You have my permission to bail right now. If you were expecting to read a regular product review, I apologise in advance. But to understand Lawo’s mc²36 you need to wrap your head around a new way of working; a different paradigm.

That said, it’s not a million miles from when Dante first landed in Yamaha’s digital mixing consoles back in 2012.

Prior to that, MADI was king when it came to moving multiple channels of digital audio (and is still a very valid option if point-to-point is all that’s required). Okay, prior to that, Cobranet was a ‘thing’ but not so much in production. And prior to that, digital consoles used traditional analogue snakes and splitters, retaining the conversion stage in the mixer.

Yamaha helped Dante go mainstream, and it was an eyeopener for those working with digital audio — uncompressed audio over a standard IP network brought about an unprecedented level of versatility for moving multi-channel audio around.

Dante is now, arguably, an even bigger deal in the world of installed audio than it is in production. For large (even multi-campus) installations, Dante Domain Manager makes the job of an AV/IT administrator much easier, albeit with a significant pricetag.

ENTER AES67

In the background, while Dante became the defacto digital audio standard, others lobbied for an open IP audio standard or at least a way of allowing different standards like Dante, Q-LAN and Ravenna to talk to each other. The Audio Engineering Society developed the AES67 interoperability standard for IP-based audio networking products. AES67 isn’t trying to compete with Dante or Q-Sys’s Q-LAN, so much, as being a common language for various uncompressed PCM audio network protocols to speak to each other. 

SMPTE has also been developing its own open standard for network video and audio. It’s called ST2110 and is now a big deal, especially in the world of broadcast. As broadcasters upgrade their facilities and move away from point-to-point SDI signal transport to IP networks, ST2110 has stepped into the breach.

LAYER 3 SPREE

ST2110 takes full advantage of the flexibility of being a Layer 3 network standard. It moves between subnets without a hitch and the ease with which it multicasts (one input to many outputs without any additional load on the stream’s bandwidth) makes particular sense to the broadcast world — it really is a case of audio going from ‘anywhere to anyone’ without question.

But one of the reasons why people love Dante so much is how easy it is to use. Dante does all the administrative hard work for you. You don’t need to understand IP networks to operate Dante-based gear (but it helps if you’re a system designer, obviously).

ST2110 currently needs IP network knowledge to use. 

San Francisco Opera’s historic 3,006-seat War Memorial Opera House, opened in 1932 on Van Ness Avenue adjacent to City Hall, has just completed a technical upgrade to a complete Audio-over-IP infrastructure with two Lawo mc² audio production consoles and related I/O, unifying the theatre’s audio production systems and bringing to completion a project with roots going back nearly 7 years.

San Francisco Opera acquired their first Lawo console, an mc²56 MKII, in 2015, for post-production use. It was a good testing ground, as the Opera’s technical staff looked to the future, planning replacement of a previous, non-networked console with a looming EOL date.

“Having such an important part of the system no longer serviceable was not something we could accept,” says Doug Mitchell, San Francisco Opera’s Master Audio/Video Engineer. Core requirements for new consoles were simple: “First, the consoles needed to be native RAVENNA and, second, they needed to be made with the quality and detail that opera and symphonic music required.”

“Having already purchased an mc²56 MKII with Nova73 Compact in 2015 for our post-production facility, we were already very familiar with Lawo,” says Mitchell. “In fact, we chose Lawo in 2015 because of its RAVENNA audio capability. We had been using Merging Pyramix for multi-track capture and post-production mixing since 2007, and using Horus and Hapi AD/DA interfaces for all of our remote mic pre’s since 2012. Integrating that first mc²56 MKII into our existing infrastructure made connectivity much simpler — it was a no-brainer to continue with Lawo for our live sound consoles.”

The new installation – whose main goal was to bring together San Francisco Opera’s Live, Broadcast and Post Production audio facilities within a 96kHz infrastructure – includes an mc²56 MKIII audio production console with a redundant A_UHD Core for the sound booth on the 5th floor backstage, along with A__stage64 and A__madi6 stageboxes, a Lawo V__pro8 video processor, and a Power Core RP with VisTool RP remote control for rehearsal and god mics. At orchestra level, an mc²36 MKII audio production console provides FOH sound. The system’s backbone is managed with two Arista 7020 switches.

A second goal, integrating the FOH console with the main sound console, was also accomplished, as both new consoles now share all sources. Outputs feed two DirectOut Prodigy.MP’s via RAVENNA and are matrixed prior to speaker distribution.

“One big challenge with the previous equipment was lack of DSP, which required a lot of outboard processing gear,” Mitchell explains. “Since we had previously installed AoIP infrastructure with our first Lawo console, it was easy to replace the old stageboxes with the Lawo A__stage64 using existing wiring, and adding the Arista 7020 to tie the Consoles, A_UHD cores, A__stages64 units, A__madi6 and Power Core.”

“It all went together very easily,” Doug enthuses: “We have 2 Horus with 64 mic pre’s in the orchestra pit, 1 Horus with 32 mic pre’s for RF mics, 16 mic pre’s for itinerant use DSL, 1 Hapi with 8 mic pre’s in the ceiling for hanging mics, and 1 portable Horus with 32 mic pre’s for special events. The ability to easily share all the Merging pre’s and the A_Stage units with both mc²56’s, the mc²36 and the Power Core really shows the beauty of an all-IP audio network.”

Mitchell highlights one more major advantage of the new Lawo system: its extremely flexible workflow.

“We share the theatre with the San Francisco Ballet, and we both have very similar, yet different needs,” says Doug. “In my twenty years with the Company, the changeover that happens twice per year between us has always been quite complicated and took a lot of time, as it required a lot of patch bay changes.

“Now, we finally have a system large enough and flexible enough that all we need to do is change out some microphones and recall a different snapshot in the mc²56 MKIII, mc²36 MKII and the Power Core, and we are ready to go!”

During a Special Launch Event on November 16, 2021, streamed live from its studio at the company’s headquarters in Rastatt/Germany, Lawo unveiled its all-new diamond broadcast console for radio and TV applications. This IP-native mixing system is based on the open AES67/RAVENNA Audio-over-IP networking standards and also complies with ST2110-30/-31 and ST2022-7. Powered by the Lawo Power Core Engine, diamond provides expandable I/O, accommodating AES67, MADI, analog, AES3 as well as Dante audio sources and destinations.

Modular by design, diamond is available in configurations from 2 to 60 physical faders, either as desktop or flush-mounted build. Fader-adjacent colour displays give extended source information, and two fader layers allow operators to instantly switch between multiple tasks. Silent, motorised faders and precise encoders inherited from Lawo’s mc² audio production consoles permit integration with program automation and playout systems — perfect for multiple-layer operations involving voice tracking, remote production, or DAW control. Programmable, colour-coded LED button and encoder lighting highlights common control functions.

Much more than helpful meter bridges, optional Virtual Extension modules feature HD colour TFT displays for extended information and touch control. Ember+ and HTML5 integration enables control of third-party hardware and software.

diamond is the first Lawo console for radio applications to feature Lawo’s Unified Experience user interface that puts users first thanks to a familiar and consistent interface across the entire Lawo product portfolio.

Based on a holistic concept, diamond is a completely modular production system that enables broadcasters to build exactly the console they envision, tailored to the specific requirements of users and workflows. Several module types are available for customer-specific arrangements of hardware controls and sections.

diamond employs smart algorithms that speed up production workflows. A host of assistive mixing technologies enable diamond operators to produce compelling, engaging programming. The AutoMix function automatically maintains the balance of multi-mic productions, and AutoMix Grouping allows this intelligent automatic mixing to be applied to multiple independent source groups. AutoGain, an automatic gain setting function, optimises guest and host mic levels with a single button press.

IP-based studio infrastructure makes it very easy to control devices remotely and share information between studios. The diamond display apps take maximum advantage of IP studio networking, giving users the ability to operate their console remotely with complete access to every function from a PC with a LAN / WAN connection.

Thanks to an unlimited number of snapshots and DSP profiles that can be stored and recalled from any networked console, individual talent profiles or customised show setups are available anywhere — even to operators working remotely from home studios, OB setups, etc.

A sophisticated rights-management system gives engineers the power to tailor access to console features based on multiple user groups, or on a user-by-user basis.

diamond furthermore integrates with HOME, Lawo’s management platform for today’s complex IP-based media infrastructures. HOME helps connect, manage and secure all aspects of live production environments, providing centralised microservices for swift, effective interaction of engineers with their tools. HOME turns an array of devices, setups, sites, hubs and data centers into a powerful, agile network — quickly and in a perfectly secure way.

“With diamond, Lawo is making a statement regarding the radio landscape of the future,” said Johan Boqvist, Lawo’s Senior Product Manager, Radio. “In addition to being entirely user configurable and flexible with respect to fader count, diamond sets a new standard for hardware and software integration on a true, native IP platform.”