Jim Armstrong (Telos/ Omnia/ Axia), Thomas Ray (WOR Radio), David Bialik (AES) and Noah Simon (AES) are proud of their really cool banner at the November 13th meeting of the NY AES section.
WOR Radio has been a vibrant voice on the airwaves of New York City
since 1922. Initially broadcasting from Bamberger's
Department Store, the station relocated to a building in midtown
Manhattan, where they remained for almost eighty years. Recently, WOR relocated once
again moving to an exciting new home downtown. Director of Engineering, Thomas
Ray, spoke to a standing-room-only group of attendees,
and led the group on a tour of the facilities. Also on hand was Jim
Armstrong of Telos/Omnia/Axia, who spoke in great detail about the Axia
"Livewire" technology which is the heart and bones of the station's
operations.
Thomas Ray stated that he chose the Axia system because it fulfilled his
needs, enabling him to put rooms together quickly, routing audio and
data with redundancy though one, all-digital, system, with the
flexibility and price that satisfied him. Where the previous facility
was a complex of analog cables, the new station only has four
punch-blocks in the entire building. While the old studios took days to
wire, Mr. Ray boasted that he was able to complete the wiring of the
Axia-based rooms in only six hours.
The Axia system operates at a sampling
rate of 48kHz, with 16 bit words and a latency of 2.75 mS. It uses the Livewire I.P. protocol, created by Telos,
which allows devices to interconnect directly, via Cat-6 cable, through
a network without the use of interfaces or "breakout" cabling. Every component in the system has an I.P. address: mic preamplifiers, control surfaces which connect to "mix enginees", line-input units, router/selectors and AES/EBU input modules. Where digital audio workstations are in use, computer
sound cards can be replaced with "Network Interface" cards, allowing
the system to remain in the I.P. domain. Each audio source is connected to a "node", which is single-rack-unit
Linux computer which also has an I.P. address. It is completely computerized
using their "Pathfinder" software, which operates via a web browser, eliminating the need for patching or button pushing. System engineers can VPN into the system remotely, allowing operation from almost any location. However, the system is a closed network, providing security from hackers and other intruders.
From the "Technical Op Center", one operator manages all the nodes, controlling all routing between rooms and to air. Each of the stations nine studios consist of a master room with a control room, with consoles featuring completely recallable configurations, allowing users to work in any studio with their own personal settings. Jim Armstrong boasted that configuring the system was less challenging than programming a consumer-grade wireless router.
Upon the conclusion of the tour, it was clear that the Axia system was an ideal fit for WOR radio. The system is extremely flexible and easy to understand once the nomenclature is understood. Because of the simplicity of the wiring, the studios appear very clean and un-cluttered. Many years ago, WOR was the very first broadcaster to enlarge its broadcasting range with a directional antenna. Now, Thomas Ray prides himself that once again, with the installation of a digital audio network as the basis of their facility, WOR is on the leading edge of radio technology.
