Lawo, a German audio, video, network, and control company, and Bogota, Colombia-based Caracol TV recently devised a solution enabling the company's engineers to monitor and meter critical audio signals from home.
Remote production has been a core piece of Lawo’s IP solutions for years thanks to involvement worldwide with TV and streaming productions of major sports or cultural events around the world. Now, remote FAT (Factory Acceptance Testing), training, and equipment demonstrations are a part of the portfolio as well.
Related: FOR-A HVS-2000 Switcher Enables Large-Scale Streaming Production with a Small Crew
Caracol recently purchased a 48-fader mc²56 mixing console with DALLIS frame for its News Studio, another mc²56 for their new OB van, and a mc²36 console for its Studio 10 facility.
Caracol safety protocols during COVID-19 require that the company’s engineers be able to work remotely, so they contacted Lawo for a solution. On April 30, Lawo engineer Daniel Egea demonstrated remote monitoring solutions for Caracol engineers via two possible monitoring methods: one employing Lawo AoIP Stream Monitor software, and a second using RƎLAY VPB software. Both solutions use RAVENNA/AES67 connectivity to monitor the mc² consoles.
Since the demonstration of both setups met Caracol’s requirements, both software packages will be configured for long-term tests, and eventually will be a permanent part of their studio installation.
“The question for us was, how can the engineers both listen to and meter the audio signals while not on site?” Egea said.
The solution was an infrastructure that allowed the mc² console core to supply its audio signals to a facility computer. “Audio signals were supplied to the streaming network via the RAVENNA card in the core and collected from the network on a PC using AoIP Stream Monitor or RƎLAY VPB software. By accessing this computer via Teamviewer or Remote Desktop through a second NIC, Caracol engineers can now conveniently monitor the most important signals from home. This setup offers a very flexible monitoring situation and has intuitive GUIs to quickly create a suitable monitoring overview.”
Lawo's solutions can not only broadcast world championships and other games remotely but are also well suited for customer-oriented services, according to Jesús Lozano, CEO of Lawo solutions partner Videoelec.
“The corona pandemic has certainly pushed the advancement of remote infrastructures, but Lawo has placed much importance on developing products and solutions for remote purposes for years,” Lozano said. “Now we can use them not only for production but also, under adverse circumstances like the pandemic, for keeping project timetables and delivery schedules, and for enabling customers to remain on air or in production.”
