Azam TV adopts Lawo IP audio upgrade for East African OB truck

This transition to a unified IP environment allows Azam TV to handle the increasing complexity of live sports and entertainment production with fewer physical constraints. By adopting SMPTE ST 2110 and AES67 standards, the broadcaster ensures interoperability between diverse hardware vendors, a critical requirement as East African media markets modernize their technical stacks. The move reflects a broader industry shift toward software-defined management layers like Lawo HOME to reduce manual configuration in mobile environments. Watch for whether this deployment leads to a wider fleet-wide IP migration as Azam TV expands its regional coverage of live events.

Lawo has been expanding its IP audio footprint across live production environments globally, with the mc²36 console and HOME platform becoming central to its strategy for mobile and fixed installations. In early 2025, Lawo announced that its mc²36 MkII console had been selected by multiple European broadcasters for OB truck upgrades, reinforcing the console's positioning as a compact, IP-native solution for outside broadcast workflows. The HOME management platform, which provides centralized configuration and monitoring for Lawo devices, has been a key differentiator in winning projects where operators need to reconfigure audio routing on the fly during multi-event production days.

The broader shift toward SMPTE ST 2110 and AES67 in live production is being driven by both standards bodies and major console vendors competing for broadcaster budgets. AES67 adoption accelerated in 2025 as the Audio Engineering Society updated interoperability guidelines to address edge cases in mobile production, a development that directly benefits installations like Azam TV's where mixed-vendor environments are common. Lawo's competitors, including Riedel and Calrec, have also pushed IP-native console lines targeting the same OB and studio segments, with Riedel's Bolero system gaining traction in sports production trucks across Asia and Africa during the same period.

From a technical standpoint, Lawo's mc²36 MkII supports up to 96 DSP channels and integrates natively with the HOME platform for automated gain sharing, snapshot management, and remote control via IP. Lawo published benchmark data in 2025 showing sub-millisecond latency for audio-over-IP routing across its mc² series consoles when operating in ST 2110-30 mode, a figure that positions the platform favorably against legacy MADI or AES/EBU-based signal chains still common in East African broadcast facilities. For Azam TV, which covers live football, boxing, and news across Tanzania and neighboring markets, the move to IP audio aligns with a regional trend of broadcasters modernizing OB fleets to reduce cabling complexity and improve setup times between events.