Lincs Group FM deploys a fully AoIP solution with AEQ

One of the leading commercial radio groups in the UK deploys an end-to-end Dante AoIP-based solution powered by AEQ.

Lincs FM Group, one of the leading commercial radio operators in the UK, has eight stations in Yorkshire and the Midlands, covering cities such as Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, Wakefield and Hull in the north, Rutland in the south and Lincoln, Skegness and Grimsby in the east.

All stations have earned a large and loyal audience by informing and entertaining listeners with a mix of great music, local and national news and quality contests and other attractions.

When Lincs went to purchase equipment for their 6 new studios and moved from their previous HQ in Doncaster to a new location, they took the opportunity to install in AoIP your new study complex. The new facilities house Dearne FM, Lincs FM, Ridings FM, Rother FM y Trax FM, in addition to its news studio, which provides local news for all of the above stations.

The management, after looking for different solutions and service providers, decided to go with Broadcast Radio.com and his team of experts. Broadcast Radio made a proposal for a comprehensive solution on Dante AoIP with scheduling and playback automation solution Myriad 5, with consoles AEQ Forum Split IP and a central routing matrix AEQ Netbox 32 MX, all of them from the Spanish company AEQ.

AEQ Forum IP Split consoles use Dante AoIP network signals only with the exception of the microphone inputs, which are the only “local” inputs for each console. Typically, all studios are using a total of 5 microphones, including the DJ or presenter's microphone. The rest of the signals are exclusively in Dante and are concentrated to/from the Netbox 32 MX equipment. The latter has a dual role, providing a 64x64 channel program and antenna matrix, while also interconnecting all the studios in the network allowing unlimited signal exchange.

Netbox 32 MX features analog and digital AES3 inputs and outputs for connecting equipment other than native IP audio devices, such as over-the-air tuners, satellite downlinks, and news channels…

Flexibility

The flexibility of this installation allows you to share all the signals on your network with any studio. Routing and summing of all network signals is accomplished through the Netbox 32 MX, which can execute simple salvos or complex macros.

These can be executed manually, automatically through schedules or by remote activation from, for example, any mixing console or from the Myriad 5 automation system.

The latter takes full advantage of the virtual GPI/Os system implemented by AEQ equipment with IP connectivity. In addition, Netbox 32 MX also offers an extensive set of alarms that can also trigger routing actions on the array or launching virtual GPI/Os, based, for example, on audio thresholds. Level monitoring is also possible since the real-time control software for Netbox 32 MX provides the possibility of creating views of the vu meters of the stations' critical channels.

Broadcast Radio managed this project alongside Lincs FM group technical management with Andy Langford, Lincs group broadcast engineer, leading the project.