Products have a way of proceeding through development at their own pace. These sometimes take a bit longer to evolve as new concepts are prototyped, tested and matured, and additional functions and features are added and tweaked — well before reaching the beta or initial release phase. So it was with mc² 36 live audio console.
We at FRONT of HOUSE first became aware of the mc² 36 live audio console during private meetings held two years ago at AES 2012 in San Francisco. And no, it wasn’t ready within the one-year timeframe that was originally planned. In fact, few products from any manufacturer rarely if ever arrive right on schedule — yet we were pleased about the unveiling of the mc² 36 just a month ago, at the 2014 IBC show in Amsterdam. The console makes its official audio show debut at this month’s AES convention in Los Angeles.
A Little History
Based in Rastatt, Germany — and currently with branch offices in Australia, China, North America and Switzerland (along with sales partners in 40 countries worldwide), Lawo was founded in 1970 by engineer Peter Lawo. The company’s first products were electronics sound processors, including vocoders (!), analog modules and modular mixing consoles for broadcast applications.
The company’s engineering-driven outlook has always kept it slightly ahead of the crowd. By the 1980’s, Lawo developed the PTR, a digitally controlled analog console, and a decade later, created the fully digital (and modular) “mc” series mixers. In 1998, Lawo launched the first of its mc² boards, which featured linear audio networking via ATM, and continued to develop with its mc²HD technology (full 96k Hz capability) in 2003, along with the high-capacity Nova series routers.
Lawo is no stranger to the live sound market. The company acquired digital sound reinforcement console manufacturer Innovason in 2011. While Lawo technology has long been accepted in the European broadcast and production community, as well as a few live sound installations — mostly in applications such as opera houses and theaters requiring simultaneous FOH and broadcast mixing — the company is somewhat less well-known in the sound reinforcement market in North America. And the company hopes to change that perception with its mc² 36, an audio console designed specifically for live sound applications.
Enter the mc² 36
The mc² 36 audio console also makes a bit of history as the company’s first all-in-one mixing desk, incorporating all of its I/O and DSP within the console frame, rather than within an outboard rack. And the mc² 36 sports a comprehensive feature set that covers theater, house of worship, live, portable and install applications. While not a “broadcast” console, per se, it does incorporate certain useful features that support applications such as audio-follows-video and mix-minus that could come in handy in a live feed from FOH or the occasional production duties for cable or live TV feeds, streaming or post activities from a house of worship or performing arts center.
Another nod from the company’s strong broadcast history is the mc² 36’s incorporation of certain fail-safe features, such as redundant power supplies and parallel, doubled DSP cores.
The mc² 36 was designed for ease-of-use and fast operations. Dual 21.5-inch full HD touch screens work with touch-sensitive, color-illuminated rotary encoders to provide intuitive operation. For example, the dynamics window automatically pops up when any of the dynamics encoders are touched, and after tweaking the parameters, an auto-close function will close the window without additional user action to return to the full overview.
Ample DSP
Speaking of DSP, the mc² 36 features a new, integrated DSP micro-core with an internal 512 x 512 port audio matrix. It is super-compact and optimized for low power consumption using active cooling via ultra low noise slow-spinning fans for silent operation — a definite concern in situations such as quiet concert halls, where fan noise can prove annoying. The flexible DSP resources can be allocated according to application. Depending on the selected DSP mode, the processing capacity ranges from 48 DSP channels (Recording Mode, providing 96kHz/48kHz with DSP redundancy) to 192 DSP channels (Broadcast Mode, at 48kHz without DSP redundancy).
Aside from the selected DSP mode, the engines provide completely independent algorithms at all times, with no compromise in quality even when all channels are in use. As a result, the DSP flexibility and internal audio quality make the console truly universal: set it up to reinforce and record a symphonic pops concert one day and the next day, a church service with live broadcast feeds.
The DSP Toolkit
Maintaining its claim of audio precision, Lawo equipped the mc² 36 with the same signal processing algorithms as its larger siblings. As on any mc² console, users can easily re-arrange the order of all DSP modules and set up and store custom chains without restriction, offering both versatility and creative freedom. And while “Inverse Warp Turbo Wah Flange” is not available at this time — we might have to wait until version 2 for that — the mc² 36 boasts a solid palette of essential (and useful) onboard DSP functions.
Four independent dynamic modules — Gate, Expander, Compressor and Limiter — can be placed independently of each other anywhere within a channel’s signal chain. All are designed for precision, rather than colored performance. A user-adjustable “look-ahead” function is standard, while the limiter can also double as a high-quality brick-wall limiter.
Equalization is offered as 4-band, fully parametric EQ, a 2-band Filter module and a Side-chain Filter — all of which can be placed anywhere in the signal chain. Additionally, the 2-band side-chain filter can be applied to the gate or compressor.
An “Image” algorithm for tweaking any stereo image can widen the panorama of stereo feeds or be applied to position/combine multiple stereo sources in the same mix without losing the stereo effect.
A Delay module provides clickless delays of up to 1.8 seconds, for inaudible delay adjustments even during live productions. Delay action can be defined in frames, millisecond or meters (for alignment compensation in sound reinforcement systems).
Other perks include: Automix (automatic adjustment of the levels of active and inactive microphones, while maintaining a constant ambient level); Remote Desktop (for integrating external PCs with third-party control); offline console configuration and advance show preparation (mxGUI); and full channel strip customization. Also standard is onboard Loudness Metering, which — originally intended for broadcast applications — has evolved into a useful tool for live, theater and house of worship applications.
I/O to Go
Available in 16/24/40-fader frames, the mc² 36’s integrated I/O should appeal to permanent installs with limited space, as well as to rental companies.
The onboard I/O complement includes 32 mic/line inputs, 32 line outputs, eight digital AES3 inputs, eight digital AES3 outputs, eight GPIO ports, one MADI (SFP) port, three RAVENNA/AES67 channels and a headphone jack. In addition to the onboard I/O, a MADI tie-line connection and three RAVENNA/AES67 Audio-over-IP ports offer future-proof connectivity for up to 384 external inputs and outputs, providing a total capacity of 496 physical inputs and outputs.
For even more local or remote I/O, an expansion stagebox in a five-rackspace “Compact I/O” package connects via Cat-5 or fiber (optional), affording an additional 32 mic/line inputs, 32 line outputs, eight digital AES3 input and output pairs, eight GPIO’s and an optical (SFP) MADI port. Up to three Compact I/O units can connect to the mc² 36.
The mc² 36 is equipped for intelligent networking with Lawo’s mc² 36, mc² 56 or mc² 66 consoles, and can operate with Lawo’s Nova audio routers, giving instant access to thousands of audio channels. And its native, open-standard RAVENNA (AES67-compatible) technology integrates seamlessly into IP infrastructures.
The mc² 36 makes its U.S. debut in Booth 1329 at this month’s AES Show in Los Angeles. For more information, visit www.lawo.com.
