Peter Lawo, founder of the German company for broadcast and media technologies named after him, passed away on November 24, at the age of 85.
The committed engineer and entrepreneur founded today's Lawo AG in 1970.
In the 1970s, Peter Lawo developed an electronic sound processor for the music of contemporary composer Karl-Heinz Stockhausen, which strongly influenced the compositions of 'New Music'. His contacts with musicians led to first projects with regional public broadcaster Suedwestfunk (SWF) and installations at the station’s so-called 'Experimental Studio'. This was followed by developing the first audio mixing system for SWF, which was used for music mixes with artists such as Pierre Boulez, Luigi Nono, Brian Ferneyhough, Christobal Halffter and Dieter Schnebel.
Based on this success, Lawo established contacts with system integrators in the industry and broadcasters. His maxim from the beginning was, "Listen to your customers and users, find out what they really need, and find solutions that go beyond those needs."
His first mixing consoles for broadcasting, which were still analog at the time, were characterised by build and sound quality and their user-oriented operability, functionality and design. Already in the early 1980s, Lawo used computer technology in its mixing consoles and built the "Programmable Audio Control" (Programmierbare Ton-Regie, PTR) with analog signal processing and digital control of all mixer settings, for which Lawo developed motorised faders in-house.
In the meantime, Lawo had focused entirely on audio technology for broadcasting and spun off all other, equally successful business areas – medical lasers, public transport destination displays and radio helmets for rescue helicopters. The PTR was followed in 1994 by the first fully digital mc mixing console series, which achieved success on the German and European markets.
In 1999, Peter Lawo handed over the reins of the company to his son Philipp Lawo.