CORDOBA, Argentina — Cadena3 is a private radio station that broadcasts from the city of Cordoba to all Argentina through a network of affiliates. It is the successor of LV3 Radio Cordoba, a public broadcaster founded in 1930 with the name of LV3 Radio Aires-Córdoba(AM). Cadena3 adds to the 700 kHz historical frequency of LV3 in the province of Cordoba and south of Santa Fe with several new affiliates in the rest of the country. Today it is ranked third during the mornings.
Digital
In 1992, broadcast equipment manufacturer AEQ completely equipped Cadena3 with the latest in analog broadcast technology. Thanks to the quality of the equipment, much of it is still in use today.
But times have changed and we must change with them. We in broadcast engineering management have decided to refurbish our central studios facilities with digital technology. Once again we have chosen to go with AEQ as the main supplier. The centerpiece of the project will be the AEQ BC-2000 D multiplex router.
Overall the project involves outfitting three on-air radio studios, one new master control room and a complete broadcast phone system.
The three radio studios have been equipped with AEQ Arena digital audio mixers. They are outfitted with 25 motorized faders, 28 analog inputs/outputs, eight digital AES inputs/outputs, 16 microphone inputs and a redundant power supply. To reduce wiring work, time and cost, AEQ prepared several complete cabling kits — each specific to a studio — as well as AEQ RC01 studio headphones and microphone interface boxes.
As noted, the Cadena3 master control room has been designed around an AEQ BC-2000 D digital central router. It offers 56 analog ins/outs and 16 digital AES ins/outs with a maximum size of 1,024 x 1,024. All the radio and audio signals in the central Cadena3 facility are managed by this new digital router, so AEQ equipped it with 100 percent redundancy, including dual control modules in the nodes, dual power supplies for all the chassis and numerous DSP processing modules for backup.
The BC-2000 D is controllable through any PC on its network as well as from four AEQ NCB-100 rack-mounted hardware controllers. This system offers various user profiles and access can be limited to certain access levels and passwords can keep unauthorized users out.
The interconnections between the central controller and the on-air studios uses MADI (AES10) links over dedicated optical fiber, allowing transport of up to 64 independent audio channels with digital AES3 quality. Any signal generated in any of the studios can be sent for analysis, operation, processing or distribution to practically any place/room/studio in the Cadena3 facilities building.
In addition, we had AEQ install an AEQ Systel600 phone system to manage telephone calls for broadcast use. For Cadena3, this phone system supports 20 digital independent telephone hybrids for up to 20 simultaneous on-air calls. These can be distributed and shared in real time between the various radio studios of the installation and over the MADI links without need of any additional cabling. Two touchscreen PCs and eight hardware-based AEQ SystelSet controllers for journalists and producers to control the Systel600.
For information, contact Gustavo Robles at AEQ in Spain at +34-91-6861300 or visitwww.aeq.es.
