The author is technical director of GMG Radio.
CARDIFF, Wales — GMG Radio is one of Britainʼs leading radio businesses, encompassing the Real Radio, Smooth Radio and Rock Radio brands. The group has 13 stations across London, Wales, Scotland, Yorkshire, East and West Midlands and the North East and North West of England, providing GMG Radio with the largest regional footprint in the U.K.
The award of a broadcast license for North Wales presented us an opportunity to expand the coverage of Real Radio beyond South Wales to create a “National” Welsh service within the Real network. To achieve this there was the requirement for an additional three transmission paths and as such an opportunity for a significant station upgrade.
The challenge was to deliver a system that would be compatible with the systems on site, interface with the groupsʼ national infrastructure and provide flexible network control options for future developments.
Having discussed options, the decision was made to install customized Qphonics (formerly Klotz Digital) Aeon control surfaces. Three broadcast studios and a news booth were commissioned, with the three main studios having motorized faders, in use from day one. They were intended for controlling advert levels downstream for the many split program outputs.
A large Qphonics Vadis router was mounted centrally for controlling transmission, monitoring, outside sources and codec clean feed management. Qphonics router control modules were used in various “nonbroadcast” areas for accessing sources from the central router. The newsroom was equipped with remote client software to allow all six positions to access sources and control the codec management software.
Qphonics’ British sales and service partner Clyde Broadcast Products was responsible for the realization of the project.
Following a detailed review of the available technologies we selected Qphonic’s Aeon and Vadis solution as our preferred technology platform for the group. We look to deliver significant benefits to the business when we upgrade technologies and the Qphonics system gives us the flexibility and control required to achieve this.
For information, contact Qphonics in Georgia at (678) 966-9900 or visitwww.qphonics.com.
