Rastatt, Germany (February 1, 2024)—Broadcaster Sky Sport Deutschland in Germany has launched a technical overhaul centered around Lawo IP-enabled equipment.
Sky Sport is installing a total of 12 IP-native Lawo diamond broadcast mixing consoles to optimize its sports coverage and television workflows. Based on the open AES67/RAVENNA AoIP network standards, the diamond consoles are also ST2110-30/-31 and ST2022-7 compliant. The setup furthermore comprises 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 control and workflow solution for IP-based broadcast infrastructures which provides integration and support for custom workflows.
The SKY project team—Christian Barth, director production platforms, origination and distribution; Florian Hennig, head of production architecture; and Chris Hermann, senior manager production architecture—is responsible for the selection and implementation of the new infrastructure. Wolfgang Götz from promediatools provided consulting services on behalf of Lawo.
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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 launched in late 2021, together with the VisTool graphical software interface and VSM.
“The Lawo mixing console is a good fit for our technological landscape,” Florian Hennig says. “Sky has developed a tightly integrated audio-processing stack. It therefore makes sense, for example, for the sound engineer to hear the effect of how their mixes hit subsequent audio processing stages in the monitoring chain, and to tweak the settings accordingly on the mixing console.”
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. Whereas previously only one type of sport could be broadcast per console, the diamond accommodates up to four sporting events per console,” confirms Florian Hennig.
After deciding on the system, defining the workflows, completing the technical implementation, and extensive training sessions in late 2023, installation and commissioning are scheduled for 2024. Until the technical transformation is complete, the new setup will run in parallel with the existing infrastructure.
