Media students enrolled at the University of Applied Sciences HTW Chur in Chur, Switzerland, are now learning Multimedia Production using Lawo’s Rǝlay Virtual Radio Mixing software.
Installed and configured by Swiss multimedia solutions integrator 42am – co-founded by Andrin Egger and Mirko Fischli – the facilities include a radio studio with two adjacent voiceover booths, four production workstations, and a self-contained ‘mobile studio’ in a wheeled flight case. Rǝlay VRX4 mixing software was chosen for a simple reason, according to Egger: ‘We wanted our students to be ready for the future.
‘Rǝlay is easy to use,’ he continues Egger, noting that traditional mixing consoles, with their arrays of buttons and switches, are sometimes intimidating to radio newcomers. ‘[Rǝlay’s] simple touchscreen GUI looks and feels just like a tablet app, so it’s something the students aren’t afraid of.’
‘Using virtual mixing as the basis for our radio studios allows us to quickly pivot to accommodate whatever evolving technology throws at us,’ saysFischli, explaining that flexibility was also key in their choice of Rǝlay. ‘Any virtual sound source on our computer, whether it comes from a browser tab or a dedicated software app, can be assigned to an onscreen fader. When we need to accommodate a new audio service, we just assign the program output to a new virtual destination.
Rǝlay is radio software that enables broadcasters to build virtual broadcast studios with today’s powerful off-the-shelf PCs. The Rǝlay line includes VRX8 eight-fader and VRX4 four-fader Virtual Radio Mixer, VPB Virtual Patch Bay, and VSC Virtual Sound Card software. All are AES67/Ravenna compliant, and multi-touch capable for easy, intuitive use on touchscreen PCs and laptops. Rǝlay can mix all types of native PC audio using included ASIO, WDM, WASAPI and MME drivers, as well as AES67/Ravenna streams.
‘Rǝlay’s ease of use and integration with other software is wonderful,’ says Egger. ‘It’s no hassle to play audio from a browser, or to send the program output to a streaming plug-in or online service. Skype integration, for example, is very easy. We integrated mAirList radio automation. We stream with radio.co, and this was also very easy to set up.’
‘The best part is, we can do this without the need for scripting or development of software or hardware,’ adds Fischli. ‘Rǝlay is a huge time, resource and money saver.’
Nearly 500 broadcasters have downloaded Rǝlay software since the Rǝlay webshop was opened in 2016.
