The new OB vans are controlled by Lawo's VSM Broadcast Control and Workflow solution in combination with VSM servers in a redundant setup at the heart of the control system.
Bahrain TV, owned and run by the country’s Ministry of Information Affairs, has added two new medium-sized Outside Broadcast vans (OB vans) to its fleet, with two Lawo IP-based mc² audio production consoles in the audio control rooms and a VSM Broadcast Control System architecture for the overall control in both OBs. They are part of the framework governing the modernisation process of the direct TV broadcasting system. Dubai-based systems integrator Broadcast & Studio Solutions (BSS) was responsible for this project.
BBS equipped the OB vans with high-definition TV broadcasting technologies, and followed stringent international specifications, security, and safety standards, to ensure the vans were well kitted out to cover all official events, exhibitions, conferences as well as local and international sporting events.
The new OB vans are controlled by Lawo’s VSM Broadcast Control and Workflow Solution in combination with VSM servers in a redundant setup at the heart of the control system. vsmSTUDIO software handles all administration and configuration tasks, while control interfaces in the form of a wide range of hardware LCD button panels and software panel clients allow simplified operation from flexible and custom-designed configurable GUIs. Additional VSM hardware includes GPIO interfaces, UMDs for dynamic labelling, and SmartHubs, which convert control signals from serial to TCP/IP and vice versa. SNMP Monitoring capabilities are provided by the vSNMP editor software tool, which runs on a separate server.
The audio infrastructure integrates a 48-fader Lawo mc²56 audio production console with 384 DSP channels, a routing capacity of 5120×5120 mono channels, plus local I/Os directly available at the audio desk. An additional mc² Compact I/O system provides remote I/Os for high-profile productions. The smaller OB van carries a compact but powerful 24-fader mc²36, again with a multitude of remote and local I/Os controlled by 192 DSP channels via a 512×512 matrix.
