brutal güet has deployed its new Lawo-equipped OB truck for the first time in a live production.
In a production for RED+, the Swiss broadcast service provider deployed OB truck S12 to The Winter Classics in Gstaad for a top-tier women’s hockey match. The event provided an opportunity for brutal güet to operate the vehicle under testing live conditions.
Based around a Lawo mc²56 MkIII console with 48 faders, paired with a redundant A__UHD Core and an AoIP environment based on SMPTE ST 2110, AES67 and RAVENNA, S12 provided a demonstration of its flexible system configurations, high-quality audio and efficient workflows in a demanding environment with little in the way of conventional stadium infrastructure, said Lawo.
Commenting on the deployment, Christian Maier, senior broadcast audio engineer at brutal güet, said, “Overall, it initially felt quite unspectacular because I was already familiar with the system. At the same time, working with AES and RAVENNA streams introduces new capabilities and advantages that still require a certain degree of adaptation.”
Although only one language feed was used at the event, the setup was designed for trilingual operation to meet the requirements of Swiss broadcast productions. “Productions in Switzerland are inherently more complex. We always have to be able to deliver three language versions,” said Maier. “That’s why I structured the setup so that all three languages are prepared—not only for this production, but for all future ones as well.”
Advanced DSP capabilities enabled streamlining of daily workflows, with resources able to be selectively allocated. “Being able to store and recall EQs, compressors and presets, as well as using dynamic EQ processing, makes multilingual productions much easier. I don’t have to build the same signal chains multiple times,” Maier continued. “Not every output requires full processing. If a signal path is mainly used for information delivery, I can reduce processing there and allocate resources where they deliver the greatest sonic benefit.”
With speed a critical factor for booth day-to-day use and troubleshooting, the console can be customised to meet workflow demands and an interface created to enable efficient operation, said Lawo.
With the setting providing a number of acoustic challenges, the team at Gstaad was able to minimise unwanted noise from the stadium through a customised microphone setup using directional shotgun microphones.
Dynamic EQ processing, sidechain filtering and automix functions enabled Maier to find an audio balance between stadium atmosphere and speech intelligibility. “The ambience is dynamically shaped in the relevant frequency ranges to leave room for speech without reducing overall level. This is an area where the latest Lawo console generation offers significantly more creative and technical flexibility,” he said.
Designed for a broad range of production scenarios, S12 represents a strategic foundation for brutal güet’s operations. “From the outset, our goal was not to focus exclusively on traditional sports productions,” said Maier. “If we produce an opera, we need this surface structure and channel capacity as well. The concept is to use the OB van as a fully equipped mobile control room and minimise on-site setups.”
