Onda Madrid: a new study to define the future of Madrid public radio

Alfonso Nasarre, director of Onda Madrid; José María Casaos Patrón, technical director of RTVM; José Ignacio Hernández, head of technical resources at Onda Madrid; Juan Antonio Fernández, coordinator of facilities and projects; Pablo de la Peña, deputy director of engineering, and Carlos Ocaña, head of the project area, explain the conceptual and technological lines of the new study of Onda Madrid, a space with light as the protagonist that focuses on concepts such as automation and visual radio, and that is interoperable with the IP infrastructure of Telemadrid.

A few days ago, Onda Madrid concluded a project whose initial proposals began in 2021: the creation of a new radio studio aimed at responding to society's new emission and consumption models. An interview with the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, served as the starting signal for a vital project with which the Radio Television Madrid station seeks to redefine its present and lay the foundations for the future.

A very large space shares glass with the façade of the building located on the City of the Image of Madrid. Where there used to be an editorial office on different levels, now resides a studio created completely to measure by the architect Guillermo Sánchez (GSS Arquitectura) with the execution of the construction company Arjid Arenas Jiménez Diseño, whose professionals dedicated themselves to a project that evolved according to some important technological, acoustic and infrastructure challenges.

It triples the size of the station's previous central studio, and does so by taking advantage technical advances that will allow us to respond to the unstoppable trend of visual radio, as a display of PTZ cameras y audiovisual automation software enabled by systems AEQ y Broadcast Pix. With an adjacent bulletin board room and a completely renovated control space, the studio seeks to accompany a new era of the medium in which Onda Madrid wants to play a central role; at least, for the Madrid population.

Alfonso Nasarre, director of Onda Madrid, and a wide representation of Radio Television Madrid engineering team, reveal the intra-history of the project, its execution and the technological pillars that make it up.

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The complex path to the technological renewal of radios

The management of investments in technology in public radio and television is always complex. Budgets force us to prioritize infrastructure executions that were born accompanying the development of television in our country and that are in an important phase of transformation, facing the expected transition to UHD, redefining your technological infrastructure or simply updating equipment and systems so that they continue to be able to bring together the population of their respective communities or autonomous cities.

The radio It is no longer the hole in the basement of the station: its staging becomes as important as the quality of its signal, whether it travels through the radio spectrum or reaches listeners in digital format.

Given this scenario, sometimes the radio ends up occupying a secondary role. The resilience of its systems, as well as the consolidation of its positions in the audience market, means that renewal projects are postpone. Whether caused by a strategic decision or by the economic situation, the update is, in the best of cases, progressive.

For some time now, audio is regaining its prominence. He renewed consumption of this formula, whether accelerated by the on-demand content such as podcasts or through the window to the world that is visual radius, ha led to radio and television to make important investments whose disruptive component starts, precisely, from its presentation to the world. The radio It is no longer the hole in the basement of the station: its staging becomes as important as the quality of its signal, whether it travels through the radio spectrum or reaches listeners in digital format.

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The outstanding debt with Onda Madrid

When Alfonso Nasarre He arrived at Onda Madrid in August 2021, his diagnosis of the station was very positive. But there was a but: "I realized that this house, the community's public radio station, had excellent professionals and facilities. However, the central studio had become a bit obsolete and had dimensions that were, from my point of view, scarce," recalls the director of the station, with an extensive career in media such as RTVE o Cadena Cope.

Nazarene proposed the new study of the station taking as reference the model that had promoted National Radio of Spain: an approach in which the transparency would occupy a central role, allowing the integration of infrastructure with writing and the radio itself. "From the technical department they got down to it: they designed an attractive project with cutting-edge technology. (...) If it is not the most advanced studio in national radio broadcasting, it is at the top of the pyramid”, he comments.

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The conceptual pillars of the study

When redefining its core studio, the team at Onda Madrid took into account the evolution of the radio medium itself. In his own words José María Casaos, CTO of RTVM, “we are no longer just a radio station, but we disseminate content through multiple platforms in the digital area or television itself.”

Balance was key: the new Onda Madrid study had to be aesthetically attractive, but also resolve important technical challenges that would ensure that emissions were maintained with the highest technical standards. It was taken into consideration from the choice of materials until their disposal, with special attention to the reflection of sound in the glass surfaces that surround the studio.

José María Casaos: “We transmitted the studio signal on the day of its premiere in the program Good morning Madrid with a quality more than suitable for traditional broadcast. There is always a tendency to think that the quality for digital platforms is inferior. "It doesn't have to be like this."

Guillermo Sanchez of the company GSS Arquitectura was awarded the project, which was subsequently executed by Arjid Arenas Jiménez Design. "We have been very lucky. It is always unknown how a project will develop after a company is awarded a public tender. But they have had all the attitude and flexibility to find the best architectural solution for the space," he comments. Juan Antonio Fernandez, facilities and project coordinator.

The occasion was also taken to introduce technical improvements that facilitate production in various areas. With the audio IP taken for granted, a significant effort was made in the provision of controlled video cameras through an automation system with sound activation, whose signal was connected with Telemadrid on the day of the infrastructure's premiere: “We transmit the studio signal on the day of its premiere in the program Good morning Madrid with a quality more than suitable for traditional broadcast. There is always a tendency to think that the quality for digital platforms is inferior. It doesn't have to be that way,” says Casaos.

To finish defining its new radio concept, the Onda Madrid team visited the facilities of National Radio of Spain at the invitation of the engineering team RTVE. Their experience was very useful in finding the right solutions from the point of view of the civil work and of the technical integration.

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Renewed technology with Spanish seal

One of the unknowns of the new study of Onda Madrid It was necessary to know if the setup was merely aesthetic, with the reuse of part of the equipment from the previous infrastructures. Nothing could be further from the truth: the Madrid radio team has opted for transform all studio technology, leaving the previous central studio intact to use it as a secondary booth for voiceovers and as an alternative in case any intervention is required in the main one.

AEQ was the winner of the lot of electronic equipment for the new studio. Its flagship model, the audio mixer Atrium, is accompanied by other solutions from the Madrid brand such as four-channel interfaces Netbox 4MH or 64-channel Dante AoIP card XC24. Headphones have also been key in the renewal of Onda Madrid. AKG K271 MKII; MD441U dynamic microphones Sennheiser, and headphone amplifiers and distributors Behringer HA8000 V2 y AMP 800 V2. The study is completed with solutions of Craltech, Galleon Systems, Patlite y Zyxel.

“Everything is new: microphones, table, installation… The only thing that has been used has been part of the digital table, which was already compatible with the cards we had before,” he explains. Jose Ignacio Hernandez, head of technical resources at Onda Madrid. The station's new solutions are based on the digital transformation that Onda Madrid undertook six years ago, in which it opted for AoIP enabled by a network Dante (Audinate). Even so, the analog network refuses to leave the Ciudad de la Imagen facilities: "We have kept the old analog part, just in case. We work with audio transported by Dante, but since the cards were already operational, we have decided to leave them in case any problem arises," he adds. Pablo de la Pena, deputy director of engineering.

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An increasingly visual tomorrow

The deployment of audio solutions from the new studio Onda Madrid is completed with the deployment of three cameras PTZ VHD V60XL, which are managed by the mixer Flint of the company Broadcast Pix. The tools, supplied by Broad Service, certify the transformation of the study to adapt to the new schemes of radio visual, increasingly established in the state radio scene.

Alfonso Nasarre: “I am a staunch defender of audio, but I am very clear that the trend is visual radio and that we will reach it sooner rather than later.”

“I am a staunch defender of audio,” he emphasizes. Nazarene when asked about the arrival of video tools to Onda Madrid, "but I am very clear that the trend is that and that we will reach it sooner rather than later. (...) It allows us from broadcasting the programs to making versions for podcasts. We have adapted to the times and that is our obligation and mission as a public service," he explains about the deployment.

Any listener can listen to the live broadcast of each of its programs through Onda Madrid's digital channels. For this, it has Automated visual realization with an audio activation system, which operates from some presets that can be configured according to the disposition of the participants in the study. “The system communicates through an application AEQ called Visual Radio, which provides information to the Broadcast Pix system about the level of each microphone. By programming some macros, you can now have an automated realization,” he explains. Carlos Ocaña, head of the project area.

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Onda Madrid in the ST 2110 ecosystem of Telemadrid

Telemadrid has been one of the first Spanish television stations to undertake the transition towards a IP based infrastructure, a movement that provides advantages such as versatility, agility and simplification of the always complex and extensive SDI cabling network. Although the visual infrastructure of the new Onda Madrid studio has been built in baseband, RTVM's technical management wanted to open the door to these contexts.

How do you explain Casaos: "We can interconnect our studio with the television through a connection panel. On the day of the inauguration, we connected a 2110 camera that could be used from our control for making the program "Good morning" directly. Today, we no longer say that we have a camera in a studio, but rather a pool of cameras that can be assigned to any control.”

"With this new study we can disseminate what we are doing on different channels. On television it is exactly the same: the challenge is to adapt to new consumer habits."

The new Onda Madrid study, above all, arrives to open the way. At a time when audio consumption is being redefined, the visual window allows us to improve the relationship with the viewer. RTVM has been clear about this mandate, and has taken its first steps towards a radio in which image is more important than ever. "For me, a podcast is still radio, but it is true that it is broadcast on other broadcast channels. That is the key: with this new study we can broadcast what we are doing on different channels. On television it is exactly the same: the challenge is to adapt to new consumer habits."

A report by Sergio Julián Gómez