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News We are always pleased to update you with news of our current projects, and tell you about their technical realisation.
July 2011 ABS equiped the Classic Open Air 2011 at the Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin Around 6000 people per day from Germany and abroad went to the Classic Open Air Festival 2011 in Berlin. Digital premiere at Berlin's Classic Open Air 2011, when international artists performed classic and non-classic. ABS equiped the Berlin´ Supplier TSE with two Innovason Eclipse and two Innovason DIO-Core for that event. As the microphone setup was realized with digital microphones from Neumann only, TSE chose the Innovason, becaus the consoles are able to control the Neumann digital microphons and can handle this mics as a standart input of the desk. So the user has got the complete access of all features of the microphone directly fom the mixing surface  
June 2011 The ball rolls again
ABS was commissioned with the delivery of Lawo consoles and uninterruptible power supplies for the women´s soccer World Cup in Germany. Thus ABS provides the enviroment for a smooth production.
Juni 2011
First Southafrica now in Germany: The US sports broadcaster ESPN commissioned ABS to deliver and install a Flightcase Audio Control room for the women´s Soccer World Cup 2011 in Frankfurt, Germany.
May 2011 A strong Alliance
An interesting challenge Two days were scheduled to complete the event setup. For BMW’s (the German car manufacturer) shareholder meeting on May 12, 2011 at the same location, ABS was once again hired to provide the sound, using exactly the same equipment.
The FOH position at the Olympiahalle Munich
March 2011 The Austrian broadcaster ORF asks Lawo for a dance
November 2010 Lawo Consoles in the Mix at the 2010 Asian Games.
Host broadcaster Guangzhou Games Broadcasting (GAB) appointed a number of OB specialists, among them 22 Chinese broadcasters, to provide teams and equipment to manage the production of the international TV and radio feeds from different locations. With 53 competition venues in use, it was a busy time for the broadcast professionals, a large proportion of which were using Lawo mixing consoles, ranging from small zirkon desks to large-format mc²66 MKIIs. For the all-important Opening and Closing Ceremonies, staged at Haixinsha Island Compound, GAB built two audio cabins, one for 5.1 surround sound mixing, the other for full redundancy. Both studios were equipped with Lawo 40-fader mc²66 MKII consoles, supplied by local rental company Ding Run. Ding Run themselves sub-contracted the Lawo systems from Audio Broadcast Services GmbH (ABS). Working from hardware-specific guidelines set by Ding Run, ABS used its extensive experience with major sporting events to draw up the console configurations. ABS also provided four engineers on site in Guangzhou for set-up and commissioning, and to give support during the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, as well as the duration of the games. Two more of ABS’s Lawo mixing systems were on duty at the Huangpu Sports Centre Gymnasium for the basketball competition, and at the Guangdong International Boating Centre, the still water and slalom venue. Both these locations used 48-fader mc²56 desks, with redundant Router, MADI port and DALLIS master cards. 
Venue Audio Control Room
June 2010
The ball is rolling.
ARD Radio uses ABS equipment for the world championship. For ARD’s radio studio control room, SWR rented a total of seven Lawo crystal consoles plus a mc2 56 console from Audio Broadcast Services (ABS). Most of the equipment in question had already seen action at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. “The cooperation with our colleagues from ABS covers far more than just the rental business. For the system integration, for example, we needed to cooperate very closely”, explains Gerhard Rieber, head of technology for ARD radio in South Africa. Technical preparations for South Africa were very similar to the planning and implementation of the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games broadcasts. Notwithstanding the material produced by SWR, including live recordings and self-recorded sound bites, both of which are edited within the mobile production network, saved and sent to Germany via audio file transfer, HBS sends all relevant feeds from the stadiums to SWR’s HD Core via ARD’s and ZDF’s master control room (MCR) using a MADI link. Again via MADI, SWR then distributes these feeds to the various other studios. 
Gerhard Rieber at the Lawo mc²56 at the IBC in Johannesburg
June 2010
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 mc2 56 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 mc2 66. 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. To guarantee the best possible support for their customers at all times, ABS 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. 
Markus Maschke at the Lawo mc²66 Console in the surround Control room
February 2010 More than 50 Lawo systems at the 2010 Winter Games.
16 of them are delivered by ABS Germany’s public broadcasters ARD and ZDF both have a control room in the International Broadcast Center (IBC) and a studio in the Mountain Broadcast Centre (MBC) in Vancouver and Whistler respectively. In addition, they also broadcast from the ‘Deutsche Haus’ (the German national meeting point for athletes and guests from politics and society, economy and media). Both broadcasters rely on Lawo technology in Canada, just as they do at home. ARD radio has 50 staff members on-site. Also on the team is the Lawo equipment, consisting of a mc²56 console, five crystals, and additional equipment hired from ABS In a joint project between YLE, the Finish broadcaster and SVT, the Swedish national broadcaster, all commentary and talkback signals are fed to Vancouver and Whistler, and then routed from there to YLE production units in Helsinki, where they are mixed before broadcast. YLE uses two crystal consoles and one zirkon in Vancouver and Whistler respectively, while SVT employs a mc²66 in both locations. The rental companies Gearhouse and Presteigne Charter are also supporting their customers in Canada, including NRK, the Norwegian broadcaster, and ORF from Austria, with three mc²56 and one mc²66 rented from ABS for on-site production. In addition, a large number of consoles, routers and additional Lawo equipment have been delivered to Canada by Audio Broadcast Services (ABS). 
Fredrik Martinsson from SVT
February 2010
High-tech, even under difficult conditions.
Radio ARD broadcasts from Vancouver and Whistler with Lawo consoles. “One mc²56 console, five crystal consoles, a Nova73 HD core, some spare interface cards for the Nova17 and nine uninterruptible power supplies. Additional equipment comes from several different ARD locations,” explains Alexander Bols, technical director for ARD Radio in Vancouver. The main equipment was rented from Audio Broadcast Services GmbH (ABS). There are three main technical pillars supporting this set-up: firstly, Mitteldeutschen Rundfunk (MDR), Germany, who have overall control of ARD’s operations during the Winter Olympics; secondly, equipment from other ARD locations; and finally, the technology from third parties. Tested and Approved Prior to shipping all the equipment, it is set-up, configured and tested at the facilities of the company responsible. In this case, this took place at MDR in Leipzig during October and November 2009. While the equipment was available in its test setup, the on-site employees attended a training session, and production runs were rehearsed. Later, the equipment was packed up and sent on its long journey to the Vancouver and Whistler production venues. Overall, 8 tons of audio equipment were shipped from a total of six ARD sites. Well ahead of the games, technicians were flown in to set up the equipment at the IBC and MBC locations, as well as at all the venues. “The mixing consoles are mainly used for two purposes – the crystals for post production of the radio broadcasts, and the mc²56 serves as the radio mixing console for the programme feed to Germany. On this console, the incoming signals from the venues are routed to so-called ‘venue busses’ and then fed to the appropriate programme line,” continues Bols. Demanding Innovations For the first time, a fully digitized production process is being used for ARD’s radio output. Until now, analogue signal processing was still sometimes used on their consoles. The three feeds to Germany are in stereo – in the past, they would have been mono. Naturally, this elaborate radio technology is always prepared well in advance of the particular event. In this case, planning began in the spring of 2007. When asked why ARD made their decision in favour of Lawo products and ABS, Bols concluded: “ABS made the most economical offer. Moreover, the technology fits well into the existing ARD infrastructure, which already includes several Lawo components. Last but not least, with Lawo we were best able to implement our plan for a redundant audio system environment based on a pure internal MADI structure.” 
The Radio MCR from ARD
October 2009 MTV Africa Music Awards (MAMAS) with mc²56. On Saturday, 10th October 2009, MTV presented the second Africa Music Awards (MAMAS). For this mega event, the Rastatt based rental company Audio Broadcast Services (ABS) delivered two mc²56 mixing consoles that were used for the broadcast mix and a separate music mix. In addition, ABS organised the setup for the live broadcast and recording. The Dutch OB specialist Cinevideogroup, who ordered the consoles from ABS, also provided a flyaway production unit for the twelve-camera HD broadcast from the MOI sports centre in Nairobi, Kenya. For the broadcast, with camera direction by Paul Shyvers, the show featured complete band performances by renowned artists like Jean Wyclef, former member of the Fugees, the Sengalese-American R&B singer Akon, and many other African superstars. Huub Lelieveld of Cinevideogroup was in charge of the technical setup and mixed the broadcast output for the show. "I chose Lawos because I use them daily and they have proven to be both extremely reliable and infinitely flexible. Because of the very limited space in the mix rooms, I chose the smaller mc²56 instead of the mc²66, my usual choice." In the MOI, fibre cables – also provided by ABS - connected the mix rooms to the Lawo DALLIS frames on stage, with a total of 112 mic inputs for both music, ambience and presentation mics. Line outputs provided several feeds to the FOH and the comms lines. In the music mix room the legendary Tim Summerhayes mixed the live music on stage to stereo, plus feeds to a main and a backup ABS multitrack system connected to the Lawo core via optical MADI.
The recording proceeded flawlessly and was broadcast worldwide on MTV BASE and several other MTV stations. 
"Huub" Lelieveld in the Mutirack Audio Suite at the MTV Africa Music Awards 2009
August 2009 ABS provides audio technology for Vancouver
As already happened at Beijing in 2008, the organisers of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver are demonstrating their confidence in ABS’s expertise and technology. As well as other equipment, several Lawo mc²56 systems, plus substantial routing and stagebox units, have
already been commissioned. A team of technicians and engineers will also be on site to ensure a problem-free setup and de-rig, as well as trouble-free operation during the events. Also, the technical audio planning of the venues, which are fitted with ABS equipment, has been
awarded to ABS.
August 2009 ABS for ARD Radio in Vancouver
ARD Radio has commissioned ABS to supply nearly all of its mixing console requirements for the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. This will include a Lawo mc²56 with 32 faders and a 16-channel extension unit, 8 crystal systems and a number of I/O boards to expand ARD’s existing
pool. The equipment will be ready for ARD in November, so that the system can be prepared, networked and thoroughly checked out before the event.
August 2009 Gearhouse rents three Lawo mc²56 for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver
The UK rental provider Gearhouse has hired three Lawo mc²56 mixing consoles from ABS. These consoles will be transferred to Vancouver in January 2010 to provide the best possible sound for ARD broadcasts of the events and background reporting. Each of these consoles is equipped
with 48 faders and 144 DSP channels, plus several stageboxes that are connected to the consoles via MADI.
August 2009 World Championships in Athletics, Berlin On 15th August 2009, the 12th IAAF Athletics World Championships in Berlin will open. Up to 23rd August, around 2500 athletes will compete for medals in gold, silver and bronze, in 24 disciplines.
ABS will also be on the starting blocks: With a Lawo mc²56, the company will provide crystal clear audio for Japan. The 48-fader console is fitted with 144 DSP channels and will be hired by the Canadian rental company BSI, on behalf of Japanese television. Together with another
mc²56 from BSI, the consoles will produce the surround feed for Japanese TV.
August 2009 ABS now official Pro Audio base for Yamaha
Contracts have been signed, so it’s official: ABS is now Yamaha Pro-Audio’s base, and has thus been able to expand its product range. As the first step, ABS have purchased LS9-32 consoles plus some optional cards. These allow Yamaha consoles to be linked via MADI to Lawo
products without any problems, or via EtherSound to Innovason consoles. ABS can now offer extremely convenient networking between different manufacturers.
June 2009 ABS Equipment for Confederations Cup in South Africa
When the ball starts rolling in South Africa, ABS will again be present. In June, national teams from the current champions of the six continental soccer confederations, the incumbent world champion and the host will fight for the Confederations Cup. Perfect audio – as usual –
will be provided by a Lawo console. HBS, commissioned by the host broadcaster to handle the technical organisation, has rented a Lawo mc²56 system with 48 faders and 144 DSP channels, to be used for the world surround feed. In addition, ABS will provide many infrastructure
components: from optical fibre to surround monitoring and metering to a complete 128-track recording system. And, once again, HBS is putting its trust in the field-tested ABS staff who will provide on-site equipment implementation and support during the matches.
May 2009 ABS purchases second Innovason console
Following the purchase of an Innovason Sy80 – still successfully on tour for more than a year with French artist Francis Cabrel – ABS has decided to invest in another Innovason console. They selected the new Eclipse console, whose clearly laid out control surface provides a
comprehensive overview of all DSP parameters, in a small footprint. This is why the Eclipse has become the console for demanding PA applications. To supplement the console, ABS chose another DIO Core, which is fitted with a considerable number of analogue and digital
interfaces. 
November 2008
ABS supplies mc²56 for European Tour by 'The Ten Tenors' After a successful mission in Beijing, the mc²56 is on its first tour of Europe A new programme entitled ‘Nostalgica’, by Australian ensemble ‘The Ten Tenors’, has already inspired audiences in their home country. A two-week guest performance at the ‘Deutsche Schauspielhaus’ in Hamburg was the opening event of an extensive tour, taking place between November 2008 and March 2009, which will lead the singers to more than 50 cities in Europe. Present at all the tour concerts will be a Lawo mc²56 console which – after its successful debut at Beijing 2008 – will make its first tour of Europe with The Ten Tenors. The console’s German premiere took place at the town hall in Marburg on 13th November, where it provided excellent sound for the audience – just as it will during the entire 2008/2009 tour. With 144 DSP channels, a routing capacity of 3000 crosspoints, plus two DALLIS I/O units, the Lawo console, in a 16-C-16 frame, offers comprehensive capacity with the best possible audio quality. The mc²56 console, used in this application as a FOH mixing desk, was supplied by Audio Broadcast Services (ABS), the rental company for equipment in the fields of broadcast, production and live events. ABS prepared the Lawo console in Rastatt, and imported and edited the previous console’s snapshots. That way the sound engineer could get to work straightaway, without any further setup time. Also present at the start of the tour in Marburg was Matthias Paha, ABS Project Manager, who provided a training session for The Ten Tenors’ FOH sound engineer. Paha remained for the entire performance, in case assistance was required. However, no help was needed: the concert ran completely smoothly – another success for The Ten Tenors and the mc²56.  July 2008
The flightcases and containers are packed and consigned: Already during the soccer world championship in Germany two years ago, ABS provided Lawo mixing consoles and routing systems for the audio signals sent out to the world. This was only one of the of several major orders that has made the company to one of the first ports of call in the worldwide audio rental business. And still, “Beijing 2008” is something really special. After all, 20 mixing consoles and additional equipment are being sent by air to China. Adding all OB vans from Europe and Asia, around 50 Lawo systems will be used in and around Beijing. Also on site will be system engineers and technicians of both companies. Twelve employees from ABS and its parent company Lawo will travel to China, taking care of the equipment to do its job according to plan. ABS is very much aware of the high responsibility. After all, the sound mixes for the viewers worldwide from nearly all venues in Beijing are done with Lawo consoles. The preparations for the China project began last September. ABS staff will not only install the technology but will be prepared for servicing with individual components on site for optimal customer support. The ABS team is looking forward to this big challenge and another prestigious project. And the success story shall be going on…
October 2007
The control rooms will be equipped with Lawo’s mc² series consoles. All the systems will be preconfigured at Lawo’s headquarters in Rastatt, so that on-site installation and commissioning can be carried out more efficiently. Every control room will have several DALLIS I/O interfaced stage boxes. Furthermore, ABS will furbish the control rooms with 5.1 monitor speakers from Genelec and surround measuring systems from RTW. More than 12 km of fibre-optic links will delivered by ABS and used for signal transmission to/from the OB trucks, and a direct link to the International Broadcast Center (IBC). An additional Lawo mc² console will be used in the IBC to monitor the final audio mix. Apart from implementation and support of the surround control rooms at Beijing, ABS will offer an additional service They will hold a pool of Lawo equipment available for hire to any broadcaster should they need help if their equipment capacity limit has been exceeded, or they have suffered a system failure. Be it monitor loudspeakers or metering systems for surround installations, DALLIS I/O units for system expansion, or fibre-optic communications – ABS will be prepared for every eventuality. It will even be possible to hire a flight-cased mixing console system. In providing this service, ABS will help to ensure that audio productions from the Games in Beijing will be of the highest quality. 
February 2007 When, at the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest on 12th May, participating nations line up for this world-famous music competition, around one thousand million viewers and listeners will witness the event via their TV sets or radios. This year’s host broadcaster, the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation (YLE), will broadcast the event live from the Helsinki Arena, a huge venue that can hold up to 12,000 people. Audio Broadcast Services (ABS) have been appointed by YLE to equip the main music control room and the master control room on a rental basis — with technology that will make the broadcast possible. Because of the complexity of this event and the absolute equipment reliability required, ABS will provide Lawo products that, among other benefits, excel by their superb flexibility and high level of redundancy. Signal distribution will be handled by a Nova73 HD routing system, which will supply the master control room, and integrate four Lawo consoles from three generations.
The main music control room will be equipped with an mc²90, Lawo’s latest flagship console. This will supply a 5.1 surround mix the HD-1 OB truck rented from Prisma, using a Lawo mc²66 console, that will add the atmos and presenter feeds. ABS will not only provide Lawo technology but will also equip the master control room with extra control panels and metering systems. In addition, ABS will take overall responsibility for the technical engineering and matrix configuration; ABS staff will install the equipment and provide on-site support ‘on the night’.
YLE’s Matti Helkamaa, Technical Audio Director, is convinced this solution is the right one: ‘We have had extremely positive experiences using Lawo equipment in our studios and OB trucks, as well as at live events when we rented equipment from Lawo. For example, when on-site at
the Olympic Winter Games in Torino, we used a Lawo mixing console and Lawo matrix on a rental basis. We are sure that the Eurovision Song Contest will add to this chain of positive experiences.’
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