In Broadcast - October 2015 - 44

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 5 - Issue 10 | October 2015

InStudio

Tennis US Open 2015: Audio
Infrastructure Using Lawo
Each year the tennis elite meet in Flushing Meadows for the US Open, and so do the broadcasters to make
sure that every minute of the tournament will be captured and broadcast to the viewers at home....

n this year's tournament it was the
first time that ESPN took on the duty
of not only being responsible for their
own domestic production, but also
producing the international host feed.
With this change in mind, ESPN
also took the chance to completely
redesign the broadcast setup. With
the task of producing multiple feeds
from different courts, it seemed to
be a logical thing to design the setup
similar to a Host Broadcast Operation,
usually only employed for major
sporting events like World Cup or the
Olympics.
ESPN had a two-storey container
complex situated outside the Arthur
Ashe Stadium with all facilities needed

for the international and domestic
production of ESPN, including: a main
equipment room, ingest, shading,
multiple production Control Rooms
and, of course, multiple Audio Control
Rooms. Unlike the years before,
OB Trucks for the international and
domestic broadcasters had been
banned from the sidewalk behind the
stadium. This was the obvious change
that could be noticed from the outside.
But also the inside showed many
changes.
For the technical realisation of the
broadcast setup, ESPN hired Broadcast
Specialist
Gearhouse.
Gearhouse
already has a name in tennis and is
involved in productions all over the

Norwia Launches
Short Haul Fibre
Distribution Platform

orwia AS, a leading supplier
of next generation optical
distribution products, has announced
the release of the short haul version of
the miniHUB fibre distribution platform
at IBC 2015.
The Short Haul MiniHUB from
Norwia has been released to answer
the growing needs of mass video
distribution within buildings and
building-to-building infrastructures for
distances of up to five kilometers. This
short haul solution has connectivity
over a multiple core fibre, providing
cost-effective connectivity for use
with high bit-rate signals for modern
broadcasting.
The Norwia miniHUB short haul
comes in two variants: a 16-channel
point-to-point platform and a compact
8-channel platform in a small form
factor chassis. The short haul platform
has all the capability and flexibility
of the standard Norwia miniHUB.
As a result, all components are
interchangeable and upgradeable to
CWDM and multiple signal formats are
available with Norwia's SFP modules.

Norwia's Short Haul MiniHUB

Premium
quality
is
a
key
requirement for all Norwia products
and the Short Haul version of the
MiniHUB is no different. The optics
are rigorously tested and are all
SMPTE approved to ensure the best
delivery service possible. To develop
Noriwa's miniHUB successfully, the use
of controlled testing is essential and
allows users to benefit from a reliable
end product that has longevity.
"Workflows for premium video
increasingly need to be able to support
uncompressed video, which is why
miniHUB Short Haul supports RAW
video," said Lars Erik Eriksen, CTO,
Norwia. "The Short Haul miniHUB
is still a full card-based system with
all the flexibility of the AutoSFP
technology, which is unique to Norwia.
There is incredible value for customers
that choose to opt for our Short Haul
system, which provides full Web-based
monitoring at a very competitive price
level."

Lawo mc² audio
mixing console in
the Domestic
Control Room

globe. With a proven setup from the
Australian Open, Gearhouse also
contributed in Queens.
One of the biggest changes to
previous years was an integrated
audio setup. Beforehand, multiple
trucks were tied together, this time
it was possible to install a centralised
infrastructure that was capable of
sharing resources. Also the Audio
Production did benefit from this
situation. Even though Lawo was
already involved in previous years with
consoles for the host production, ESPN
and Gearhouse took it to another level
this year.
Gearhouse's solution was fully
based on a setup using equipment
from German manufacturer Lawo, a
specialist in video and audio broadcast
and networking solutions. As the
centre of the installation, Gearhouse
tied together two Nova73 Audio
Routers for collecting all the signals
from the DALLIS Stageboxes out on the
courts, and from the commentators
in the stands. The distribution to the
transmission gear was handled with
the Nova73 Routers using AES and
MADI.
All the surround audio
mixing in the seven Audio
Control Rooms was performed
on Lawo mc²56 consoles
connected to the Central Audio
Router. With the intelligent
audio networking capabilities
of the Lawo system, every
console had access to the
signals from every court. This
way every control surface could be
used for every court. All international

courts where equipped with 32-fader
models and the Domestic Control
Room hosted a 64-fader console.
For the domestic mix - also including
various stand up positions and the set
outside the stadium - the integrated
Auto Mix features of the Lawo Consoles
came in handy.
Besides the audio equipment,
Gearhouse also used video equipment
from Lawo including 16 V_pro8 video
processors providing all standard
video glue functionalities like Frame
Sync and De-/Embedding.
Lawo supported ESPN and Gearhouse
with on-site technical support for the
full period. Also a training program
for all the operators was put in place
to guarantee a smooth start from the
first serve!
Lawo's Director of Global Events,
Jeffrey Stroessner, said: "It was great
seeing so many consoles deployed
during a US event and getting positive
feedback from the operators. Working
with a partner like Gearhouse, using
the gear in challenging environments
always pushing it to the max, is just
great."

Lawo V_pro8 video processors and
(in the background) Lawo Nova73 cores

http://www.inbroadcast.com https://www.lawo.com/products/mixing-consoles.html http://www.norwia.no/minihub_overview.html https://www.lawo.com/products/video-line/v-pro8.html

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