19 May 2005, Cleveland Ohio, USA
WOR, Buckley Broadcasting’s legendary News/Talk flagship, has become New York City’s first radio station to broadcast from studios built with Livewire(tm) switched Ethernet audio routing infrastructure from Axia Audio.
“WOR’s personalities began broadcasting from their new studios in Manhattan on May 2nd,” says Axia Audio president Michael “Catfish” Dosch, who accompanied Axia engineers helping commission WOR’s new plant. “We were on hand to help with any last-minute details,” says Dosch. “The changeover went very smoothly.”
WOR originates syndicated content and networked satellite programming in addition to local New York programming. To accommodate this large volume of content production, WOR’s new facility is a large one with four Talk Studios, four Control Rooms, and a Production Room for a total of nine studios, plus six news booths, and a master control/tech center. WOR’s purchase includes nine Axia SmartSurface Control Surfaces and Studio Mixing Engines. Dozens of Audio Nodes connect analog and digital audio sources to the switched-Ethernet-based Axia IP-Audio Network.
WOR purchased their Axia IP-Audio network from Broadcasters General Store. Creative Studio Solutions installed the cabling and other systems.
“The installation was very simple,” says Tom Ray, Buckley Broadcasting’s Vice President/Corporate Director of Engineering. “The cabling between studios and the rack room is minimal. And being able to use off-the-shelf CAT-6 cable for all connections – audio and interconnect network – is something we really appreciate. We don’t have big, fat multi-pair running to the studios anymore; it’s all on Ethernet cable. Easy to pull, easy to install, easy to make work. It doesn't get any better than this.“
The Axia IP-Audio system enables broadcasters to build audio networks of any size using standard switched Ethernet to connect a few rooms — or an entire facility. Because an Axia audio network can carry hundreds of digital stereo audio channels over standard CAT-6 cables, much of the cost normally associated with wiring labor and infrastructure is eliminated.
The Axia product line includes a family of “audio nodes” to interface to microphone, analog line and AES/EBU devices, IP-Audio drivers to eliminate PC soundcards, DSP mixing/processing engines, PathfinderPC matrix control PC software, the SmartSurface Studio Control Surface, and the new Element Modular Control Surface.
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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.