Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

China's CCTV Continues Rapid Advance of IP Broadcasting with Lawo

03/07/2019

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.
LINK: https://www.lawo.com//en/up-to-date/news/nbsp/chinas_cctv_continues_ra...
See more stories from lawo

Most recent headlines

09/11/2025

Dalet Unveils Agentic AI Media Workflows at IBC2025

Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...

06/10/2025

France Tlvisions Wins Prestigious 2025 EBU Technology & Innovation Award in Groundbreaking Collaboration with Dalet

France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...

16/09/2025

SVG All-Stars: Leigh Michaud, Manager, Remote Operations, ESPN

SVG All-Stars: Leigh Michaud, Manager, Remote Operations, ESPNThe UConn grad rose from ESPN's mailroom to become one of its most valuable ops leadersBy Bran...

16/09/2025

Live From IBC 2025: Friday's Latest From Halls 1-4, Outdoor Exhibits in Amsterdam

Live From IBC 2025: Friday's Latest From Halls 1-4, Outdoor Exhibits in Amst...

16/09/2025

Live From IBC 2025: Saturday's Latest From Halls 5-7 in Amsterdam

Live From IBC 2025: Saturday's Latest From Halls 5-7 in Amsterdam By SVG Staff Friday, September 12, 2025 - 17:00 Print This Story The SVG Europe and ...

16/09/2025

Live From IBC 2025: Sunday's Latest From Halls 8-10 in Amsterdam

Live From IBC 2025: Sunday's Latest From Halls 8-10 in Amsterdam By SVG Staff Saturday, September 13, 2025 - 17:00 Print This Story The SVG Europe and...

16/09/2025

Live From IBC 2025: Monday's Latest From Halls 11-14 in Amsterdam

Live From IBC 2025: Monday's Latest From Halls 11-14 in Amsterdam By SVG Staff Sunday, September 14, 2025 - 17:00 Print This Story The SVG Europe and ...

16/09/2025

Amazon Prime Video Picks Up Four Hours of Early-Round Masters Coverage in 2026

Amazon Prime Video Picks Up Four Hours of Early-Round Masters Coverage in 2026By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. Tuesday, September 16, 2025 - 10:15 a...

16/09/2025

VERSANT Inks Deal for League One Volleyball as Women's Sports Rights Slate Grows

VERSANT Inks Deal for League One Volleyball as Women's Sports Rights Slate G...

16/09/2025

ESPN VP, Corporate Communications, Katina Arnold Named SVP, Disney Advertising Communications

ESPN VP, Corporate Communications, Katina Arnold Named SVP, Disney Advertising C...

16/09/2025

IBC 2025 in Review: SVG Europe's Full Collection of Video Interviews From the Show Floor

IBC 2025 in Review: SVG Europe's Full Collection of Video Interviews From th...

16/09/2025

Celebramos 10 aos de Viva Latino en Spotify y el xito global de la msica latina

Hace una d cada, la m sica latina representaba apenas el 8% de las reproducciones globales en Spotify. Hoy, constituye m s de una cuarta parte (27%) de toda la ...

16/09/2025

Celebrating 10 Years of Spotify's Viva Latino Playlist and the Global Rise of Latin Music

A decade ago, Latin music made up just 8% of global Spotify streams. Today, it a...

16/09/2025

Spotify Welcomes Graham Norton and Select VICE Studios Content

Spotify is expanding our video lineup with a new partnership with Zoo 55, part of ITV Studios. For the first time, acclaimed content from ITV Studios is landing...

16/09/2025

One Enterprise, One Mission: Aligning the Supply Chain to the Warfighter

At DSEI 2025, James Dunne of L3Harris Maritime UK chaired a panel on aligning the supply chain to the warfighter, where leaders discussed modernising support fo...

16/09/2025

RTW chooses Calrec as technology partner

Calrec has strengthened its collaboration with audio metering expert RTW by integrating RTW's new TMxCore metering platform across its full range of Argo IP...

16/09/2025

Football and Back-to-School Dynamics Spark First Gains Since April for Traditional TV

College Football Scores Top Telecast in August with 16M+ Viewers on FOX, Followe...

16/09/2025

Index Exchange and Gracenote Team to Enhance Contextual Intelligence in Programmatic Streaming TV

Collaboration marks the first SSP integration of Gracenote IDs, enabling show-le...

16/09/2025

IBC2025 Attracts 43,858 Visitors

AMSTERDAM The organizers of IBC2025 are reporting that 43,858 visitors from more than 170 countries attended the event, which had more than 1,300 exhibitors and...

16/09/2025

Wooden Camera Releases Accessory Collection for FUJIFILMs...

Wooden Camera announces the release of its new Accessory Collection for the FUJIFILM GFX ETERNA 55. The highlights of this collection include vital power soluti...

16/09/2025

AntonBauer Launches Free Cloud Platform for Smarter Batte...

Anton/Bauer, a leading manufacturer of mobile power solutions for broadcast and cinematic equipment, has announced the launch of Anton/Bauer Fleet Management, a...

16/09/2025

Teradek Launches Prism Jetpack - A New Era of 5G Video Co...

Teradek, a leading provider of video transmission and live production solutions, today announced the launch of Prism Jetpack, a groundbreaking 5G video contribu...

16/09/2025

Astera Reinvents Practical Lighting with SolaBulb

Astera, the leader in wireless LED lighting solutions, announces the ultra-versatile SolaBulb. Building on the success of the Astera bulb family, SolaBulb intro...

16/09/2025

TED2025 Relies on Clear-Com and NETGEAR to Power Producti...

As the world gathered at TED2025 to explore the provocative theme "Humanity Reimagined", Clear-Com , supported by NETGEAR networking infrastructure, delivered f...

16/09/2025

Bitfocus Wins IABM Impact Award as Pro AV Changemaker

Bitfocus' Buttons platform celebrated as a catalyst for AV and broadcast convergence Bitfocus has been named winner of the IABM Impact Award Pro AV Chan...

16/09/2025

IABM announces winners of the Inaugural IABM Impact Award...

Record entries and outstanding innovation celebrated at IBC2025 as the MediaTech community honors its leading people, projects and organizations IABM announced...

16/09/2025

SKY Perfect Modernizes Playout-to-Delivery with Harmonic

Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (SJC), a leading satellite operator and pay-TV provider in Japan, has partnered with H...

16/09/2025

Telestream Congratulates Sky Group on IBC Innovation Awar...

Telestream congratulates Sky Group, which has been awarded the prestigious IBC Innovation Award for Content Distribution for its MediaMesh platform on Sunday, S...

16/09/2025

SES Partners with Cailabs to Test Next-Generation Laser Communication Technology

Leading space solutions company will use optical ground stations to deliver faster, more secure data from space Luxembourg, September 15, 2025 - SES, a leading...

16/09/2025

ENCO Introduces Raptor Cloud-Based Captioning For Live Streaming Video

NOVI, Mich. ENCO has unveiled Raptor, a cloud-based live streaming captioning encoder that injects the speed, power and reliability of real-time AI capabilities...

16/09/2025

Comcast NBCU and NBCU Local Award $2.5 Million to Nonprofits

NEW YORK Comcast NBCUniversal and NBCUniversal Local have announced that a total of $2.5 million has been awarded in 2025 to 69 nonprofit organizations servicin...

16/09/2025

Martin Euredjian Joins Atomos

AMSTERDAM Martin Euredjian has joined Atomos as director of advanced imaging and will lead innovation for advanced display technology....

16/09/2025

Calrec Unveils 48-Fader Argo M

AMSTERDAM Calrec introduced a 48-faced Argo M and showcased its largest Argo software updates at the recently concluded IBC2025....

16/09/2025

Lawo Unveils HOME Audio Shuffler App

AMSTERDAM Lawo introduced its HOME Audio Shuffler app, a replacement for a traditional baseband audio matrix within an IP-based Dynamic Media Facility, during t...

16/09/2025

77th Emmy Awards on CBS Deliver Largest Audience Since 2021

CBS is reporting that the 77TH Emmy Awards hosted by Nate Bargatze on Sunday Sept. 14 was seen by more than 7.42 million viewers on the CBS Television Network a...

16/09/2025

Meet the Adversaries That Will Clash in 'Rulers of Fortune', a Series Premiering October 29 on Netflix

Back to All News Meet the Adversaries That Will Clash in Rulers of Fortune, a S...

16/09/2025

Would You Take 30 Million Baht from a Dead Person's Account? Everybody Loves Me When I'm Dead' Unveils Main Trailer, Key Art

Back to All News Would You Take 30 Million Baht from a Dead Persons Account? E...

16/09/2025

Netflix Unveils the Official Trailer and Poster for 'She Walks in Darkness', by Agustn Daz Yanes

Back to All News Netflix Unveils the Official Trailer and Poster for She Walks ...

16/09/2025

Comscore Unveils The Scoreboard: An Interactive Destination Surfacing Consumer Behaviors and Trends Across Multiple Platforms

Comscore Unveils The Scoreboard: An Interactive Destination Surfacing Consumer B...

15/09/2025

Get to Know This Fall's Filmmakers Through These 27 Sundance Institute-Supported Titles

Steve Zahn, Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, and Janeane Garofalo star in Ben Stiller&...

15/09/2025

aespa and Spotify Invite Fans to Unlock Their Inner Rich Man' With an Immersive MY VAULT Experience

Global K-Pop sensation aespa is redefining what it means to be rich with the r...

15/09/2025

Spotify's Free Experience Is Even Better-Here's How to Make the Most of It

Every day, millions of people around the world turn to Spotify to enjoy the audi...

15/09/2025

Brembo SGL Carbon Ceramic Brakes (BSCCB) successfully expands production capacity by 50% in Germany and Italy to meet rising demand

After months of intensive planning and implementation, Brembo SGL Carbon Ceramic...

15/09/2025

L3Harris Receives Multi-Year Javelin Solid Rocket Motor Contract

A U.S. Marine launches a Javelin shoulder-fired anti-tank missile during a training exercise. (Photo credit: U.S. Marine Corps)...

15/09/2025

TV Tech Unveils Best of Show Winners at IBC 2025

AMSTERDAM TV Tech has named its Best of Show Awards winners for IBC2025, which wraps up today. Entrants were judged by a panel of industry experts on the criter...

15/09/2025

SES SCORE Surpasses 600,000 of Transmission Hours, Delivering 900 Hours of Major Sports Content Daily

Unique sports content orchestration platform builds momentum among SES's cus...

15/09/2025

Over 41 Million Global Viewers On Netflix Watch Terence Crawford Defeat Canelo lvarez To Claim Super Middleweight Championship

Back to All News Over 41 Million Global Viewers On Netflix Watch Terence Crawfo...

15/09/2025

The Great Flood' Teaser Trailer Previews A Gripping Struggle for Survival

Back to All News The Great Flood' Teaser Trailer Previews A Gripping Struggle for Survival Entertainment 15 September 2025 GlobalSouth Korea Link copi...

15/09/2025

From Hardship to Hope: Typhoon Family' Presents a Tale of Youth, Crisis, and Resilience on October 11

Back to All News From Hardship to Hope: Typhoon Family' Presents a Tale of...