Broadcasters are pushing their remote control capabilities to new heights as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt normal operations. While at first, the effects were as small as the reduction of staff and closing of individual studios for cleaning, currently, entire studio facilities are shutting down with all staff told to work remotely whenever possible.

Those who have made the partial or full transition to a modern Audio over IP studio infrastructure are particularly well-positioned to handle the rapid onset of the virus-related staffing restrictions. Many engineers have found that the remote control features they already use for troubleshooting are highly extensible and can be slightly modified for use by production staff.

Thanks to our partners at TVV Sound Project from Belgium, we got an inside look at two of their latest studio upgrades for MEDIALAAN, featuring a ton of Omnia, Axia, and Telos Alliance gear! 

When it became clear that the audio routing system at Colorado Public Radio (CPR) network was failing repeatedly and reaching its end of life, CPR revived its air waves with Audio over IP from Axia. CPR began the conversation about switching to an AoIP infrastructure in its CPR Bridges Broadcast Center located at the Denver Tech Center in Centennial, Colorado, in August of 2015. The Colorado Public Radio family includes three separate services: CPR News, CPR Classical, and CPRs Open Air, an independent music format. According to CPR, its network reaches more than 470,000 listeners via 14 stations and 20 translators, with five studio sites across the state. 

Gary Langley is Chief Broadcast Engineer at Interlochen Public Radio, a service of the Interlochen Center for the Arts consisting of two radio stations featuring fine arts and public affairs programming for Northwest Lower Michigan and reaching into the state's Upper Peninsula. A relative newcomer to Audio over IP, Gary says learning the ropes of AoIP was simple thanks to a fresh Axia installation at IPR shortly before he came on. But it wasn't just a transition to AoIP for Gary—it was a transition to radio from the TV world. Gary tells us how Axia, AoIP, and VoIP have made his dual transitions easier than he'd have expected.

Broadcasting from Fresno and Bakersfield, Valley Public Radio is the NPR affiliate for the greater San Joaquin Valley of Central California. Founded in 1978 and celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, VPR recently moved into a new facility in Clovis, just outside Fresno, which included upgrades to Axia Fusion consoles in multiple studios and Telos VX phone system. We checked in with Director of Program Content Joe Moore for an update on the new digs.

Bill Murdoch is Chief Engineer at WGN Chicago, a major News / Talk station in the Windy City. With a significant amount of talk programming it’s always been essential for WGN (720 on your AM dial) to have lots of phone lines coming into your facility, and quality audio so callers are heard loud and clear. But all those phone lines can create quite an expense.

Enter the Telos VX system.

Today Telos Systems launches the Telos VX™ Prime, a broadcast IP telephone system ideal for smaller facilities with two to four studios. Telos VX Broadcast phone systems are well-known for providing incredible operational power, flexible, adaptable workflows, and superior audio quality on an IP backbone. Now, the VX Prime system builds upon that legacy, offering the same caliber of audio quality and performance to smaller facilities.

Tim Schultz writes "A station I am doing work for just ordered an Nx6 POTS system; they also want to save some money by using a VoIP provider instead of paying the telephone company for POTS lines. I plan to purchase a multi-line (probably an 8-station) terminal adapter to convert the VoIP back into analog (FXS) lines. I'm guessing not all terminal adapters are not created equal as far as audio quality is concerned.  Are there some that you can recommend, or perhaps warn me to stay away from?"

Broadcasting live from a super-secret location near you...

The engineers in our development labs are chomping at the bit to begin full-scale shipment of the award-winning new Telos VX broadcast VoIP Talkshow system - they're hammering out code as fast as they can hammer down Mountain Dew* and Fritos.