Lawo Upgrades Croatian Catholic Radio Studios With Mixing, Routing Equipment

Croatian Catholic Radio (HKR) has completed construction of all-new broadcast studios built around Lawo mixing & routing technology. Lawo Crystal mixing surfaces, a Power Core DSP engine, and RƎLAY VSC software were installed, with integration and commissioning provided by AVC Group.

Established in 1997, HKR is one of just half-a-dozen radio channels in Croatia which are licensed to broadcast on a national basis. Programming originating from their Zagreb headquarters is heard across the country via terrestrial and online distribution.

“After 20 years, HKR moved their studios to a new building,” says Zeljko Pemper of AVC Group Zagreb, which performed the studio integration. “They chose Lawo because of its reputation for flexibility and reliability — after all, when you’re broadcasting to a national audience, there’s no room for error.”

4 Crystal mixing consoles with Compact Engines are installed. The main on-air studio and its redundant backup studio are both fitted with 12-fader Crystals, with twin 4-fader Crystals at work in the two production & editing suites, with VisTool GUI Builder software providing context-sensitive screen displays for each of the four consoles. A Power Core DSP engine is used in the Tech Center to provide systemwide routing and audio I/O, while multiple copies of RƎLAY VSC Virtual Sound Card software interface PC audio workstations with HKR’s RAVENNA / AES67 audio-over-IP network.

“Power Core proved to be the centerpoint of the entire build,” notes Pemper. “With hundreds of channels of AES67, analog, MADI and AES3 capacity, dozens of DSP channels, a routing matrix with more than 1,900 crosspoints, plus SMPTE 2022-7 Seamless Protection Switching, we think that Power Core is an amazing tool for broadcasters large or small. What else can do so much in just one RU of rack space?”

Lawo has a complete line of virtual radio solutions designed to provide more capability for less cost, including the popular Ruby, Crystal, and Sapphire mixing consoles, the flexible Power Core mixing engine, powerful VisTool touchscreen GUI Builder software, and the complete line of RƎLAY Virtual Radio Mixer products.