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17 July 2007, Redlands, California, USA
When it came time to upgrade their facilities, Bruce
Potterton, Chief Engineer for KSGN FM knew he wanted a system that was
cost effective, but would easily change along with station requirements.
As a stand-alone Class A FM station programming Christian A/C, Bruce
knew he’d never have the type of budget larger, corporate-owned stations
typically receive for such projects. Armed with the determination to
have digital consoles while still controlling costs, he selected Axia
Audio’s Livewire networked audio system.
Eager to upgrade KSGN’s facilities, Potterton soon became
convinced that networked audio was the wave of the future. “We looked at
just about every system on the market,” he says. “While we did find a
competing product that was a bit less money, I felt that the overall
level of quality and flexibility offered by the Axia system more than
offset the price difference. After reading Axia’s white papers, the
technology made more sense to me and really became appealing. Knowing
that Axia Audio is a member of the Telos family, I felt even more
comfortable.”
“As I came to understand more about the technology,” says
Bruce, “the ability to interconnect everything with CAT-5/6 line became
increasingly appealing. Audio-over-Ethernet represents a dramatic
reduction in cabling expenditures, and when it comes time to expand the
system, you just place a node at the destination and run a single
Ethernet cable to it. This makes expansion far easier than with
conventional wiring—not to mention the fact that I spend a lot less time
crawling around.”
KSGN’s initial setup consisted of two Axia
SmartSurface consoles and
StudioEngines,
along with six Analog
Audio Nodes, four AES/EBU
Digital Audio Nodes, a
GPIO node, and network switches. Potterton also installed a
Telos
TWOx12 phone system, integrating it with the Axia network.
As luck would have it, station growth dictated
modifications shortly after the initial deployment, and Potterton was
ready. “Our expansion actually coincided with a move, and as part of the
facility upgrade we added four more Nodes. Everything integrated very
well with our existing equipment, and as part of this expansion, we even
incorporated an analog console into the system, in our small
dubbing/production suite,” continued Potterton. “For the most part, this
is a stand-alone production facility…this is where we have our Router
Selector node located so that we can select any source on the Axia
network and run that program into or out of the console. Integrating our
analog console into the network was a seamless experience. The Axia
system ‘plays’ very well with third-party equipment.”
Potterton isn’t the only member of the KSGN staff that is
enthusiastic about Axia’s networked audio system. “The talent absolutely
loves working this way and the Axia console has really been a hit,” said
Potterton. “The console’s ergonomic layout is fantastic. It’s extremely
flexible, and everyone finds the system very intuitive. The air staff
caught on to the basics in no time at all and I don’t think I’ve ever
heard a single grumble about the learning curve. I’ve created individual
profiles on the board so that at the single touch of a button, the
entire layout is exactly as the air talent wants it to be.”
With a few years of Axia experience under his belt, Bruce
reflected on the overall system. “For me,” he said, “the most
significant aspect of this system is the incredible amount of
flexibility it offers. The use of Ethernet cable, coupled with the
ability to have the various Nodes local in the studio, enabled us to
significantly reduce our cabling costs. I configure all signal routing
and others aspects of the network using Axia’s PathfinderPC software,
which gives me control over the entire system—every node on the
network—from one centralized location. It’s a terrific application.”
“For those with concerns about networked audio in the
radio environment, I can comfortably say this isn’t an issue,“ adds
Potterton. “The ability to run the entire network over a single line of
cable makes for a dramatic reduction in your studio’s cabling costs,
system expansion is much easier, and making network modifications are
handled via a mouse and some very intuitive software.”
“It’s flexible, it’s easy, and it works. That’s the
bottom line.”
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To read the complete text of our interview with Bruce
Potterton and other Axia clients, please visit
www.AxiaAudio.com/interviews/ . Comments or questions? Contact Clark
Novak at +1-216-241-7225, or email
cnovak@AxiaAudio.com
.
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Axia, a Telos company, builds
Ethernet-based professional IP-Audio products for broadcast, production,
sound-reinforcement and commercial audio applications. Products include
digital audio routers, on-air control surfaces, DSP mixers and
processors and software for configuring, managing, and interfacing
networked audio systems.
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