South Korea’s MBN embraces IP with Lawo

by Daryl Ilbury March 18, 2022 6 min read

South Korean cable TV broadcaster Maeil Broadcasting Network has recently completed its second large-scale project with Lawo.

The Seoul-based broadcaster has upgraded its new broadcast production facility with two mc²56 consoles, A_UHD Core audio engine, external servers for MCX, and Lawo’s HOME management platform for IP-based media infrastructures, as well as A__stage 80, A__MADI6 and A__digital 64 AoIP nodes, and an A__stage48 as studio stagebox.

Lawo partner Dongyang Digital provided the equipment, which was installed and commissioned in conjunction with the SI team of mobile network operator LG Uplus.

MBN, founded in 1993, provides a variety of news and entertainment programming. Their new studio complex is home to two studios of 660 square meters each, which produce a wide range of programs such as TV news, large-scale music and talk shows, dramas, sports competition shows, health care and children’s programs.

IP the broadcast technology of the future

A Lawo A_UHD Core in an MBN rack

“Maeil Broadcasting Network regards IP as the broadcast technology of the future, and our goal is to be a fully ST2110-capable broadcast network within the next few years”, explains Byonghee Gwak, technical director at MBN. “This is why we wanted to integrate our broadcast production facility with our new studios and control rooms using an IP infrastructure right from the start. Another big plus is that, with our new flexible audio network, we can apply our workflows and change them at any time, easily modifying the whole setup via software configuration.”

“Together with MBN, we developed a plan to upgrade the new production center to an IP facility and discussed the workflows our customer wanted to put in place,” explains Choi Won, project manager at LG U+. “After thorough consideration of various manufacturers, Lawo, with their IP-native, ST2110-compatible audio production consoles, won by a clear margin. The powerful, super-compact A__UHD core provides DSP pooling and full redundancy so that a dynamic and flawless production process is

This is MBN’s second installation of Lawo equipment. Several years ago, it installed Lawo radio mixing consoles for DMB radio and mc² audio production desks for MBN MONEY and the MBN News Center.