Lawo’s VSM and MC2, key players in Bahrain TV’s new mobile units

State broadcaster Bahrain TV has equipped its new mobile units with Laos mc2 IP audio production consoles and the VSM broadcast control system.

Dubai-based systems integrator Broadcast & Studio Solutions (BSS) has provided the integration of the two mid-sized mobile units. These HD-ready vehicles will cover official events, exhibitions, conferences and local and international sporting events.

On the audio side, one of the mobile units integrates a 48-fader Lawo mc256 console with 384 DSP channels, 5120×5120 mono channel routing capability and local I/O directly available at the audio desk. An additional mc2 compact I/O system provides a remarkable amount of remote I/O for high-end productions. The second mobile unit, with a smaller footprint, mounts a 24-fader mc²36, again with numerous remote and local I/O controlled by 192 DSP channels via a 512×512 matrix.

VSM, control system

Bahrain TV’s mobile units are controlled by Lawo’s VSM solution in combination with VSM servers in a redundant configuration at the heart of the control system. Thanks to the vsmSTUDIO software, all administration and configuration tasks can be programmed and saved at runtime using “intuitive tools” such as hardware LCD keypads or configurable graphical interfaces.

Additional VSM hardware includes GPIO interfaces, UMD for dynamic labeling and SmartHubs, which convert control signals from serial to TCP/IP and vice versa. SNMP monitoring capabilities are provided by the vSNMP editor software tool, which runs on a separate server.