Studios at Macquarie Southern Cross Media’s Southern Hub in Albury have been upgraded with new Lawo desks, NexGen playout systems and new behind the scenes hardware in the racks. In this close-up picture feature, radioinfo gets a peek into the new studios.
Before the install Macquarie Southern Cross was using a distributed digital audio router with a number of control surfaces. The system was one of only 3 installed in the world and the manufacturer was no longer in business, with parts no longer available. The system had become unreliable and needed replacement.
The project was begun on 12 December and completed on time at the end of January.
Studios in the complex are: Master control, Local Works, Studio 2, HitStream, News booth 1, News Booth2, News Prep, Automation 1, Automation 2. Installations included: Nova 73, Nova17, 3 Zirkon 2s consoles, 5 Z4 consoles, 4 Vistools licences .
The overall concept of the project is to “provide stability and expandability” and future proofing through easy upgrading.
For Lawo it is the first installation for the largest regional network in Australia and was a significant win over other broadcast desk competitors.
Group Engineering Manager Jim Vasey was in charge of the project for Macquarie Southern Cross, and the late Adam Barnes also worked on the planning.
Vasy says Lawo’s networking ability “is one of its strongest points, with the ability to point to point, or point to multi-point distribute or contribute audio.” Read Vasy’s full comments in our related story.
INSTALLATION
RACK ROOM
COMPLETED STUDIOS
NICOLE McCRACKEN TEST DRIVES THE NEW STUDIOS
Lawo has been manufacturing professional audio equipment since 1973 and released the first programmable audio console in the 1980s. The company started to specialise in digital audio consoles in 1990 and introduced audio networking in 1998. Lawo is a market leader in digital audio systems with a reputation for the highest reliability, manufacturing quality, audio quality and flexibility in the market.
For techos who want a more detailed glimpse into how the Lawo system works, Lawo has given radioinfo some detailed specs. Click the link below.