Turkuvaz Media Group upgrades Istanbul media centre facility with Lawo
Turkish media company Turkuvaz Media Group has commissioned a newly updated media centre facility in Istanbul with Lawo as a key technology supplier and system integration services supplied by Lawo’s partner in Turkey, Radikal Elektronik.
The Turkuvaz Media Center is Turkey’s biggest media campus, comprising a plaza, a TV block and a printing block. The company operates nine TV channels and four radio channels here, with 12 12-meter-tall studios measuring from 200 square metres to 1500 square metres, and five 6-meter-tall studios between 100 square metres and 350 square metres in the TV complex.
Turkuvaz’ IP infrastructure includes several networked Lawo mc² mixing consoles and crystal radio consoles linked with a sophisticated central routing system, as well as a Vmatrix video processing system equipped with Lawo C100 software-defined processing blades. In addition to renovating the broadcast studios, a new OB van equipped with Lawo IP networking was rolled out in November 2020, with the overall project completed in December.
The newly modernised studio control rooms are customised for individual tasks: news, 4K video post production, HD sports programming and a shared HD SCR, integrated by an IP infrastructure built upon Lawo systems. This major renovation allows for efficient, flexible IP workflows, including remote production capabilities for future-proof operation utilising the highest quality standards.
Lawo equipment installed during the upgrade includes eight new 48-position mc²56 mixing consoles fitted with the Dual-Fader option to provide 80 faders in total, giving Turkuvaz operators direct surface access to large numbers of audio channels. Audio connectivity comes by way of Dallis stage boxes; a central routing matrix with 8192 x 8192 mono crosspoints was built using a Nova73 HD Router.
“Before we even started planning our new facilities, our project team analysed the market situation to find a coherent future-proof solution for an IP infrastructure,” stated Yavuz Nart, general technical manager at Turkuvaz. “With Lawo, we found a company with the latest IP broadcast technology under one roof.
“Lawo IP technology has been long established in the market, and they are known as a technology leader with high-quality products and extraordinarily high expertise in broadcast. And who better to install this new system than Radikal, who have been a trusted audio partner for many years.”
Seha Akbaş, systems engineer at Radikal, commented: “As an audio engineer and systems designer in broadcast, you must, of course, have faith in the quality of the products you offer to your customer. With Lawo, we are working with a manufacturer that delivers the very highest quality standards, paired with innovative solutions and fast, expert support. We are very happy to be involved in what has turned out to be one of the biggest projects in Radikal’s history, providing Turkuvaz with the best broadcast solutions available on the market, with the most modern IP infrastructure found anywhere in Turkey today.”
Mustafa Yavuz, assistant technical manager of Turkuvaz, added: “We are very impressed with our new IP infrastructure. It enables us to apply radical new workflows inside the studios, as well as offering the capability for remote production. The desire for this new option had already been on the rise, but with the pandemic affecting operations, remote production has proven to be the best solution for maintaining up-to-date and reliable broadcast production. Radikal and Lawo have always listened to us, presenting and installing optimal solutions to achieve our goals. We can now proudly look at our new facilities as one of the most modern broadcast centres to date.”