AUSTIN, Texas — Axia iProfiler is a simple but powerful system for automatically logging audio.
KOOP(FM) installed the Axia iProfiler system a few years ago because we wanted to be able to retain archives of the many live radio shows that we produce every week. The recordings that we make are used for many purposes including personal archives, copies of shows that we can give to guests and preparing shows for life on the Internet.
Engineer Sean Mason configured the Axia iProfiler for KOOP(FM).
When we began researching options to archive our shows we determined that what we wanted was a system that would run in the background and make sure that recordings were made, day in and day out. We found that Axia Audio’s iProfiler fit our needs. As a bonus, it offers tight integration with our existing Axia studio network.
Details
IProfiler consists of a server program and a client program.
The server program records and encodes the audio and manages the archived audio files. The client program lets users extract audio from the archives.
We use a computer tucked away in our rack room to host the server application. The client application is installed on studio and public computers. The client/server architecture makes it easy for programmers and guests to access the archives but also protects the server component from unintentional changes. User names and passwords can be created to control access to individual archives.
In our setup we have 84 individual archives that record each show into its own dedicated archive. We also have a general archive that records continuously while we are on the air, and a handful of archives that we have set up for other special purposes.
Any source on the Axia network can be defined as an audio source for archiving, and the IP audio driver can support up to 24 audio sources simultaneously.
Each archive can be configured to record to an MP3 at bit rates up to 320 kbps. Options for each archive allow you to determine how long each segment will be before breaking into a new file. We typically record in 15-minute increments. Scheduling options allow you to schedule recurring dates and times for each archive to record. You can also use Axia GPIO inputs to trigger one of several types of skimming behavior within an archive. We use GPIO to trigger a special purpose archive to record EAS events and have used them in the past for other random troubleshooting applications.
Housekeeping options can be set for each archive. In our setup we limit each archive to about four weeks of data, after which older files are deleted and replaced with newer recordings. These limits can be set by amount of disk space or number of days or turned off entirely. Backup options allow you to automatically copy archives to other drives or FTP destinations.
IProfiler has worked well for us and requires minimal maintenance after the initial setup.
Setting up a large number of archives can be a time-consuming process. We would like an option to duplicate existing archive setups so that each one does not need to be created from scratch. Reviewing the setup of a large number of archives can also be tedious. It would be nice if iProfiler could provide a view which showed all scheduled events or let you quickly compare settings between all of your archives. An option to record linear files without MP3 compression would be handy as well.
IProfiler has met our needs and is a good balance between simplicity and providing useful functionality.
Andrew Dickens is an engineer with KOOP(FM).
For information, contact Axia Audio in Ohio at (216) 241-7225 or visit axiaaudio.com.
