Lawo at Prolight + Sound 2024

At this year’s Prolight + Sound tradeshow in Frankfurt (19~22 March 2024, Hall 11.0, booth D11), Lawo, a trailblazer in IP audio, video, control, and monitoring solutions for not only broadcast, but also performing arts and the AV industry, will unveil a range of new theater and live-performance features for its mc² consoles and A__UHD Core platform. These advancements are the result of close partnerships with world-renowned venues and theaters in Europe and Las Vegas.

In response to the growing momentum of converging audio and video applications, Lawo continues to refine and expand its HOME platform for maximum agility and scalability at short notice. This hinges on allowing operators to leverage either hardware- or app-based processing resources depending on the project, with a unified, intuitive user experience. Audio operators enjoy the liberty of using a single A__UHD Core for up to 32 mixers, for instance, which may be mc² console surfaces, the new crystal console in Controller mode, or the mxGUI control software, which is now also available for Apple silicon.

Furthermore, Lawo is showcasing all advantages of the HOME Apps platform for AV installations, leveraging HOME Multiviewer, HOME UDX, HOME Stream Transcoder and HOME Graphic Inserter. Lawo’s HOME Apps allow operators to not only take advantage of the SMPTE ST2110 suite of standards, but also of NDI and SRT. The platform allows for hybrid production workflows, which will be demonstrated with the help of an NDI-based PTZ camera whose signals are transmitted to an ST2110-compliant multiviewer output.

Lawo announces that Power Core Rev. 3, now supports the 96kHz sampling rate. This 2 Fs functionality will be available free of charge for the Gateway license installed on Power Core Rev. 3 models. Optional support for 256 additional RAVENNA channels (128 at 96kHz) can be purchased through the RAV+ add-on license.

Highly popular thanks to its compact footprint and mc²-grade feature set, the mc²36 xp console is scheduled to provide an anticipated Mirror Console mode for theater, opera, and musical applications as well as remote production scenarios. In this mode, a second console (usually in the audio control room) instantly reflects the changes performed on an mc²36 xp elsewhere during rehearsals. A second enhancement will be the mc²36 xp’s ability to communicate with an external, HOME-managed, control system (XCS) whenever using the internal control system is less convenient.

Although software release v10.8 - with enhancements such as flexible bus routing, twice the number of Aux busses (up to 256), a QSC Q-Sys proxy in HOME, Remote Show Control via OSC (Open Sound Control), CRM processing channels, a VCA Map page with a graphical VCA routing and contribution matrix, a Console Lock feature, and support for additional Power Core Gateway features—has only just been released, the two enhancements for the mc²36 xp will be part of the upcoming v10.10 system release.

Other new features for the mc² consoles and A__UHD Core platform on display in Frankfurt include:

• Granular Bus Isolation: As part of the Snapshot Save/Recall feature set, individual parameters can be isolated from recall using ISO Sets. Software release v10.10 now extends this isolation granularity to individual busses.
• Trim Set Merge: The well-known and established Trim Set functionality has been reviewed and extended to allow merging a list of relative or absolute changes to a selectable list of Snapshots. Furthermore, operators can now utilize Trim Sets as compact, mission-specific “snapshots” containing only settings that need to change, while all remaining parameters are not even included in such Trim Sets.
• Console Surface Offline Mode/Snapshot Preview: this mode allows operators to temporarily disconnect the console surface from its processing core at the push of a button. Users can preview, edit and save other Snapshots as well as create and fine-tune their Cue List. When offline, the console no longer updates the DSP (A__UHD Core) or preamp settings (stageboxes), etc., while still sending and receiving MIDI, OSC, OASIS, and Ember+ commands. Upon leaving Offline mode, operators can choose to either revert the console to match the audible mix, thereby discarding any unsaved changes made in Offline mode, or push the console’s current settings to the audio platform, thus affecting the mix.
• Strip Assign page: This is a new UI page for intuitive, graphic DSP-channel-to-strip assignments. It also provides a comprehensive overview of assigned sources and their location on banks and layers.
• Aux Mixer: Following the availability of 256 Aux busses, Lawo has developed an HTML5-based app for tablets that allows musicians to create their personal monitor mixes. To this effect, the Aux Mixer comes with on-screen level faders and pan encoders for the assigned Aux busses.
• zactrack Integration: The mc²/A__UHD Core platform now provides support for zactrack tracking systems that may be used for dynamic, automated spatial audio applications with any multichannel system supported by Lawo consoles.

Lawo's presence at Prolight+Sound 2024 promises to be an unparalleled experience for industry professionals looking for cutting-edge solutions and unparalleled innovation in an ecosystem where all requirements are accounted for. On Tuesday, 19 March, at 4:30pm, Lawo and zactrack will host a Theater Future Tech Reception on Lawo’s booth, D11 in Hall 11.0, with a presentation of future-oriented live performance technologies. An exclusive demo of the zactrack stage-tracking system in combination with an mc² console will showcase the future of automated, object-based audio mixing workflows. And, of course, there will be refreshments afterwards.

www.lawo.com