ONDA MADRID INSTALLS AEQ ARENA AUDIO MIXING CONSOLE IN ITS NEW DIGITAL STUDIO 20-05-2019

THE CONSOLE IS ALSO DRIVING A VISUAL RADIO SYSTEM AND INCLUDES THE OPTIONAL LICENSE TO PROVIDE INFORMATION WITH REGARDS TO LEVELS OF AUDIO FOR EACH MICROPHONE THROUGH THE IP NETWORK.

Onda Madrid is a radio station based in Madrid, Spain. Affiliated to FORTA since it was born, it is a public radio station, property of the regional government and integrated within the Public Corporation of Radio Televisión Madrid. Informative contents, aiming the regional audience, have always been predominant, together with the coverage of local and regional sports. Broadcasts started on February 18, 1985, then located on the center of Madrid. At that moment the stations technical installation was accomplished by AEQ and included the first BC-2000 analogue consoles.

Onda Madrid has always been comfortable with the solutions and the technology provided by AEQ and also trusted the company with the move of the station to the current facilities. AEQ has also undertaken all technical updates for the more than 30 years that the station has been operating. Onda Madrid is currently counting on several Audio mixing consoles, audiocodecs and the AudioPlus radio automation system as their technical production equipment throughout their studios and OB vans.

The station’s technical Management recently decided to integrate a new AEQ ARENA digital mixing console with 25 faders in their new studio that is becoming the heart of the station. According to the usual operational philosophies for digital mixing consoles, all inputs and outputs are connected to a en engine or frame which is associated to the AEQ ARENA control surface. This frame is powered by a redundant 300W Power Supply.

AEQ ARENA control surface includes motorized faders, and allows for up to nine operational layers or pages, a unique feature that dramatically increases the number of mixer input / output signals that a fader channel can handle. The newly installed ARENA console also integrates fiber optic MADI and Dante-AES67 Audio-over-IP multi-channel network links.

To further improve the operational aspects, the ARENA Screen software has been installed. This allows for enhanced display of vu-meters, clocks, actions, keys, etc. on an external screen that complements the 4 x 5” displays that are part of the console itself. This external screen, indeed, makes operation even more agile as, when pressing the selection key of each channel, digital processing parameters corresponding to that channel is displayed there, so equalization, filters and dynamics adjustments (among others) can be operated in a quick and precise way through a touch screen display.

A large portion of the existing Studio Equipment and supplied by AEQ at earlier dates, has been re-utilized and integrated into the new Studio System; manual and automated playout is based on AEQ AudioPlus software, while communications rely on Phoenix audiocodecs and Systel 6000. 

Simultaneously with the installation of the console, the company Broad Service Technical Support S.L. has installed a Visual Radio System based on a Broadcast Pix switcher. The system is automatically focusing the cameras on the different guests and talents in the studio, based on the different microphone level readings that are sent from the Arena console to the Broadcast Pix system through the IP network. 

The integration of voice camera control from the Arena console is the result of collaboration between the Broad Service Engineering Department and the AEQ R & D team.

The complete project has been lead by Onda Madrid’s technical Manager, Mr. Jose Ignacio Hernández, in tight collaboration with the technical services of AEQ and Broad Service throughout the installation.