Serving almost half of the Dutch population, Talpa Radio operates four stations – Radio 538, Sky Radio, Radio 10, and Radio Veronica. Recently, its technical team began to search out new equipment.
Its services – which are broadcast via FM, DAB+ and satellite, with a further four DAB+/online radio stations, more than 30 online-only radio stations, and the TV 538 channel on digital cable – deliver some of the most popular Netherlands radio channels ito more than 7m monthly listeners. Listeners to Radio 538 and Radio Veronica can watch programmes on screen, as they are also visual stations.
After ten years’ service, the broadcaster’s old NTP digital audio matrix needed to be replaced: ‘We chose Lawo because of the quality, explains Technical Facilities Manager, Jens Timmermans,. ‘There are more installations in the Netherlands, some nearby, so we could easily research how satisfied other radio stations are with Lawo routing and control equipment. After our orientation phase we invited the Lawo team to give a demo.’
In addition to the replacement, the 538 Groep and the Sky Radio Group became a joint venture, combining their channels: ‘When we knew that our company would become as big as described above we also knew that it would become necessary to keep an overview on all the critical signals in our facilities,’ Timmermans says. ‘That is when the combination of Lawo routing and VSM (Virtual Studio Manager) became our solution.’
This broadcasting set-up uses a Lawo Nova73 at in its main facilities, and a Nova Compact for co-location (distribution to all suppliers). For video and SDI-embedded audio, the team purchased a Lawo V-pro8 solution. The VSM system is running on two HP DL320 servers with two GPIO boxes, one hardware panel with rotary encoder, one software panel, and one RS232 box.
‘The benefit for us lies in the ability of VSM to connect to our DHD broadcast consoles, Black Magic Videohub 288 and many other pieces of equipment. We are now flexible in the way we use our facilities,’ Timmermans reports. ‘Our six radio studios can be allocated according to the most efficient way of use, in combination with our broadcast consoles. Switching via VSM also ensures that, whenever a different studio is assigned to visual radio, the correct station logo is displayed. This is very important with regard to the brand awareness of our listeners and viewers.’
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