Radio World Buyer’s Guide articles are intended to help readers understand why their colleagues chose particular products to solve various technical situations. This month’s articles focus on products for visual radio.
Onda Madrid is a public radio station run by the Regional Government of Madrid, Spain. It has been using AEQ equipment and applications since its inception more than 35 years ago.
“AEQ has accompanied us through all the changes in technology,” said Technical Director José Luis Granado.
“Very recently, we installed a Visual Radio system in our main studio that is equipped with an AEQ Arena console. The console sends the information with regards to the levels for each microphone channel over the IP network. This allows the video switcher to detect which microphones are active.”
Additionally, the station programmed keys on the console to signal the video switcher to execute exceptions, change camera angle, go to curtain, etc.
“We have created camera presets for the main presenter, studio overview or beauty shot, guests to the left and to the right, and so on,” he said. “We continue rehearsing and testing out new angles and views. Summarizing, programmed macros make the system automatically follow whomever is speaking, take a wide shot or play a clip.”
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The AEQ Visual Radio system is based on a Broadcast Pix video switcher that manages the signals and automatically switch and mix, delivering the final product to be broadcast or streamed. It can also record its own generated signal.
“When a station has both radio and TV channels like us, sometimes the video signals produced in the radio studio turn into content for the TV station itself. Therefore, it is essential that the switcher has a video broadcast quality and processing capacity similar to that of television channels in a box. This switcher also provides a broadcast-grade video output for television in various formats and in parallel with a streaming output.”
In the event the production requires a bit more sophisticated signal treatment, the AEQ / Broadcast Pix system allows for the connection of an external mixing control panel and that can be manually operated in the traditional way.
“And to make it enjoyable, in addition to having several cameras as we do and changing camera positions automatically or by forcing a macro, the system has a professional graphics engine. Additionally, a two-channel video clip server and the possibility to split the image on several displays and even source and play content coming from social networks are all standard features.
“All this makes an excellent product that is aligned with the great service that is part of the AEQ brand name.”
Suppliers and users are invited to send news of recent product installations. Email [email protected].
