflows,” said Christian Barth, director of production platforms at Sky.
The new infrastructure, which was designed by Chris Hermann's team in collaboration with Wolfgang Götz, aims to merge several positions. “In addition to functionality, efficiency was another major consideration,” said Florian Hennig, head of production architecture at Sky. “Whereas previously only one type of sport could be broadcast per console, the diamond accommodates up to four sporting events per console.”
After deciding on the system, defining the workflows, completing the technical implementation and extensive training sessions in late 2023, installation and commissioning were scheduled for 2024. Until the technical transformation is complete, the new setup will run in parallel with the existing infrastructure, the company said.
More information is available on the Lawo website.
