9 August 2004, Cleveland, OH USA
Broadcasters General Store has just entered a distribution agreement to represent Axia IP-Audio equipment in the USA. BGS’ Sales Manager, Buck Waters, spoke with Axia about this partnership.
Axia: Buck, we’re very happy to have you representing us. BGS is well respected by broadcast clients.
Buck: Thanks! We’ve been around for 25 years now; I’ve been with BGS for nearly a decade myself. We’ve represented Telos and Omnia for a long time and watched those products become market leaders. I foresee the same kind of success for Axia.
Axia: Why do you think so?
Buck: Telos has a great reputation of producing top quality products on the “cutting edge” of technology. We’ve already sold several studio systems, and the first clients have just been blown away.
Axia: It seems like everyone has an audio routing solution these days. Why do you think Axia stands out?
Buck: There are several reasons. One is the ease with which an Axia network can be installed. Another is versatility; Axia is modular, so you can custom-build a small or large studio configuration by mixing and matching the pieces you need. And then there’s price.
Axia: What about the price?
Buck: We’ve found that it’s much less expensive to set up studios with Axia. Even full-boat studios with surfaces and a routing system cost a lot less with Axia than with a traditional console/TDM router setup – about half the cost.
Axia: Our readers are probably asking “If it's so much cheaper, what did they leave out,” right?
Buck: That’s a good question to ask! Actually, Axia solved the audio router problem in a very interesting way. Basing a system on a true Ethernet backbone brings the cost way down because parts come from the computer industry, where costs are low thanks to computer-industry volume. So nothing’s left out. Axia users can do everything those expensive router/console engines can do – more, actually – for about the cost of a better-quality analog console.
Axia: “More”?
Buck: Well, there’s the IP-Audio driver, for instance, the one that runs on Windows audio workstations. It emulates PC sound cards so that Windows-based audio applications can send audio directly to the Axia network. This eliminates the cost of soundcards, and also the cost of the audio router or console input cards that soundcards are usually connected to. No other system has this feature and it can dramatically reduce costs.
Axia: Do clients worry about using Ethernet for audio networking?
Buck: Not really. Ethernet is tried and true; it’s been around for years. People understand how it works. And the Livewire protocol you invented makes sure there’s no delay or dropouts.
Axia: What kind of facilities do you think the Axia approach suits best?
Buck: Actually, we feel that everyone will be able to take advantage of Axia networking. We see it being used in small college stations, as well large station clusters. It’ll be great for any broadcast or pro audio facility that in the past would have chosen a console and routing system, because installation will be quicker, overall cost will be less, and it’s backed by one of the industry’s leaders in broadcast equipment. How can you lose?
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Axia, a Telos company, builds network-based professional audio products for broadcast, production, sound-reinforcement and commercial audio applications. Products include digital audio routers, DSP mixers and processors and software for configuring, managing, and interfacing networked audio systems.