RADIO GRANMA INSTALLS FIRST DIGITAL AUDIO CONSOLE AEQ FORUM-IP IN CUBA 22/04/2021

The station is located in the city of Manzanillo, in the province of Granma. It is the first of 10 Cuban stations to use this type of digital audio mixers

In 1922 the Republic of Cuba was one of the first countries in America to have radio broadcasting services. Today, the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television or ICRT is the public broadcast company in Cuba that is in charge of the administration of radio and television stations and production facilities.

Radio Granma, one of the stations managed by the ICRT, was born in 1932 in the city of Manzanillo and from its origin it offers a wide variety of programming to its listeners, with old phonographic records of great popular interest, and a large participation of amateurs of all artistic styles, singers, instrumentalists, and intellectuals.

For the past 25 years the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television has been a satisfied customer of AEQ technology both in the form of audiocodecs for ISDN communications and hybrids for standard telephone lines, coinciding with the beginning of the 21st century it acquired more than 140 licenses of the automation system AEQ Mar4Win, as well as 170 analogue audio mixing consoles AEQ OPERA to provide equipment for a large number of radio studios throughout Cuba.

The ICRT did not want to use digital radio consoles until it had the guarantee of being able to operate them at full capacity and maintain them properly. Thus, as the first digital experience in the country several years ago, the ICRT's central studios in Havana were digitalised with six large AEQ ARENA consoles and two central AEQ BC2000D routers. 

After the success of this experience, they have decided to digitalise 10 regional stations based on the Forum IP console, also modular and with great features, but at a lower cost than the one used in the pilot station, plus the advantage of being able to connect via IP. And it is at Radio Granma, in Manzanillo, more than 600 km from Havana, where, after studying and configuring the equipment, the ICRT's Technical Directorate has decided to install the country's first AEQ FORUM digital console, relying on its reliability and ease of maintenance.

AEQ FORUM-IP is a digital mixing audio console designed for ON AIR broadcast control. It incorporates all the basic features required in this type of environment: automatic monitor cut, cough cut, faderstart, signalling control, control signals for the automation of external equipment, external communications management, intercommunication, etc. With its modular design and compact size, AEQ FORUM-IP adapts perfectly to different scenarios: self-monitoring, control-locutory, TV production controls, sound production, mixed configurations, integration in large installations, etc. AEQ FORUM-IP can integrate AoIP multi-channel input and output modules up to a maximum of 64 input and output channels compatible with the new AES 67 protocol through DANTE™ technology.

To obtain more information about Radio Granma, please visit: www.radiogranma.icrt.cu