Radio 2BBB faces new challenges with AEQ IP equipment

Broadcast Components has been in charge of designing the new workflow of the Australian station Radio 2BBB, which begins the stage with IP solutions AEQ such as Forum Lite or Systel.

Radio 2BBB is an Australian regional radio station located on the north coast of New South Wales that aims to serve its county by keeping everyone connected to the latest news. Like many other remote places in Australia, the last few years have been plagued by fires, floods and problems with the COVID-19 pandemic; problems that have highlighted the need to optimize communication within the territory.

Starting from this objective of improving its community service and with the idea of undertaking a renovation and improvement of its facilities, Bryony Fearns, a Radio 2BBB governing board member, has begun looking at the work needed to become part of the Bellingen Shire Emergency Operations Centre. Andrew Walls, president of the station, and Fearns approached the Tank FM station for advice and little by little they ended up designing what would be their future renovation project. Analyzing its particular case, as well as the fact that Radio 2BBB's headquarters is located in an adobe building, it was decided to undertake a transition to IP.

With a plan in place, Bellingen Shire Council invested in Radio 2BBB as part of the Bellingen Shire Emergency Operations Center with part of its Bushfire Local Emergency Recovery Fund (BLERF), making the station the only regional media center that will be able to officially communicate information, news and safety alerts across the county in real time, especially during serious situations such as floods, bushfires and pandemics. This work, as well as its usual public service, will be carried out with solutions of AEQ.

AEQ on Radio 2BBB

The technological solution for Radio 2BBB created by Broadcast Components bet on the digital mixing console AEQ Forum Lite for its two studios, as well as for the IP telephone system AEQ Systel-IP16.

AEQ Forum Lite It is a mixing console designed for the control of on-air emissions. It incorporates all the basic features necessary in this type of environment: automatic cut-off of monitors, cough cut-off, faderstart, signaling control, control signals for the automation of external equipment, management of external communications, intercommunication, etc. They can be equipped with AoIP multi-channel input and output cards compatible with the new AES67 protocol through Dante technology. Thanks to this connectivity, signals can be collected and delivered to other consoles, routers, and other input and output terminal equipment from more than 300 different manufacturers. You can also choose MADI connectivity, and it can be equipped with up to two internal digital telephone hybrids. The entire Broadcast Components technical team installed, wired and configured the entire new Studio 2, while Studio 1 continued programming as normal.

Additionally, sources of Dual power supplies in AEQ equipment and UPS technology for energy management and risk mitigation. With the idea of reusing most of the station's auxiliary equipment, an interface was also implemented AEQ Netbox “which allows” in the production space to be incorporated into the transmission chain in a few moments via IP.

Signal continuity on Radio 2BBB

Radio 2BBB's existing broadcast chain features a main 93.3MHz transmitter (via an 850MHz analogue STL link) and an off-air rebroadcast on 107.3MHz. Broadcast Components implemented a IP codec backup so that there was no single point of failure for the FM transmission and the secondary frequency was not dependent on the main one. For this case, a network of codecs AEQ Venus can transmit a replica of the station's content. What's more, in a catastrophic situation (in which the station does not work and is not accessible) AEQ Talent could transmit remotely directly to the transmitter.

Once all the equipment to be installed was defined, Kye Ruigrok and Vanessa Nugent led several training courses adapted for both technicians and presenters.

This recent technological update represents the largest renovation of Radio 2BBB since it began broadcasting in 1983. The entire project has been led by the technical services of Broadcast Components, AEQ's local partner in the country, in coordination with the start-up staff of AEQ Madrid working with a remote connection.