Lawo equips control room in Saarbrücken Congress Hall

Built in 1967, the Congress Hall in Saarbrücken, Germany is home to a broad variety of events, from conferences, trade fairs and conventions to music shows and concerts of all kinds, some of which are broadcast on radio and television by public broadcaster Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR).

Following the Hall’s renovation and reopening in September 2023, the SR’s control room was equipped with a modern audio infrastructure, which included the installation of a Lawo mc²36 MkII all-in-one production mixing console and two Lawo AoIP stageboxes. The SR was keen to replace the previous analogue system with a console that meets the broadcaster’s quality standards in terms of performance, flexibility and efficiency.

At the heart of the audio setup is an mc²36 MkII production console with integrated processing. With its A__UHD core technology, it offers 256 processing channels available at both 48 and 96 kHz, which means that even large orchestral productions can be mixed. The all-in-one mixing console natively supports ST2110, AES67, RAVENNA and Ember+. With an I/O capacity of up to 864 channels and its local I/Os, the mc²36 MkII offers extensive connectivity. The two additional Lawo A__stage64 AoIP stageboxes support ST2110-30/31 and AES67 / RAVENNA and ensure the integration of audio signals.

“With the new audio technology in our control room in the Congress Hall, we have taken a first step into the IP world, which gives us considerable freedom in production,” explained Ralf Schnellbach, Head of Radio Production Technology at SR and project manager for the installation. “It makes many things easier, faster and clearer, such as switching between 48 and 96 kHz or signal management with the new user lists.”

Based on many years of good experience with Lawo systems as well as the company’s project and customer support, SR opted for a setup from the Rastatt-based manufacturer for the Congress Hall installation: “In addition to performance, sound characteristics and compactness, the system's comprehensive flexibility also played a major role when deciding on the equipment.

“The capacity allows a whole range of configurations for a wide variety of productions, and the extended matrix and control options as well as the integration of external panels, in this installation, make an external talkback infrastructure obsolete,” Schnellbach concluded. “With this installation, a smart and economically very lean sound control room was created, whose components can be moved for mobile use without great effort, like for festivals during the summer break.”

Lead image: © Congress-Centrum Saar GmbH