Digital Kitchen Battles.
ZDF relies on an mc²66 for the Johannes B. Kerner Show and cookery programmes.
Every Friday evening on the German TV channel ZDF, the pans sizzle and spit: “Kochen bei Kerner”, in which Johannes B. Kerner turns his attention to culinary matters, was originally intended as a one-off edition of Kerner’s four times weekly talk show, but proved so popular it has usurped the regular format entirely in the Friday slot. ZDF uses a second studio for the production of its other popular cookery shows, “Lafer-Lichter-Lecker“ and “Die Küchenschlacht“ (“Battle in the Kitchen”), in the second of which five amateur cooks compete each week for the right to return on Friday to cook alongside famous chefs.
Not only do the differing formats of the various shows place great demands upon the equipment used to produce them, but the regular Johannes B. Kerner show, which is also produced in the first of the two studios, has a complex format that has evolved over time: two remote interviews – perhaps even involving the use of interpreters – are sometimes conducted simultaneously, whilst goings-on in and around the studio are also mixed in from the control room and a central sound console. Then there are the live acts (e.g. Jan Delay and Sarah Connor) and performances such as “Wetten, dass…?”, all of which made it imperative to replace the analogue equipment.
Since the connection to a single control room of two studios employing differing formats calls for the highest possible degree of flexibility, ZDF wisely opted for an mc²66 console from Lawo. The use of snapshots in particular has facilitated the task of changing swiftly from studio to studio and format to format. The desk itself boasts 16+8+16 faders, 144 DSP channels and 3,000 crosspoints. Seven DALLIS frames provide for the integration into the environment, whereby one frame is responsible in each case for the connection to the studios. The digital connection to the sound reinforcement consoles in the two studios is also established here: these are, in the case of Studio 1, (where the interpreter booths are connected using analogue technology) a Yamaha DM 2000, and in Studio 2, a Yamaha DM 1000 – 32 signal paths via ADAT being used in each case for the transmission. The wireless equipment for both studios is located centrally, with the monitoring for the wireless technicians in the studios realized using the DALLIS. A DALLIS frame is equipped with nine SDI de-/embedders for the direct connection of the audio with the video domain.
The equipment changeover had to be performed in the thick of production, since production-free periods have been virtually non-existent since the summer of 2007. The summer break in the production of the Johannes B. Kerner Show, for example, is filled by the production of another talk show. But even this difficulty was overcome: The mc²66 was installed on the Friday and used the following Tuesday to produce a live show. In the 22 days immediately following the installation, no fewer than 50 programmes were produced using the mc²66. ZDF attests Lawo an “excellent cooperation – from the initial idea right through to the operation of the new sound console.”
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