Peter Howarth is account manager, special markets and business coordinator for the U.S. sales office of AEQ. He answered questions from me for the Radio World ebook “Trends in Radio Consoles 2025.”
Radio World: Our theme is trends in console design, Peter. What do you consider the most important to mention?
Peter Howarth: The automation of workflows. Any new console has to be integrated into existing workflows and allow to control third-party equipment and also be controlled from other systems, either locally or remotely.
RW: How should we define a radio audio console now?
Howarth: I believe it is still close to the original definition: a series of audio input sources combined to one or several outputs with the required control for levels and dynamics at all stages, i.e. input, mixer-bus (intermediate) and output, including the associated features and tools for monitoring and talkback.
What is changing is the way operation is accomplished, the actual number of concurrent operations and how the device is adapted to different workflows and environments.
RW: How has the evolution into control surfaces changed how engineers view consoles and plan their use?
Howarth: Cabling or rather the non-cabling, user privileges and a general understanding of how IT systems are built. Remote assistance and software solutions when setting up are now key to planning.
If I were a radio engineer trying to decide which console to recommend, I would ask for the configuration software before anything else.
RW: Are there capabilities that someone who hasn’t shopped for a console in a while should know about?
Howarth: I would say that the most important ones are related to remote and assisted production. On-air operations are more and more automated, and the next step will most probably also start featuring AI assistance.
A feature that is now available for AEQ consoles is the ability to locate the Mixing Engine in the equipment room at the station and have the control surface outside the station. This is a feature requested by one of our customers in Spain. It allows the technician or the DJ to work from home, for example, with the real control surface at hand, and not having to rely on a virtual console on a computer display.
The actual control is handled over the internet. Further, the audio monitoring and control signals are relayed via audio codec if the data bandwidth and latency do not allow for full-bandwidth audio and the possibility to use remote “split (L+R) cue or PFL” signals.
RW: What demands do you hear from buyers that are different from 10 or 15 years ago?
Howarth: Stations and users are asking the console to integrate naturally with other systems to maximize their ROI.
For example, visual radio is expected to be an integral part of the console capabilities. Also, seamless integration with other software-based automation systems is a must for our customers, as well as more and more sophisticated talkback and tally or signaling features.
The ability to use the console’s matrix and routing functions — either on top and with the unused resources during operation or when the console is “idling” in an inactive control room — are also common requests now.
RW: How have AoIP technology developments been reflected in the look and function of physical surfaces?
Howarth: It might not be the AoIP “per se” exclusively that reflects the look, feel and function of today’s control surfaces. For example, an audio mixer that we will introduce at ISE 2025 in February will contain aspects that improve workflow in general such as touchscreens, direct AoIP connectivity (native AoIP) and channel fader displays with much more information about input sources and their status.
Further, the new generation of displays allow for much more information and detail, so a lot of the LED segments for VU meters that were part of control surfaces have now been replaced with the central LCD touch displays that allow for very precise ballistics and also enable different scaling and meter types through the on-board software.
In combination with encoders and status switches that can be programmed for specific workflows, this makes control surfaces become more and more bespoke.
RW: What will consoles of the future look like? Will they still be around?
Howarth: I still believe we will use “mixers” in radio on-air and other production applications, but we might be looking at smaller and distributed systems or solutions. These can most certainly also be cloud-based, and the overall capacity or capability will be determined by the switching or network capacity that we have. AI will probably also drive orchestration, so our actual control-surfaces might be simpler and even virtual.
This is not applicable to all scenarios since there are a lot of operations that cannot be accomplished on a display.
Also, the overall resources in terms of computing have to be balanced further. Right now, all this is certainly doable but is also consuming a lot of energy and computing resources that are very costly if compared to dedicated hardware.
