Broadcast Tough - Audio mixing consoles/surfaces. IP routing and control. Audio processors. Digital editing tools.
Wheatstone's products and studio systems are designed and built specifically for the demands of broadcasting. They cover a range from smaller single-station studios to large multi-studio, multi-station complexes with a million cross-points and dozens of mixers, talent stations, and elements connected across a region.
Rebooting A Giant WheatNet-IP System
Jay Tyler demonstrates just how robust a WheatNet-IP system can be. He reboots one of the largest systems out there and has the entire thing back up and running in 80 seconds. The system represents multiple studios spread across a facility and was commissioned by Cox Jacksonville.
Commissioning AES67 in Your Plant
By now, you’ve heard that AES67 is part of the SMPTE 2110-30 standard and that all the major IP audio vendors offer this audio transport standard as part of their system.
The AES67 format will be useful for streaming audio between the control room and the master control and there’s good reason to believe that it will effectively eliminates the practice of HD/SDI audio embedding/de-embedding with video, and all the hardware that goes along with HD/SDI workflows.
There’s been a great deal of talk about AES67, but that is as far as it’s gone for most broadcasters – essentially a new standard still sitting on the dealer lot waiting for a test drive.
How easy will it be to commission AES67 in your plant?
We decided to take AES67 out for a spin to find out. Earlier this summer we did a trial run of AES67 through a large WheatNet-IP system staged at the Wheatstone factory in New Bern, North Carolina, during what we call a BLADEFest. (BLADEs are the I/O access units that make up the WheatNet-IP audio network). We do BLADEFests periodically to test our system under real-world conditions, and for this one, we added in a few AES67 devices while we were at it.
Surviving Smaller Market Studio Projects
Putting together a new studio facility can be a challenge for any broadcaster, in the same way that contenders on the "Ultimate Spartan Challenge" are challenged by moving obstacles, snake pits and impossible deadlines.
But for smaller market broadcasters? Think "Survivor."
“The biggest challenge is budget, of course. But it might surprise people to know that the smaller market projects are often more complex and for that reason, can be more cutting edge than what you’d find in Chicago or Los Angeles,” said Rob Goldberg, who has managed projects on both ends of the spectrum as the CEO of RadioDNA in Minneapolis.
Read our new E-Book:
Making Sense of the Virtual Studio:
SMART STRATEGIES AND VIRTUAL TOOLS FOR ADAPTING TO CHANGE
Curious about how the modern studio has evolved in an IP world? Virtualization of the studio is WAY more than tossing a control surface on a touch screen. With today's tools, you can virtualize almost ANYTHING you want to do with your audio network. This free e-book illustrates what real-world engineers and radio studios are doing. Pretty amazing stuff.
STEREO MIKING TECHNIQUE YOU SHOULD KNOW
Playing the middle against the sides
By Scott Johnson
Every broadcast engineer finds himself in this situation from time to time. Say your morning news show has brought in a local jazz combo who’ll play into a break. You want a nice, clean, wide stereo image, but you want it to be mono-compatible for all those TV’s in airports, kitchens, and restaurants that have mono speakers.
LPFM. GOING PRO.
There are those who say that the console makes the station. Maybe, maybe not. But we bet it was the first thing you looked at when you got your LPFM license, right? If you’ve done your homework, you’ve probably noticed that consoles made specifically for broadcast are laid out differently than, say, those found in the music store.
Limit the Multipath!
Multipath happens. Especially to 92.5 The Wolf, which broadcasts a rimshot signal into Denver from the base of the Rocky Mountains with enough effective radiated power to make up for an antenna barely clearing the average terrain. The geography, the antenna height, the Class C1 power – together they form the perfect storm for multipath.
VIDEO: FINISHING AN LXE END PANEL
Tim Sanders goes through the process of trimming, sanding, polishing, and perfecting the piano-quality finish of the end pieces of the LXE control surface. CNC machines are wonderful, but nothing can match the eye and hand of an expert craftsman like Tim. Enjoy!
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE NETWORK
Audio mixing consoles are now part of a much larger universe, the fabric of which is networking. How a console is networked is more critical than ever before, as are the applications that drive its usefulness.
BORN IN THE USA
Today, broadcast operations have extended beyond and expanded within their walls, thanks largely to IP and networking. But meanwhile, back at the factory, we’re keeping it all under one roof. Why?
IP TERMINOLOGY EXPLAINED
Having all these terms in one place, and in alphabetical order, definitely comes in handy. But just as helpful to us are the comments at the end of the article by those who, for various reasons, added onto or had their own definitions.
BLADEFEST 2018 PUTS BLADES THROUGH XTREME TESTS
Would any sensible broadcast engineer put his/her system through dozens of consecutive reboots? Would she/he ever send audio on a purposefully Rube Goldberg-ish route? Would they use new, unproven switches? That’d be asking for trouble, right?
Adding an FM Translator?
Click here. We've got some cool ideas for you.
RADIO AUDIO CONSOLES
Wheatstone is all about radio. Cool consoles and mixers. Intelligent audio IP studio networking and routing. PR&E Consoles. VoxPro recording and editing. AM and FM on-air processors that rock both loud AND clean.
TV AUDIO CONSOLES
When you think of TV audio, you think of Wheatstone. Our consoles are the control centers for the finest facilities in the world. WheatNet-IP audio networking is becoming THE standard for interconnect.
AUDIO PROCESSING
Only Wheatstone offers processors with the surgical precision of 31-band processing! Sound shaping for FM, AM, HD, television, webcasting, podcasting, mastering or live audio.
VOXPRO AUDIO RECORDER & EDITOR
For live, on-air recording and real-time editing, there's no better solution than VoxPro.
