Lawo routing technology powers Rádio Itatiaia in Brazil

The Brazilian broadcaster, with a network of 52 affiliated stations in the state of Minas Gerais, has installed a new Lawo routing system to switch, process and distribute programming from its headquarters in Belo Horizonte.

The local partner of Theirs, Radio Parts, has installed in Itatiaia Radio a new routing system based on Lawo technology to switch, process and distribute programming from its Belo Horizonte headquarters.

The project has Power Core mixing motors, interfaces de Nova17 routing y controls operable via touch screens customized and designed with graphic control software Lawo VisTool.

Planning for the project began in 2018, with the goal of replacing an aging digital router with a true AES67-compatible IP system that could work with IP equipment from a variety of manufacturers, and could be easily expanded to accommodate future needs. Itatiaia also wanted a system with DSP capabilities to allow processing of audio sources on the fly and being a network content provider, operational redundancy at all levels.

The vice-president of Rádio Itatiaia, Cláudio Carneiro, explains that "The company that supplied our current mixing consoles does not have dedicated routing hardware, nor a system to achieve this. Lawo has greater experience and knowledge with audio routing matrices. In search of a solution, we compared various suppliers, and in the comparison of similar systems Lawo's turned out to be more mature and ready to operate on the air."

All Lawo radio products use a red Ravenna which complies with the AES67 standard so handling Itatiaia's entire set of IP, analog and digital audio sources was relatively easy to achieve. The core of redundant routing del sistema utiliza dos motores Lawo Power Core, cada uno de los cuales está unido a un interface Nova17 equipado a su vez con tarjetas maestras redundantes. Éstas están interconectadas por medio de redes troncales MADI con conmutación automática de puertos, ofreciendo una redundancia completa para el improbable caso de que se produjera una falla.

El control también es redundante, gracias a los controles físicos a través de paneles KSC montados en rack y PC´s con pantalla táctil con software de control gráfico VisTool. Todas las fuentes de alimentación del hardware son también redundantes, haciendo el sistema extremadamente robusto, incluso a prueba de balas. Un reloj maestro PTP sincroniza todo, y se incluye una unidad Lawo A__mic8 que proporciona una señal PTP de respaldo.

Sala de control central

El control del enrutamiento se realiza desde una sala de control central donde se alojan estos equipos.
There is an adjacent position for the management of the system through an operator, this position is equipped with a compact mixing console, flanked by several monitoring screens, the matrix panels and a touch screen for the management and control of routing through VisTool.

From this position, the operator can select which channels to send to the different affiliate stations within the Itatiaia network, apply DSP audio processing to the sources when necessary, create custom monitoring channels for the broadcast studios and control all codecs used for remote broadcasts and for coverage of sporting events.

Carlos Ávila Pereira, from Rádio Partes, comments that "what was decisive for Lawo to win the project was its commitment to cutting-edge technology. Itatiaia's main objective was to be totally independent of a single manufacturer or system. As most manufacturers are now compatible with AES67, Itatiaia achieved the unique ability to use its network of consoles plus Lawo's routing network working in an extremely secure environment of compatibility and redundancy in the event of a technical emergency."

“There are several factors that make this project truly unique,” ​​says Cláudio Carneiro. "The ability to integrate with our existing IP mixing consoles, as well as Dante devices and those using Ravenna and/or AES67 is unprecedented. Other things that sold us were the ability to operate the system using both touch screens and physical key panels and the complete redundancy of the system,"

“The Lawo matrix has enormous flexibility and specifications suitable for operating in various types of work,” he continues. "The control and operation software, VisTool, is extremely configurable, which allows us to be at the technological forefront, designing our own updates also considering future needs or modifying the interfaces in response to the changing needs of users. This allowed us to develop a very flexible system that can be molded exactly to our technical and operational needs, completely personalized."

Carneiro also praises Lawo's system designers. "I would like to highlight the great commitment of everyone involved in this project. Everything was carefully thought out... the Lawo engineers went to great lengths to understand our needs and wants and always provided the best possible solutions. This may have been our first experience with Lawo, but it certainly won't be the last!"