brutal güet Debuts S12 OB Van With Lawo AoIP

Swiss broadcast service provider brutal güet has marked the first live production with its new OB truck, S12, during the Women's Winter Classics in Gstaad.

Produced for RED+, the event — a flagship fixture of Switzerland’s top-tier women’s ice hockey league — also served as the inaugural live deployment of the vehicle’s fully IP-based Lawo audio infrastructure.

At the heart of the S12 audio control room is a Lawo mc²56 MkIII console with 48 faders, paired with a redundant A__UHD Core and an AoIP environment based on SMPTE ST 2110, AES67 and RAVENNA. The production showcased how flexible system configurations, efficient workflows, and high audio quality can be achieved in demanding live environments, particularly in open-air venues without conventional stadium infrastructure.

Christian Maier, Senior Broadcast Audio Engineer at brutal güet, reflected on the first production: "Overall, it initially felt quite unspectacular because I was already familiar with the system. At the same time, working with AES and RAVENNA streams introduces new capabilities and advantages that still require a certain degree of adaptation."

Multilingual operation is a standard requirement in Swiss broadcasts, and the S12 system was prepared to handle trilingual output from the outset, even though only one language feed was needed for the Gstaad event. Maier explained: "Productions in Switzerland are inherently more complex. We always have to be able to deliver three language versions. That's why I structured the setup so that all three languages are prepared — not only for this production, but for all future ones as well."

The mc² console's advanced DSP capabilities were central to streamlining workflows. Maier noted: "Being able to store and recall EQs, compressors and presets, as well as using dynamic EQ processing, makes multilingual productions much easier. I don’t have to build the same signal chains multiple times. Not every output requires full processing. If a signal path is mainly used for information delivery, I can reduce processing there and allocate resources where they deliver the greatest sonic benefit."

Speed and flexibility were also key. "I can customise the console to suit my workflow in every detail, but I don't have to. I can also pragmatically route a signal from A to B quickly and easily — and it still works. At the same time, I can create an interface that lets me work extremely efficiently. If a camera operator reports they can’t hear anything, I can immediately check a second or third meter to see whether the signal is leaving my system. That tells me right away where to look — or where not to look," Maier added.

Open-air conditions posed acoustic challenges, from unpredictable crowd sizes to the absence of reflective surfaces behind the goals. To capture the on-ice action while minimizing unwanted noise, the team used a customized microphone setup with directional shotgun microphones. Maier's approach balanced atmosphere and speech intelligibility: "I like to use a strong ambience mix to create an immersive experience, but the commentator always needs a clearly defined space. The ambience is dynamically shaped in the relevant frequency ranges to leave room for speech without reducing overall level. This is an area where the latest Lawo console generation offers significantly more creative and technical flexibility."

Managing timing and latency across wireless cameras, remote feeds, and distributed IP signal paths was another focus. Maier explained: "Different signal paths operate in different time domains, and these have to be aligned again at the output stage. With Lawo, delays can be applied exactly where they make sense — at the input stage, within groups or on direct outputs. This level of clarity and flexibility remains a key advantage, especially in hybrid IP and remote production environments."

The S12 OB van, built by Broadcast Solutions on the Streamline concept, is designed for a wide range of productions including sports, cultural events, festivals, and live entertainment. "From the outset, our goal was not to focus exclusively on traditional sports productions. If we produce an opera, we need this surface structure and channel capacity as well. The concept is to use the OB van as a fully equipped mobile control room and minimise on-site setups," said Maier.

The successful deployment at the Winter Classics validated the S12 concept, demonstrating how Lawo AoIP technology, flexible DSP architectures, and carefully designed workflows can deliver high-quality, reliable broadcasts under challenging conditions. For brutal güet, this event represents the beginning of a new generation of scalable and versatile mobile broadcast operations.

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