Broadcast
P28 JULE 2015
Måns Zelmerlöw performs winning song Heroes at the Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final (All photos: Ralph Larmann)
Austria
IP begins at 60 for Eurovision Audio signals were routed via a RAVENNA/AES67based AoIP infrastructure for the first time in the event’s history, writes Angela Buenger A team from host broadcaster ORF mains the Lawo desks
E
very year, the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) ranks among the top-rated internationally broadcast TV programmes. On 23 May 2015, almost 200 million viewers from 80 countries watched Sweden’s Måns Zelmerlöw beat Russia and Italy to the Eurovision trophy at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna. For the 60th anniversary of the world’s biggest TV entertainment show, host broadcaster ORF celebrated two world premières: Not only did the contest win the Green Events Austria Sonderpreis award for sustainable cultural and sporting events at the Green Events Austria Gala 2015, Austria’s national broadcaster also led the way when it came to the audio technology used at the Stadthalle. In the framework of the host broadcaster’s overall technical concept, all audio signals were routed via a RAVENNA/AES67-based IP infrastructure. Both the Lawo Nova 73 audio matrix – including all connected DALLIS I/O systems used by Belgian company VideoHouse, ORF’s broadcast supplier – and the video and audio distribution of the commentary solution were based on IP networking technology, which made its ESC debut at this year’s event. To distribute all the audio signals to the different suppliers and OB vans while minimising equipment and cabling required and increasing flexibility, the signals were collected by a central audio router. The setup was based on a Lawo Nova 73HD audio routing core, with 10 DALLIS I/O systems connected using RAVENNA audio-over-IP technology. The installation provided for a decentralised collection and distribution of the signals at the
Not only microphones and monitoring but also intercom systems, wireless cameras, LTE base stations and controlling units for light and effects required spectrum Gerhard Vonwald, Grothusen Audio Video
venue, including 96 Sennheiser Digital 9000 wireless microphone systems, 32 Sennheiser in-ear monitoring systems for the artists and an Avid Pro Tools playback system. In addition, all sync and timecode signals required for the production were also distributed via the infrastructure. According to Lawo, the Nova audio routing infrastructure routed more than 6,600 audio signals to six OB trucks and to the FOH and monitor consoles inside the venue. All OB vans provided by either ORF itself or VideoHouse were equipped with Lawo m²66 or mc²56 digital mixing consoles. In addition, the VideoHouse trucks were equipped with V__pro8 video processing systems for audio embedding, deembedding and format conversion. To manage and control the whole setup. a VSM system from L-S-B was used.
www.psneurope.com/broadcast 28-32 Eurovision v3 JC DR fin.indd 1
22/06/2015 11:47