OLESA RADIO BROADCASTING RELIES ON AEQ AUDIOPLUS AUTOMATION SYSTEM 30/10/2018
By Rafa Martinez, Technical Manager at Olesa Radio
Who we are
Olesa Radio was born back in 1982 as a local radio community service in Olesa, near Barcelona, Spain. Olesa Radio started with a reduced programming limited to the afternoon/night and weekends. Counting on a large number of collaborators, Radio Olesa slowly managed to become a reference to local entities and associations.
The main challenge for local stations is to be able to keep a 24/7 quality programming on air to gain and maintain the listeners’ loyalty. This normally involves a huge human and technical effort and the need for alliances that allow for the broadcasting of contents that are of county, nation and worldwide- interest. Back in 2008 we moved our facilities to the current location and built two Studios with associate control rooms.
AEQ AudioPlus as an automation tool for local radios
In 2008, when we moved the studios to the current location, we took the decision to install AEQ MAR4SuitePRO automation system. Now we have upgraded to AUDIOPLUS, also designed by AEQ, which provides us some really good features:
It is compatible with any kind of audio card, even IP ones, and also with complementary editing and management tools. We have two workstations installed, one for each studio - one of them acts as the server. A dedicated keyboard is used, allowing us to trigger/play the audios more conveniently.
The automatic playout module allows us to prepare a playlist that is assembled based on selection criteria, using a presentation panel that provides the tools for editing the transitions between the audio files in an automatic or semi-automatic way.
We also count on tools to organize advertising, filling the already reserved slots with the contents of each advertiser’s campaigns based on contract criterion. Pricing of advertisement in local stations like ours must be attractive, so the advertisement management costs must be forcedly kept low.
News and local information bulletins are usually generated live, although AudioPlus allows to remotely assemble, modify and broadcast news contents from a PC.
AudioPlus also provides a quick editor, but in order to create more artistic contents such as intros, jingles and special ads, it also allows for the integration with external editors according to each station’s preferences. We use Adobe Audition.
For our own peace of mind we have decided to contract a remote maintenance service, as we work with hired staff but also with volunteers.
Collaboration with other stations
In order for a local radio station to have interesting contents day and night that allows it to gain and maintain a loyal audience, it is very important to rely on other organizations that can help providing the station with an open and universal profile.
In order to provide a high quality music programming during the night, from 12 to 7 a.m., we broadcast music and cultural programming by ICat.com. The costs involved in the creation of such contents by ourselves would not be acceptable for a small corporation like ours.
For the rest of the day, many local radio stations in Catalonia are integrated in La Xarxa Audiovisual Local SL (XAL): 125 stations collaborate in the generation and broadcasting of contents basing on an IP network using AEQ Venus audiocodecs.
Xarxa has its headquarters and main station in Barcelona, were there are some studios to generate general programs and an AEQ BC 2000 D router that links the studios with a bank of AEQ Venus audiocodecs. Using a specially designed software application, contributions from the local stations and distributions using multicast groups are organized.
Our station is also counting on an AEQ Venus dual audiocodec that allows us to receive a national program and contribute to it and, at the same time, we can become the header of a smaller group of stations that may want to work with us at a given moment. AEQ AudioPlus automation system can respond to instructions generated at Barcelona headquarters.
This way, thanks to Xarxa, we daily receive news in the morning and noon, while we also participate in a daily collaborative program in the afternoons and produce a weekly program about Opera for other stations.
Conclusions
AEQ AudioPlus radio production and broadcasting automation system provides power and efficiency to a local radio station as Olesa Radio, but in order to produce quality contents 24/7, local radio stations may also need to associate to other networks such as La Xarxa, sharing media by means of systems like the one developed by AEQ basing on Venus audiocodecs.
In order to obtain more information about OLESA RADIO, please visit https://www.olesademontserrat.cat/olesaradio/
