Lawo Supplies CBC/Radio-Canada’s Montreal Broadcast Center with all-IP ST2110 Infrastructure

posted:

03/04/2019

Canadian public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada is equipping its new Montreal Broadcast Center with IP-based video, audio, networking and broadcast control systems by Lawo. The new Broadcast Center will be an end-to-end SMPTE 2110 and ST2022-7 facility—one of the biggest of its kind ever built in North America.

The 418,000sq.ft. (39,000m²) facility will be home to production suites for news, TV and post-production activities and dozens of studios, control rooms, editing and infographic workstations as well as audio mixing suites. Its massive Master Control and Playout Room is designed to accommodate 40 TV channels, 40 web channels and 160 radio channels.

Overarching, manufacturer-agnostic control and management of this broadcast infrastructure is provided by Lawo’s VSM IP broadcast control system. With over 3000 concurrent device connections and approximately 100,000 managed signal paths, VSM enables flexibility and scalability. Multiviewing for TV production control rooms is handled by Lawo’s vm_dmv Infinitely Expandable IP Multiviewer, a virtual module application (VM) for Lawo’s V__matrix C100 IP routing and processing platform.

For audio production, CBC/Radio Canada has selected two Lawo mc²96 and four Lawo mc²56 third-generation mixing consoles with full support for native SMPTE 2110-30 and AES67/RAVENNA. A total of 18 ruby radio broadcast consoles for state-of-the-art radio operation in an intuitive hybrid package based on physical controls and a customizable touchscreen-based GUI will also be installed. Multi-format Power Core audio nodes handling AES3, HD MADI, analog and AES67 audio channels will be used for audio acquisition, along with Lawo Commentary Units, and A__stage multi-format stageboxes. Massive audio processing is provided by A__UHD Core DSP engines.

“Our new Montreal Broadcast Center is geared towards maximum flexibility, agility and scalability that can only be delivered by a genuinely native IP system,” comments François Legrand, Senior Director, Core Systems Engineering, CBC/Radio-Canada. “Based on extensive lab testing, we are confident that Lawo’s products will be able to meet all our production requirements.

“We would like to congratulate CBC-Radio-Canada on this momentous project and feel humbled to have been selected as CBC/Radio-Canada’s partner,” adds Jamie Dunn, Lawo’s Head of Global Sales. “Everything has been going to plan so far, and we are confident this project will go live on schedule.”

About CBC/Radio-Canada

CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada’s national public broadcaster with a mandate to ‘inform, enlighten and entertain’, and plays a central role in strengthening Canadian culture. As a trusted news source, its offers a uniquely Canadian perspective on news, current affairs and world affairs. Distinctively homegrown entertainment programming draws audiences from across the country. Deeply rooted in communities, CBC/Radio-Canada offers diverse content in English, French and eight Indigenous languages. The broadcaster is leading a transformation to meet the needs of Canadians in a digital world.

About Lawo

Lawo designs and manufactures pioneering network, control, audio and video technology for broadcast and post production, as well as live performance and theatrical applications. Products include control and monitoring systems, digital audio mixing consoles, routers, video processing tools as well as solutions for IP-based A/V infrastructures and routing systems. All products are developed in Germany and manufactured according to highest quality standards at the company’s headquarters in the Rhine valley town of Rastatt, Germany.