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THE WHITE NUMBER 8

Toronto, Ontario, Canada – December 11, 2008 … In only a few weeks time, Media Mobil’s spotless white OB truck fleet, based in Leipzig, Germany, will be expanded with a new truck: the Ü8 (OB8). This new flagship, and MMG’s first HDTV OB truck, will be equipped with the finest digital technology from Lawo. An mc²66 console in the audio control room, plus a z4 compact mixer in the edit suite, guarantee the best audio quality in production. Another z4 is used as the audio playout desk. This innovative new OB unit will be launched on February 12th, 2009; its baptism of fire will be the February 2009 Berlinale, for which it is scheduled to broadcast the opening and closing gala events.

When asked about the new OB truck’s field of use, Torsten Streithof, MMG sound engineer, who was also involved in the design of the Ü8, states, “The whole purpose of the Ü8 is to cover every conceivable application – mainly for MDR (well-known German public broadcaster), but naturally, also for other customers – with the best possible production values. This includes communication-intensive sports and election broadcasts, large show events – with a focus on the large number of signals requiring processing, and a high level of automation – to ambitious classical music broadcasts and DVD production, with the highest audio quality and the best possible monitoring environment in the sound control room.�

Particularly innovative in the new OB truck is the optical fiber connection between audio stage boxes and the Telecast converters. “The standardization of optical fiber enables us to attach additional video stageboxes to any of the external DALLIS stage boxes, even after the setup; in either case, this will give us tremendous flexibility. Also, having the Riedel matrices in our OB trucks networked with Lawo, and the linking of the intercom panels with the mc² HD core via optical fiber, are all important facilities,� continues Streithof. “Further innovations can be found mainly in the field of GPIO handling between Lawo and Riedel; here we benefited a great deal from the experience of Lawo’s project managers and our colleagues at Studio Berlin Adlershof (SBA), when fitting out their Ü6 OB truck.� This OB unit is equipped with an mc²66 at the heart of the sound control room.

mc²66 in the audio control room
The central component of the Ü8’s audio control room is an mc²66 console, offering 48 faders in a large frame. Its HD core provides 192 AES I/Os, and four DALLIS units supply a further 256 analog interfaces. When asked why MMG decided on a Lawo console, Streithof answers, “The easy integration of the Riedel Artist systems, as well as extensive controllability of the core, were crucial factors for the Broadcast Studio Manager.�

“In addition, elegant solutions such as MIDI control of the cameras’ mic pre-amps appeared very useful to us. Another important decision factor: the wide geographic distribution of mc²66 consoles, and therefore the extensive availability of trained personnel.�

A very satisfied Torsten Streithof comments on the cooperation with Lawo during this extraordinarily sophisticated project, “Lawo offered us a high degree of modification possibilities to our individual requirements for the mc²66, and tremendous support – based on the strength of past experience and even after the console had been sold. Particularly for a project that had to find solutions for the most diverse tasks, the importance of this kind of after sales support cannot be valued enough.�

About Media Mobil GmbH
Media Mobil GmbH (MMG), a DREFA Media Holding GmbH and Studio Berlin Adlershof GmbH company, is a technical enterprise service with extensive experience in outside TV and radio productions. In addition to modern technology, MMG provides competent and experienced staff, and thus guarantees a totally reliable TV broadcast service.

Productions include music events in the Gewandhaus concert hall in Leipzig, the Semper Opera in Dresden, and many other musical events, TV galas and award shows. Plus, of course, winter sports, soccer, and other current events are among the many TV broadcasts that MMG produces for MDR and other public and private production companies and broadcasters.

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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