RTL News Puts Rebuilt IP Audio Control Room Into Daily Use

The Cologne broadcaster’s primary TR 1 room now combines a Lawo mc²96 console, IP audio infrastructure and 5.1 surround production capability.

RTL News has completed a ground-up rebuild of its primary Audio Control Room TR 1 in Cologne and has used the facility for regular broadcasts since August. The project replaces the room’s legacy baseband signal transport with an IP-based environment centered on a Lawo mc²96 Grand Production Console.

The rebuilt room adds a new monitoring environment, Lawo A__stage audio I/O, IP audio streams and the Lawo HOME orchestration platform. It also supports 5.1 surround production for live, news and sports broadcasts, with multichannel production and program delivery for RTL and ntv.

TV Tech reports that studios, control rooms and audio-processing resources can now be interconnected and allocated as needed. RTL News says auto-leveling, signal processing and routing previously handled by standalone hardware are integrated into the production platform, while CEDAR noise suppression and Waves SuperRack remain separate specialist applications. Waves plug-ins are integrated into the workflow and can be controlled from the mc²96 surface.

RTL News staged the migration in Audio Control Room TR 5 before taking TR 1 offline. The temporary installation was used to test signal paths and infrastructure under production conditions, train operators and handle regular productions. The approach allowed the broadcaster to validate the new configuration before bringing its primary room into service.

The TR 1 rebuild extends an existing Lawo deployment at RTL News, where four other audio control rooms had already received mc²56 consoles and the HOME platform.