Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Lawo Technology Central to NPR s New Building Project

04/03/2014

(04/03/2014) As an internationally acclaimed producer and distributor of noncommercial news, talk, and entertainment programming, NPR creates multimedia content that reaches 26 million listeners weekly and tens of millions more online and on mobile. In an effort to increase its operating efficiencies, the news organization moved its headquarters to a restored building in Washington's NoMa neighborhood, and upgraded to the latest digital technology much of it coming from the catalog of Rastatt, Germany-based Lawo.

Shawn Fox is the Senior Director of Engineering at NPR. As the project manager and lead coordinator for all operational aspects of the broadcast facility in NPR's new building (which opened in April 2013), Fox had a pivotal role in the selection and implementation of the equipment deployed there. The list of Lawo equipment is extensive and includes three sapphire radio consoles, ten 8-channel crystal consoles, ten 4-channel crystal consoles, a large format mc 66 MKII production console, two redundant Nova73 HD routers, a whopping seventy Nova17 routers, and another seven Nova29 routers. Fox discussed the new facility project and the factors that led to the selection of the Lawo equipment.

NPR needed to upgrade its broadcast and content production facilities in order to properly fulfill the transition from analog to digital technology, Fox explains. Our previous building was almost 20 years old and based on analog technology. Most of the equipment was still in service, but was outdated and constantly needed repair. NPR's content production had also evolved to incorporate new and exciting platforms beyond traditional broadcasting. The new 1111 North Capitol Building Project was more than just a facility wide system upgrade newer technologies were required in order to be more flexible, and to meet the ever-changing needs of a 24/7 news operation.

Lawo and NPR previously worked together on smaller technology projects. The relationship started with facility upgrades at our 635 Headquarters in the summer of 2009, Fox reports. These were small scale projects in preparation for the 1111 New Building project. The 1111 project and its relationship with Lawo started in earnest late in the summer of 2011. Our new facility went operational on April 13th, and the entire project was completed in July 2013.

Fox offers insight as to why the organization chose Lawo equipment. The products all run seamlessly on NPR's redundant corporate network, which is protected by multiple firewalls and runs on separated VLANS.

Another important consideration for any broadcast operation is the quality of customer and technical support services provided by the equipment vendors. Lawo has met project deadlines and incorporated multiple changes throughout out the project, says Fox. Their ability to conceptually grasp what we were looking to implement, propose solutions, and come up with the right equipment to make these visions a functional reality requires an in-depth understanding of the market and the technologies required to make everything come together as a cohesive whole.

Before shifting his focus back to the business of the day, Fox offers these following thoughts on the new facility project and Lawo's involvement, The timeline on this project was extremely tight. In some cases, systems came online only weeks before the first broadcast. Lawo representatives were constantly onsite and they met the requirements of the Engineering Client base expediently and with minimal negative impact to our stations and listeners.

About NPR

A thriving media organization at the forefront of digital innovation, NPR creates and distributes award-winning news, information, and music programming to a network of 975 independent stations. Through them, NPR programming reaches 26 million listeners every week.

About Lawo

Lawo designs and manufactures pioneering audio and video technology for TV and radio broadcast production, post-production, as well as live performance and theatrical applications. Products include digital audio mixing consoles, routers, video processing tools, as well as IP-based video and audio transport solutions. Lawo products are developed and manufactured according to highest quality standards at the company's headquarters in the Rhine valley town of Rastatt, Germany. Founded in 1970, the company now employs more than 180 people at 8 locations in Europe, Asia, Australia and North America.
LINK: http://www.live-production.tv/news/products/lawo-technology-central-np...
See more stories from liveproduction

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

20/08/2026

NEP's Summer of Soccer Didn't End at World Cup: 1,100+ Domestic Productions Follow the Final

From host-broadcaster and rightsholder support in June and July to MLS, NWSL, US...

20/08/2026

SVG GameDay, Ep. 27: San Jose Sharks' Emily Garner - Production Tales From the Shark Tank

In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...

20/08/2026

IBC 2026: Veritone To Showcase Enterprise AI and Media Supply Chain Automation

At IBC this year, Veritone (14.A56) is bringing two connected themes to the booth: architectural independence in enterprise AI, and the automation of the media ...

20/08/2026

Telestream and ScorePlay Partner to Connect Live Sports Ingest with Media Management

Telestream and ScorePlay have announced a partnership combining Telestream's...

20/08/2026

Grand Slam of Curling and Rock League Sign Multi-Year Deal with ESPN

The Grand Slam of Curling and Rock League have announced a three-year agreement with ESPN, bringing more than 300 hours of live curling coverage to U.S. audienc...

20/08/2026

Nielsen Announces Measurement Enhancements Ahead of Fall TV Season

Nielsen has announced a series of enhancements to its Big Data + Panel currency measurement methodology, taking effect August 31. The updates were developed in ...

20/08/2026

ORF Deploys Net Insight Nimbra Platform for Nationwide IP Contribution Network

Net Insight has been selected by service provider Big Blue Marble (formerly ORS Group) to provide its Nimbra platform as the core media transport solution for a...

20/08/2026

2026 US Open Launches Fan Activations Across New York City

The 2026 US Open will bring a series of free fan activations across New York City ahead of and during the tournament, which runs August 23-September 13. We...

20/08/2026

Bridge Technologies Adds TS Playout to VB330 and VB220 Monitoring Probes

Bridge Technologies will announce a transport stream (TS) playout feature for its VB330 and VB220 compressed monitoring probes at IBC2026 (Booth 1.A71). The fe...

20/08/2026

IBC 2026: ENCO To Showcase AI and Automation Solutions

ENCO will demonstrate solutions across captioning, translation, AI production tools, automation, and virtual production at IBC2026 (Stand 7.A34, Amsterdam RAI, ...

20/08/2026

IBC 2026: MultiDyne MRMC To Exhibit for First Time as Part of MultiDyne Organization

MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will demonstrate camera robotics and mot...

20/08/2026

IBC 2026: Chyron Showcases Newsroom Workflow Solutions

Chyron will demonstrate news workflow solutions at IBC2026 (Stand 7.A23), marking the company's 60th anniversary. Highlights include updates to PRIME HTML, ...

20/08/2026

Spectrum SportsNet LA Now Available to Customers in Former Cox Markets

Spectrum SportsNet LA, the exclusive television home of the Los Angeles Dodgers, is now available to Spectrum customers in former Cox markets following the clos...

20/08/2026

IBC 2026: swXtch.io Launches Expanded SRT Distribution and Native Multicast Services

swXtch.io will unveil expanded Global SRT Distribution and native multicast tran...

20/08/2026

Transformation Church Deploys Riedel Artist Intercom System

Riedel Communications has announced that Transformation Church in the United States has deployed a communications system built around the Artist intercom ecosys...

20/08/2026

Apple at 50: Author and CBS Sunday Morning Correspondent David Pogue on How a Tech Giant Became a Media Powerhouse

The bestselling author and longtime Apple observer explores how product launches...

20/08/2026

Orlando Magic's David Storm Reflects on the Franchises First Year With Its New ST 2110 Control Room and Massive Center-Hung Videoboard

The Orlando Magic entered last season with a dramatically upgraded in-venue prod...

20/08/2026

Indiana Pacers Name DAZN Exclusive Streaming Home Beginning 2026-27 Season

Pacers Sports and Entertainment has announced a partnership with DAZN, making it the exclusive streaming home of Indiana Pacers basketball. A team-branded strea...

20/08/2026

Ratings Roundup: Scotty Scheffler Win Tops the Week, ESPN Posts Most-Watched WNBA Game Ever on Cable

Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...

20/08/2026

NHL Announces Germany Expansion with FC Bayern Partnership and 2027 Global Series Games in Munich and Cologne

The NHL has announced two major developments tied to its Germany growth strategy...

20/08/2026

SoundBridges TURN server tutorial

Set up your own private remote collaboration infrastructure SoundBridge have recently put together a tutorial video that provides users with a step-by-step ...

20/08/2026

Neyrinck revive Avid D-Control surfaces

New V-Control Pro features restore basic functionality Neyrinck's V-Control software has long been keeping older Avid control surfaces compatible with n...

20/08/2026

ROSE AYLING-ELLIS BEGINS FILMING SERIES TWO OF ITVS BAFTA-WINNING THRILLER CODE OF SILENCE

TV, BritBox and Mammoth Screen have announced that filming is now underway on th...

20/08/2026

Nielsen Incorporates New Enhancements To Improve Its Data Measurement Leading Into The New Fall TV Season

New York August 19, 2026 Nielsen today shared a number of key enhancements t...

20/08/2026

FAST Sports Programming Surges at More Than Twice the Rate of Sports Channel Growth

New Gracenote Data Hub analysis finds sports program titles up 31.2% and individ...

20/08/2026

Charter Completes $34.5 Billion Cox Acquisition

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

20/08/2026

SubtitleNEXT makes a significant leap in localisation eff...

At IBC, Profuz Digital will showcase at stand 8.A88 the SubtitleNEXT platform delivering innovative AI transcription integrations and stunning new features boos...

20/08/2026

Transformation Church Elevates Production Communications...

Riedel Communications today announced that Transformation Church, one of the fastest-growing and most influential digital ministries in the United States, has d...

20/08/2026

QuickLink Showcases New 4K Capabilities Across StudioEdge and StudioCall at IBC 2026

QuickLink Showcases New 4K Capabilities Across StudioEdge and StudioCall at IBC ...

20/08/2026

The Boys Season Five Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio

The Boys Season Five Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio Brie Clayton August 20, 2026 0 Comments Colorist Siggy Ferstl uses Depth Map to bring a three ...

20/08/2026

Adobe Firefly expands its creative AI studio: generate music, speech, and sound effects in one place

Adobe Firefly expands its creative AI studio: generate music, speech, and sound ...

20/08/2026

Broadpeak launches Multiview as a Service to accelerate m...

Multiview available via SaaS for streaming platforms and operators through broadpeak.io, with live demonstrations at IBC2026 Broadpeak , a leader in streaming ...

20/08/2026

Techex Appoints Stuart Almond as Chief Revenue Officer

Techex, a leading provider of live broadcast infrastructure solutions, has appointed Stuart Almond as Chief Revenue Officer, further strengthening its executive...

20/08/2026

MediaCity Studios upgrades with Avid

Avid today announced that MediaCity Studios has upgraded its production infrastructure with an enhanced end-to-end Avid production ecosystem, including the dep...

20/08/2026

MS Now to Launch $7.99 DTC Service

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

20/08/2026

Nielsen Details Improvements to Audience Measurement Capabilities

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

20/08/2026

Study: 174 Billion Illegal Streams During FIFA World Cup 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

20/08/2026

Prasad Opens New 8K/4K Film Preservation & Restoration Center

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

20/08/2026

IPC Expands Brazilian Presence with New Channel Partner C...

IPC Expands Brazilian Presence with New Channel Partner CCATech Industry veterans Carlos Abrah o and Bruno Lopes strengthen local support and expand IPCs prese...

20/08/2026

Zixi Enters Mauritius Market Through Strategic Deployment...

Zixi Enters Mauritius Market Through Strategic Deployment with MTC Jockey Club Worlds Oldest Horse Racing Club in the Southern Hemisphere Selects Zixis Softwar...

20/08/2026

Scripps Research scientist to receive $2.76 million NIAID New Innovators Award

LA JOLLA, CA-Scripps Research assistant professor Tiantian Liu has received a five-year NIAID DP2 award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Di...

20/08/2026

Audiences reveal appetite for multicultural Australia on-screen

Audiences reveal appetite for multicultural Australia on-screen 20 August 2026 Dr Georgie McClean, Dr Rebecca Huntley (L-R) By Dr Georgie McClean and Dr Rebec...

20/08/2026

How Mavis Studio Is Expanding Live Production Teaching at Sussex

How Mavis Studio Is Expanding Live Production Teaching at Sussex Brie Clayton August 19, 2026 0 Comments Hero image displays a student about to mix be...

20/08/2026

Vertical Unscripted Series Legal Queens Captured with Blackmagic Design

Vertical Unscripted Series Legal Queens Captured with Blackmagic Design Brie Clayton August 19, 2026 0 Comments Reality TV veteran Eric Gardner create...

20/08/2026

Transformation Church Elevates Production Communications With Riedel Artist and Bolero

Wuppertal August 20, 2026 Transformation Church Elevates Production Communicat...

20/08/2026

The music between the notes

The music between the notes Coming together In the middle of 2026, as conversations around artificial intelligence continue to raise questions about how musi...