Lawo, the German manufacturer of IP-based audio and video products, has just released new software with additional options, functionality and security features for its line of radio mixing consoles, RAVENNA / AES67 mixing engines, and VisTool GUI Builder software.
“The business of radio continues to evolve, and Lawo is committed to upgrading and improving our tools to match industry needs,” says Johan Boqvist, Senior Product Manager, Radio. “This upgrade gives users new tools to tailor their Lawo radio equipment to meet their unique on-air and production workflows. And they will benefit not only radio clients, but TV production and audio infrastructure users as well.”
The first major feature introduced with Radio Software v6.6 is a new license package for Lawo’s versatile Power Core DSP mixing / routing engine: Power Core EDGE. This license provides an entry-level configuration designed specifically for deployment as a high-capacity audio gateway, where mixing surface control is not required. It’s perfect for NOC and TOC installations where plenty of audio ingest is needed, or for large-scale conversion of legacy baseband signals to AES67 networking.
The Power Core EDGE license supports 2 MADI interfaces with 128 audio channels, and up to 64 RAVENNA / AES67 streams with a maximum channel count of 128. There’s a 1,280 x 1,280 routing matrix, and the ability to expand with up to 8 rear-panel I/O cards. Power Core EDGE can be controlled with the Lawo VisTool user interface application, which supports as many as 128 patchable audio PPM and / or loudness meters onscreen. It can also be controlled with KSC control panels, and the EMBER+ network protocol .
Additional feature extensions for Power Core include:
• An 8×8 GPIO add-on package for the EDGE and SAN (Super Audio Node) licenses,
• An add-on with 64 Mini-Mixers and selectable talkback inputs for the SAN, Console L, Console XL and MAX licenses,
• A N-1 (Mix-Minus) add-on with 64 return feeds for the SAN, Console L, Console XL and MAX licenses, and
• A Loopback add-on for EDGE, SAN, L, XL and MAX licenses which provides 128 loopbacks per free 8 channel I/O slot.
With broadcasters producing ever more content via remote operation and remote control, via WAN and LAN, network security is more important than ever. v6.6 software adds several new security features to Power Core to help keep intruders out, such as an EMBER+ whitelist to allow connections only from authorized sources, an option to limit control data to specific interfaces, upgraded protection against Denial of Service data flows on the network, SSL support for remote access, and enhanced network traffic logging for inspection and debugging operations.
Other notable new features include:
• “Make before break” functionality for RAVENNA / AES67 stream switching, helping to eliminate audio interruptions during live switching of network audio streams.
• Improved snapshot timing and load speed in Power Core
• Integration of De-essing and AutoMix functions within the main DSP structure, allowing these features to be accessed alongside other audio shaping tools such as EQ, limiting and compression.
• Power Core support for the newly-released AES-3id I/O card, with 4 unbalanced digital stereo inputs and outputs using HD-BNC connectors.
Radio v6.6 software is applicable to the entire range of Lawo radio products, including ruby, sapphire, sapphire compact, crystal and crystalCLEAR mixing consoles, Power Core, Nova17 MK2 and Nova 29 engines, VisTool MK2 GUI Builder software, and the On-Air Designer console customization tool.
Clients can download the software by visiting www.lawo.com and clicking the “Downloads” link.
