From Malta comes this look inside the new studios of RTK 103FM, courtesy of AEQ. The facility features AoIP infrastructure and visual radio elements.
RTK Ltd. is the media company of the Catholic Church in Malta; it is owned by Beacon Media Group.
A team from DAB Electronica Ltd. led by Alan Gatt led the technical infrastructures and studio build.
“Studying different alternatives, eventually the system decided upon was entirely audio over IP based, except for the local inputs and outputs in terms of microphones, headphones and monitoring,” AEQ reported in a project summary.
Exhibo of Italy installed two auto-control operated studios using 12-fader AEQ Forum Split IP consoles. Studio One is a main studio with provision for three guests; Studio Two allows for am anchor or DJ to host up to six guests.
“Either studio can be controlled form either console thanks to the possibility to share all the stations audio resources over the AoIP network,” AEQ wrote.
“To make antennae, studio and playout switching simpler and automated, a NetBox32 MX with RTC option was installed, thus providing a 64×64 non-blocking routing Matrix for AoIP, analog and digital audio sources. This unit is used for format conversion, thus allowing for any analog or digital source to become part of the AoIP Multi-channel network.”
Automation, scheduling and playout are from WideOrbit and connected to the AoIP network with Dante Virtual Soundcards.
“As Wideorbit allows embedding third-party commands as objects in their lists and schedules, the Virtual GPO protocols for AEQ equipment can trigger macros and salvos for any of AEQ’s AoIP networked equipment,” AEQ said.
“This becomes very handy when general programming is switching for news on the hour. The other way around, it allows the DJ to trigger the play-out, cue a song etc., directly form the console control surface or to start the control of the microphones in the other studio, etc.”
The studios use Sennheiser MK4 Condenser Mics and HM300 Headphones, as well as an AEQ Systel IP 16 Talk-show and phone-in system with three SystelSet+.
Visual radio support is provided by BroadcastPix video switchers. Each studio has three JVC HD PTZ cameras. Any channel or audio source in the installation can trigger a camera setting, video clip, transition or sequence available on the Broadcast Pix system.
AEQ Phoenix ALIO portable devices are used for remote/OB work, connected via 4G router or standard internet. “Normally Opus encoding is used for either voice-quality of full-bandwidth music.” Connectivity at the station is by a Phoenix Venus 3 with AoIP networking; the ControlPhoenix application allows a technician at the studio to control the local and remote codecs.
Two Phoenix Venus 3s with AoIP are used to create the studio-transmitter link and return telemetry.
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