Lawo attributed its success to large-scale orders from private and public broadcasters in Dubai, Sharjah, Bahrain, Jordan, Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Reporting a record 2019 in the Middle East, Lawo says it has seen its IP-based broadcast production video, audio and control solutions adopted by the region’s major TV and radio broadcasters, with installations at, and firm orders from, major broadcasters throughout the territory, a statement from the company said.
Large orders from private and public broadcasters in the United Arab Emirates included infrastructure projects for Bloomberg and MBC Al-Arabiya, audio production installs at Sharjah TV, video equipment orders from Dubai Media Inc. as well as OB trucks, radio stations and MCR projects in Bahrain and its neighbouring countries. In addition, Lawo is involved in large-scale projects in Egypt, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
Turkuvaz Media Group, which owns television channels, radio stations, newspapers and magazines in Turkey, invested in a number of Lawo solutions for a major, company-wide upgrade to an IP ecosystem for its brand-new facility in Istanbul. The IP infrastructure includes a central Lawo router, several networked mc² mixing consoles, crystal radio consoles and V__matrix C100 software-defined processing blades.
“I think it is safe to say that Lawo is beginning to make a difference in the Middle East, with both our audio products and our video and broadcast control solutions being in high demand,” commented Klaus-Jörg Jasper, Sales Director Middle East at Lawo. “There is growing respect for our efforts to become a key technology partner for major international sports events like motorsports and world cups, and also music productions like the epoch-making Sunrise and Sunset sets of the British band Coldplay at Amman’s Citadel, Jordan, streamed live on YouTube to mark the release of the band’s new album, Everyday Life. A Lawo mc²56 mixing console processing 192 inputs was used for streaming and recording these events.”
Installations across the region reflect the growing number and scale of broadcast installations in the Middle East, most of them based on demanding workflows, added Jasper.
“Lawo’s involvement in these Middle East projects confirms our growing momentum on a global scale. What started out as an audio console manufacturer for the German market exactly 50 years ago, has evolved into one of the leading IP broadcast solution providers of cutting-edge TV, radio and production installations worldwide. More and more broadcasters are coming round to the idea that new workflows, uncluttered user interfaces and efficient resource pooling are best served with Lawo’s IP-native solutions.”
Lawo is also involved in a growing number of large-scale IP infrastructure installations, like Andrews Hub in Australia where remote production came of age, Belgian DPG Media’s and Norway’s TV2 Lawo-powered ST2110 broadcast facilities spread over two cities, Europe’s largest ST2110 facility at SIC near Lisbon, and CBC Canada’s end-to-end SMPTE 2110 and ST2022-7 broadcast centre in Montreal, an ambitious initiative. Other projects include the European Parliament, several other institutions and high-profile corporate installs in the US.
