World Games in Wroclaw comes to life with help from LP Systems and Lawo

LP Systems, Lawo’s partner in Poland, enjoyed a busy 2017 with Lawo IP equipment installed at various broadcasters and used as remote production gear at major international sports events in Poland.

When announcing the partnership with Lawo at IBC 2016, the LP Systems team had a clear vision: “We are confident that IP-based products will define the future landscape of broadcast technology investment and, with Lawo’s leading position and LP Systems’ depth of technical and operational expertise, we relish this opportunity to work closely alongside one of the world leading brands.”

The accuracy of this vision has subsequently been underscored by considerable success in Poland, with LP Systems implementations of Lawo equipment for projects including the World Games 2017, Radio Opole, Radio PIK, TV Polsat , Radio dla Ciebie and Polish Television (recently producing live programming from Pyeongchang 2018 using Lawo V__pro8 video processors for the IBC studio infrastructure).

Last year, LP Systems’ international focus was another major sport event – the World Games, held in Wroclaw, which featured many sporting activities not covered by traditional Olympian events. The 2017 event saw 3,500 athletes from 112 countries competing, with 700 journalists from 50 countries in attendance to witness and report on the events.

With a massive global audience spanning 131 countries, Polish company ATM System was responsible for providing broadcast resources at the IBC and all remote event locations. With LP Systems appointed as main contractor for the remote production setup, Remote Racks were installed at the various venues to collect video and audio feeds, and route them to the IBC where they were forwarded via SDI to the central router.

Nine Remote Racks were used to cover 13 venues at the 2017 World Games held in Poland

The solution involved a large quantity of Lawo equipment, including V__remote4 units, A__mic8 units, Arista7150S-24 switches, and a dual-server Virtual Studio Manager (VSM) System for overall control. A total of nine Remote Racks were used to serve 13 venues, linked to a local OB Van. These included two that were equipped with a pair each of V__remote4s and A__mic8s, two racks loaded with two V__remote4 and an A__mic8, and five racks with V__remote4 and A__mic8 units.

Working closely with LP Systems, and 4Vision, who provided the VSM System, Lawo specialists configured, tested and delivered the systems that were then supported by staff from LP Systems and all other participating companies during the setup and event days.

Using the new IP-based remote production model, ATM System successfully produced and broadcast 429 hours of live coverage from all of the World Games venues on behalf of the International World Games Association (IWGA).

LP Systems second project as Lawo partner was the technical upgrade of Radio Opole’s Radio Volkswagen Transporter Outside Broadcast Vehicle, replacing a Lawo zirkon console with a 24-fader sapphire and VisTool GUI builder software. Due to being used to working with zirkon in the years before at the Opole radio station, the most cost-effective solution was to upgrade the frame and use the DSP cards from the previous installation.

A similar strategy was employed at Radio PIK Bydgoszcz, where the main on-air studio was upgraded with Lawo sapphire fader panels and central control section using the frame of a previously installed zirkon console, plus two Lawo KSC rack panels. Radio PIK’s remote studio in Toruń was also modernised with the installation of an 8-fader crystal console.

Taking advantage of the flexibility provided by the Lawo equipment – in terms of customising the functionality of the console and the use of sapphire and crystal modules in zirkon frames – LP Systems minimised the cost to the customer, as well as enabling Radio PIK to control the remote studio externally using RAVENNA.

A Lawo console was also installed in a new TV SNG for TV Polsat in Warsaw by LP Systems. The 4-fader crystal console convinced the customer by its flexibility for customisation. The small console provides many functions and is easy to configure.