Egyptian public television ENMA installs an AEQ Conexia digital intercom system

Egyptian National Radio and Television (ENMA, for its acronym in English), replaces its Kroma Telecom intercom after many years of operation with a system AEQ Conexia, together with AEQ TP9916 user panels.

Founded in 1945, ENMA has established itself as one of the most relevant radio broadcasters in the Middle East and Africa, both for its size and for the quality and volume of its content in the Arabic language. Likewise, it is a prominent member of international reference organizations such as the EBU and the ASBU. ENMA currently produces and manages 19 independent radio channels, including national, international, regional and thematic stations, as well as an extensive television offering consisting of three national channels, one international channel and six regional channels within Egypt.

The installation of the new intercom has been a large-scale project, in accordance with the dimensions and operational complexity of the ENMA headquarters, one of the main broadcasting centers in the region.

AEQ intercom technology allows end users Share resources, optimize your workflows and manage control of his productions on robust and highly reliable systems, equipped with redundancy and capable of offering maximum audio quality and advanced signal processing. It is a state-of-the-art technology based on networks of audio AoIP and in a centralized control model that represents a decisive step towards comprehensive and simplified content management, aimed at guaranteeing the best final result in complex production environments.

The AEQ Conexia platform is presented as a global solution capable of managing all communications and audio contributions of a facility. Its structure is based on a matriz broadcast, which makes it possible to have the largest number of audio formats currently used on the market in a completely modular way, selecting the resources based on the specific needs of each system at all times.

This modularity It also allows total redundancy of the system, with automatic backup in both the controllers and the audio processing cards and crossover points, and even in the multichannel or discrete input and output cards themselves. The internal TDM bus sizes the matrix up to a size of 1,024 × 1,024 ports, making AEQ Conexia a system with broadcast audio quality at 48 kHz and 24 bits, which provides flexibility and robustness to any audio and intercom management project.

The heart of the Conexia intercom system is the matrix AEQ Xcore, with the capacity to interconnect up to 1,000 different devices. The deployed system includes total redundancy of operation in this central matrix, with double power supply, redundant DSP platform in N+1 format and multiple controllers, guaranteeing high availability that is essential in a critical system such as the intercom.

The supply is completed with 128 AEQ TP9116 intercom panels of the latest generation, equipped with a color screen and multiple operation levers, distributed throughout the 25 floors of the ENMA headquarters. On the other hand, the new series of TP9000 user panels It has been designed with broadcast quality to guarantee its compatibility with the digital technology of the matrices. Connection and CrossNET. Audio is digitized and processed at 24 bits and 48 kHz, with a bandwidth of 20 Hz to 20 kHz and negligible distortion and noise levels. Through the EP9116 expansion panel It is possible to configure systems with up to 64 physical levers. Likewise, ease of installation has been taken into account, incorporating IP connectivity capable of managing high-quality audio in Dante format, compatible with the AES67 standard.

The panels also integrate analogue, Kroma digital and VoIP ports, as well as an internal DSP that allows the digital audio processing for acoustic echo cancellation and automatic leveling of voice power, tonality and speaking habits of each operator. The acoustics have been carefully studied to achieve maximum intelligibility and naturalness of sound.

System structure

The structure of AEQ Conexia system is based on the Xcore audio matrix, housed in a four-rack unit chassis divided into three main blocks. On the front are the slots for the DSP cards, responsible for audio processing and communications crossing points. This processing is performed dynamically, allowing backup cards with automatic function switching.

The system has 20 slots for these cards, used depending on the size of the system and the installation requirements. On the back there are two types of slots: two for controller cards, with redundancy option, and another 21 dedicated to input and output cards for the different audio formats required in each application, such as SDI, fiber, AoIP, analog or digital audio.

The system also incorporates a back-panel central which acts as an interconnection point and as a transmission platform for the system's 1,024-channel TDM bus. The Conexia Master provides a higher level of management, allowing control of the entire intercommunication layer and the distribution of crosspoint orders defined in the configuration map created by the user.

AEQ TP9116 panels offer Talk and Listen functions, as well as individual volume control for each communication point using four-way lever-type keys, with 16 cross-point keys and four pages, accompanied by four RGB graphic displays. The front also includes a gooseneck electret microphone, an internal speaker and a Mini-XLR connector for headsets. Within the TP9000 panel family there are two user panel formats and one expansion panel available: TP9116 rack panel, TP9416 desktop panel and EP9116 expansion panel.

The entirety of this important project in Egypt has been led by ENMA's engineering, projects and operations technical team, together with AEQ's central services in Madrid and the support of local partner Whash in the country.