The largest TV broadcaster in China is now also the country's first to use Lawo's flagship mc 96 Grand Production Console - part of China Central Television's (CCTV) swift and ambitious uptake of 4K/UHD and IP operation. The audio console has been installed in CCTV's No.8 Studio in Beijing by systems integrator, the NDT Group.
Begun in July 2018 with installation work starting in November, the project is now complete and marks the second of CCTV's studios to be upgraded to 4K/UHD with IP technology. The mc 96 and two further Lawo mc series consoles in No.8 Studio (aka the 800m studio) follows three prior AoIP projects for China's national state broadcaster undertaken by Lawo, perfectly demonstrating that the German technical pioneer's AoIP solutions are proven, safe and stable on the most high-profile of international broadcasters' stages.
The renovation of CCTV's 800m Studio audio system was handled by our long-term partner NDT, and finished mid-Jan 2019, says Lawo System Engineer Sam Zhang. As soon as it was finished, it was given a major mission - broadcasting the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, which is the largest live show on Chinese New Year's Eve, with 1.3 billion watching. The 800m Studio produced the 4K/UHD signal; the first time the Spring Festival Gala has been broadcast in 4K. The new system did the job perfectly.
The CCTV audio engineers chose AoIP without hesitation, since they believe IP is the future and they trust Lawo, adds System Engineer Bai Shi, of Lawo's Beijing Representative Office.
With many music shows and full bands recorded here, the new audio system for the 800m studio comprises three mc consoles - the 56-fader mc 96 for broadcasting, a 32-fader mc 56 for FOH, and a 40-fader mc 36 for monitors. The consoles share more than 300 analog and AES3 signal feeds, along with10 MADI feeds via two IP switches. Additionally, five Lawo Power Core remote production solutions and two A__madi4 units translate baseband signals into RAVENNA/AES67 streams and vice versa. Without AoIP, accommodating such a high signal count would be both difficult and costly.
CCTV places a very high value on operational reliability, with both the mc 96 and mc 56 consoles' HD Cores being fitted with redundant DSP and router cards. The mc 96 will also provide a backup FOH feed, while the mc 56 provides a corresponding live backup feed.
All of No.8 Studio's RAVENNA/AES67 streams are protected by Lawo's use of the SMPTE ST2022-7 hitless merge protocol, with two identical IP networks providing system redundancy. The Power Core also provides MADI I/O, used to connect the HD cores of the mc 96 and mc 56 consoles. In the unlikely event of these switches going down, both mixing consoles can still receive important I/O from the Power Cores via MADI at the press of a single button.
Two of No.8 Studio's five Power Core stageboxes - each with 32 mic inputs - are located inside the studio in flightcases, with all analog signals from inside the studio to the audio equipment room fed via fiber - as an alternative to copper multi-core cables, this ensures that there is no loss of sound quality on their 50-meter journey.
The remaining three Power Cores in the audio equipment room are used to provide analog and AES3 I/O for wireless mics, and EFX and VTR, EVS, EXT signals. Two Lawo A__madi4 units act as AoIP interfaces for the studio's two Avid Pro Tools HD2 workstations via an Avid HD-MADI audio interface.
Based on a SMPTE 2110-compliant IP audio backbone, the A_madi4 is part of Lawo's A__line of audio interfaces, providing connectivity in distributed locations and can be readily adapted to any change in CCTV's requirements as it can scale audio I/O capacity in a networked system, either temporarily or permanently. It also supports two MADI ports on SFP coaxial connections, and has two Dual Media RJ45/SFP 100/1000Base-T Ethernet ports for streaming and control.
The two A_madi4 units also work as the PTP (Precision Time Protocol) clocking master for the audio system, receiving word clock from the studio's video system and translating it into PTP for the AoIP network.
We found the A_madi4 is a great PTP grand master device, says Sam Zhang. It's not designed to do so, but during the completion of several AoIP projects, we have found it does work perfectly as PTP Grandmaster.
The studio is now taking care of normal daily work, mostly music shows with singers and bands, he reports. The CCTV audio engineers are happy with the new system; it's not only powerful and flexible, it also looks fantastic.
Most recent headlines
24/12/2025
What is AI good for? Posted by MTI Film on December 24, 2025
What is AI good for?
What is AI good for?
It's been three years since ChatGPT first cap...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Back to All News
Love, Fights, and Everything in Between: Badly in Love' Returns for Season 2
Entertainment
24 December 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied t...
24/12/2025
Scripps Research study links sleep variability with sleep apnea and hypertension How consumers' digital activity trackers could enable personalized health s...
23/12/2025
How guilas Cibae as Dominican Winter League Games Are Locally Produced for Glob...
23/12/2025
BitFire's Jim Akimchuk on Supplying Scalability and Customization in the Clo...
23/12/2025
CAMB.AI Enables European Athletics to Offer Multi-Language SupportPlan is to eventually offer translation into all languages spoken in EuropeBy Ken Kerschbaumer...
23/12/2025
Analysis: As sports media values trend negative, scarcity and quality are king By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Monday, December 22, 2025 - 14:08
Print ...
23/12/2025
ESPN, Disney, and NBA Return to the Animated Altcast Fray With Second Edition of...
23/12/2025
End the Year on a High Note and Donate to the Sports Broadcasting Fund Today! By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, December 23, 2025 - 12:25 pm
...
23/12/2025
The year is winding down, the weather outside is frightful, and it's the perfect time to escape into a story that warms the heart. For listeners looking for...
23/12/2025
A Zeus motor is hot fire tested at L3Harris' Camden, Arkansas, solid rocket ...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Lightware will exhibit several major product innovations at ISE 2026, including the new USB-C BOOSTER-V1, Google Meet. integration for various Taurus UCX models...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Taking the Stage at Carnegie Hall-On a Global Scale Boston Conservatory Orchestra students reflect on their epic concert marking the 80th session of the UN Gene...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix's The Great Flood and Culinary Class Wars 2 Top Gl...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
Stranger Things By the Numbers: How the Global Phenomenon Shap...
23/12/2025
Experience the power of WO Automation for Radio's newest service, the System Effectiveness Review. Designed to help you achieve more, a System Effectiveness...
23/12/2025
23 Dec 2025
VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan and Rakuten Symphony Collaborate to A...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
How Steamy Can It Get? Single's Inferno' Season 5 Pre...
23/12/2025
Back to All News
33 Million Global Viewers on Netflix Watched Jake Paul vs. Ant...
23/12/2025
New technique lights up where drugs go in the body, cell by cell Scripps Research scientists developed a technique that maps drug binding in individual cells th...
22/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Neerav Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
22/12/2025
Hitting the bullseye: Sky Sports readies itself for the biggest PDC World Darts ...
22/12/2025
Unique skillset: Bringing new directors to the world of darts at The Worlds with...
22/12/2025
Gravity Media prepares for a flight of fancy with the PDC World Darts Championsh...
22/12/2025
One hundred and eighty: Gravity Media on hitting the production bullseye at the ...
22/12/2025
The Famous Group's Jon Slusser on Fascinating Fans Through Immersive Content...
22/12/2025
ESPN's Meg Aronowitz on Continuing High-Quality Broadcasts of Collegiate Spo...
22/12/2025
ESPN Takes Data-Driven Storytelling to New Heights with MNF Playbook with Next ...
22/12/2025
For a decade, popular German podcast Fest & Flauschig has hosted an annual Chris...
22/12/2025
Paramount Scores Largest Share Increase Among Distributors as Paramount and CBS...
22/12/2025
New multi-year deal integrates Roku's data to fuel Nielsen's measurement suite
Roku gains access to Nielsen's streaming ratings, showing The Roku C...
22/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
22/12/2025
Berklee Wrapped 2025: Our Top News and Stories A look back at a year highlighted by faculty milestones, major film and television projects, Bob Dylan's ho...
22/12/2025
The works of Plato state that when humans have an experience, some level of change occurs in their brain, which is powered by memory - specifically long-term me...
22/12/2025
Partnership integrates complementary satellite data and AI analytics to enhance security, infrastructure, and environmental monitoring solutions for global cust...
22/12/2025
Workflows allow you to create a sequence of planned events which may be added to your template(s) or inserted directly into your sequential or background playli...
The largest TV broadcaster in China is now also the country's first to use Lawo's flagship mc 96 Grand Production Console - part of China Central Television's (CCTV) swift and ambitious uptake of 4K/UHD and IP operation. The audio console has been installed in CCTV's No.8 Studio in Beijing by systems integrator, the NDT Group. 
