German Broadcaster Unveils New Software-Based OB Van

Rastatt, Germany (July 14, 2026)—Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) has implemented a software-based production environment built around Lawo solutions for its new radio outside broadcast vehicle, Ü5.

At the heart of the vehicle is a 48-fader Lawo mc²56 MkIII production console. Audio processing is handled by the HOME mc² DSP App running on a standard CPU server. The system is complemented by Power Core gateways for onboard and stagebox I/O, an additional Power Core dedicated to communications tasks, HOME Multiviewer and HOME Stream Transcoder Apps, as well as a .edge interface providing SDI video connectivity and audio embedding/de-embedding. Audio and video signals are transported across the IP network using SMPTE ST 2110 and AES67 standards.

The vehicle supports various production formats, including sports broadcasts, concert productions and cultural events like open-air concerts.

While the truck’s chassis and body, originally built in 2007, were retained, the entire technical infrastructure inside the vehicle was rebuilt from the ground up. “This was not a conventional retrofit project but rather a complete technical redesign within the existing vehicle,” explains Nicolas Anselm-Rasor, media engineer at Bayerischer Rundfunk.

The conceptual phase of the project began in 2022. Ü5’s production architecture is built around a SMPTE ST 2110-compliant IP infrastructure, carrying audio, video, monitoring and control data over a shared network. The HOME mc² DSP App provides audio mixing capabilities and is licensed for up to 384 processing channels and as many as 1,280 inputs and outputs. Additional components include a HOME Multiviewer and multiple HOME Stream Transcoder instances.

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“Ü5 is Bayerischer Rundfunk’s first mobile production platform to operate entirely on SMPTE ST 2110 and to be based on a software-defined architecture,” says Anselm-Rasor.

The audio control room is centered around a Lawo mc²56 MkIII production console, replacing the previously installed mc²66. The vehicle features three primary workstations: the main audio engineer’s position at the mc²56 MkIII, a second position for the balance engineer and a dedicated technical and recording workstation.

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A Lawo crystal controller is installed at the recording position, allowing control functions to be flexibly assigned from the main console. All workstations share access to the same centralized DSP engine.