More than 50 Lawo systems for the sound of world football.

Audio Broadcast Services equips South Africa World Cup.

In order to provide a worldwide TV audience with the best possible World Cup images and audio quality, the organisers are using the highest quality equipment on site. Overall responsibility for the production of this event’s international video and audio feeds lies in the hands of the Swiss company Host Broadcast Services (HBS), as it was for the 2006 world championship in Germany. The international feeds are supplied to broadcasting companies around the world, for use in their own reports and programmes.

For the mix of the international audio signal, as well as the national audio feed for numerous broadcasters, more than 50 Lawo systems are in use at the South Africa World Cup. Furthermore, audio feeds from all the commentators are sent digitally from the football stadiums to the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) via remote DALLIS I/O systems and a central Lawo Nova73 HD routing matrix, and are available directly from the IBC for use in home country broadcasts.

Audio Broadcast Services (ABS), a rental company and subsidiary of Lawo, was contracted by HBS for the installation of container-housed mobile control rooms at each of the ten venues designated for this year’s football event in South Africa. Equipped with a Lawo mc²56 and an Innovason Eclipse, multiple feeds are created at each stadium: the main stereo audio feed, merged with the respective commentators’ audio by the national broadcasters, which authentically reproduces the stadium atmosphere and the sound of the ball in the home, several interview feeds and, for the first time in history, a program feed specifically designed for cell phones. Pre-mixing for the surround feed is also handled at the stadium. The complete surround feed is created at the IBC using two latest-generation Lawo mc²66. A surround program is preferred by many broadcasters, rather than stereo, in order to deliver the atmosphere inside the stadiums to the domestic audience with more reality and transparency.

Several other Lawo customers are using Lawo consoles on-site: ARD and ZDF for the daily broadcast of all the games and studio broadcasts to Germany, numerous providers, such as outside broadcast units from Alfacam, Outside Broadcast, HD Signs and Sky TV, South Africa’s nationwide TV Broadcaster SABC, and the Chinese national broadcaster CCTV. British broadcasters BBC and ITV, and, for the first time, the American sports channel ESPN are also using Lawo systems for the World Cup.

To guarantee the best possible support for their customers at all times, Lawo specialists are standing by at all the venues and in the IBC, ensuring the sound of football is always perfectly reproduced on TV, radio, and at the public viewing sites.