ROWLETT, Texas—Specializing in high-end events, CineLive covers everything from multicam live music shows to one-day events for Netflix Live, Amazon Music, etc., and “the three-letter networks,” to red carpets for big film studios, captures for theaters, corporate as well as creative YouTube events in cinematic 4K HDR and immersive audio.
We designed the audio suite of our truck to be flexible for typical broadcast applications, multicam shoots, corporate events, etc., and there is absolutely nothing that our Lawo mc²-based mixing system cannot do. It is part of the HOME platform that sits at the heart of our infrastructure.
Licensed for 256 Channels
Every freelance engineer who sits down at our mc²56 desk acknowledges that it sounds superior, even for the simplest of shows, like stand-up comedy with audience mics. We recently had our lowest channel count ever, with 20 channels for a movie release. In this high-value project, everything had to shine, and we delivered. For festival shoots, on the other hand, we often use 18 cameras and 196 audio channels.
We’re licensed for 256 audio channels and occasionally add temporary licenses for larger projects. Although we have a 7.1.4-capable audio suite in our truck, stereo and 5.1 still make up the bulk of our projects. My team and I took a mere two weeks to master the mc²56 console, as its layout is highly intuitive.
While making our decision on whose audio platform to adopt, we kept looking at the bigger picture, knowing that someone else would be sitting at the console for each project. We decided against a console from a brand that supplies most OB trucks in the United States, even though some people told us that this would make it more difficult to find freelancers.
Luckily, the number of people who want to learn to work with a Lawo console has grown exponentially. Additionally, none of our clients ever objected to our console.
Before we decided on the mc²56, we A/B’d several brands that used exactly the same signals and the sonic difference was obvious. The preamps are superb and our A__UHD Core DSP infrastructure is deep and complex, yet intuitive. We use two of them for full redundancy to eliminate any single point of failure.
We’ve also begun using the Lawo VSC software to record Ravenna streams directly to ProTools on our two Macs. Our inputs and outputs are provided by two Power Cores and a bunch of A__stage stageboxes. One Power Core is used for all analog I/O signals inside the truck, which are broken out to patchbays, as these are still mandatory for some customers.
The other Power Core is equipped with four Dante cards for our outboard equipment.
My advice to other users would be to stop clinging to the misconception that Lawo consoles are only for entertainment—we use our mc²56 for everything we do.
Immersive Audio
Some people think Lawo is expensive, yet for smaller outfits like CineLive, consoles from other brands cost either the same or substantially more. In the end, I’m glad I didn’t listen to the naysayers: We are immensely happy with our mc²56, whose specifications and price are difficult to match. It allows us to deliver 96-kilohertz immersive audio at a highly competitive price.
Lawo immediately understood our vision for the first CineLive truck, and Tony Staires and the team were there throughout the whole process, encouraging me to take our project to the next level.
If someone tells you that something cannot be done with a Lawo console, question and doubt them, and remember that the service we receive from Lawo is simply outstanding. I have been in the business long enough to know that this is a major pro.
More information is available at lawo.com.
