NEW BERN, N.C.—Wheatstone has named company veteran Darrin Paley vice president of business accounts, effective immediately.

In his new role, Paley will head global business sales for its Wheatstone, Audioarts Engineering and VoxPro product lines, the company said.

“Darrin brings to this new role his deep understanding of the issues facing our industry today and his experience as a trusted partner to our customers and dealers for more than 25 years," Wheatstone president and founder Gary Snow said.

Paley joined Wheatstone in 2001, initially as a senior sales engineer. Prior to that, he spent six years with family businesses Oakwood Broadcast and Ron Paley Broadcast (now GS Technical Broadcast Services), a specialist in broadcast-facility design, project management and installation, particularly for Wheatstone products, the company said.

Paley will be based from Wheatstone’s New Bern factory and can be reached via email at darrinpaley@wheatstone.com or at 252-638-7000, extension 116.

Wheatstone founder and owner Gary Snow will retire from the company by the end of next year.

Snow, 77, started the manufacturing firm with his wife Kathy in 1974. Its brands include Audioarts, Wheatstone and Voxpro. Since 1998, it has been based in New Bern, N.C.

“Wheatstone’s management team of 50-plus years, including VP of Technology Andy Calvanese, will continue to support the company’s large installed base of customers in the U.S. and around the world,” the company said in a brief statement to Radio World.

Asked if the company has been sold, a spokesperson said it has not. She said Wheatstone is working on a management transition plan but that customers should expect business as usual. She declined further comment.

The company sells products into radio and television, including consoles, AoIP networking, software, audio processing and audio editors.

Wheatstone started as Audioarts Engineering. “A classic garage start–up, Audioarts began with $400 cash in hand, in the attic of the Snow’s small one-bedroom home in rural Bethany, Conn.,” according to a history on the company website.

“At that time they designed and hand-built small mixing boards for live bands, as well as a club mixer … A year later in 1976, a parametric equalizer, a feedback suppressor and an electronic crossover for high-end sound reinforcement systems were added to the product mix.” Its first broadcast audio console was sold to WGBH in Boston in 1984.

This article originally appeared on TV Tech sister brand, Radio World.

NEW BERN, N.C.—Wheatstone will introduce a Linux audio driver for its WheatNet IP audio network during the 2025 NAB Show, April 5-9, at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The driver, the company’s latest addition based on Linux OS, enables bi-directional audio streaming over the WheatNet IP network. Linux is known for its stability as an open-source operating system without the hidden vulnerabilities often associated with other operating systems, Wheatstone said.

Wheatstone's programmable LXE console and streaming appliances are also based on Linux OS.

“A Linux driver makes sense at this time as one more option for adding greater security and stability across the network,” said Kelly Parker, Wheatstone director of product development.

The WheatNet IP Linux Audio Driver is available for purchase now and can be loaded onto any Linux or Windows device. It eliminates the need for soundcards by emulating the soundcard through a standard network card, the company said.

The Linux audio driver supports up to 24 simultaneous audio streams in and out, depending on host capabilities, and 128 SLIO ports for extensive network-based logic control functions without physical cabling. Wheatstone will continue to offer its Windows audio driver, it said.

See Wheatstone at 2025 NAB Show booth W1654.

More information is available on the company’s website.

The physical function of audio mixing remains relatively unchanged today despite technology’s onward march. There are now many ways to mix studio and outside source signals for live broadcasts, but the familiar console with faders, meters and turnable knobs is still a reassuring presence in most sound suites. That’s not to say there have not been considerable changes in the background, with processing and routing racks now commonly situated either in a separate equipment room or, increasingly, replaced by software in the cloud.

As Lawo Senior Product Manager for Audio Infrastructure Christian Struck observes, the implementation of powerful IP networking has directly impacted soundboards. “The trend in audio mixing is shifting toward integration with broader IT-based infrastructures,” he says. “This includes the adoption of data-center architectures and the use of commodity, off-the-shelf server hardware. Essentially, audio mixing is no longer a standalone activity but part of an ecosystem emphasizing agility, scalability and flexibility.”

“All major live production mixer manufacturers” now produce consoles that run on standard CPU hardware and are more in line with IT environments than proprietary broadcast systems, Struck explains. On an operational level, he adds, there is “noticeable demand” for higher channel counts in tandem with support for Next Generation Audio (NGA) formats.

Distributed Production
The configuration of an audio desk is often dictated by its application. When it comes to live news, Wheatstone Senior Sales Engineer Phil Owens says, the mission remains much the same as it has been—providing reliability and ease of use along with necessary support for various live in-studio functions, such as automation and remote contribution.

“Audio systems must be flexible enough to support different dayparts, from a newscast with two anchors, sports and weather to a full panel discussion or a single shot news break-in,” Owens says. “New systems are able to recall the sources—remote or local—and settings needed for these and other possible workflows.”

Any discussion of audio console technology over the last two to three years has inevitably included the cloud and distributed production. Henry Goodman, director of product management at Calrec Audio, describes them as the two strands of the main trend in this area.

“Distributed production environments are where a lot of broadcasters can see added value for their businesses,” he says. “The extension of remote operation to wider distributed production and the ability to utilize resources at will—both in terms of hardware and equipment resources as well as people, in a more efficient way—to produce more content is clearly a process many broadcasters are having to go through for commercial reasons, rather than just because it’s a new technology.”

Calrec recently launched ImPulseV, its first mixer dedicated to the cloud, based on a virtual audio mix engine with cloud-based DSP software hosted in AWS. While Goodman says there are “fairly forward-thinking broadcasters” now considering this way of working, he does not agree that the console or control surface has become secondary to the virtual processing and mixing setup.

“My view is almost the inverse of that,” he explains. “Once you’ve put your DSP in a cloud environment, a lot of people start to think about that processing as more generic. The differentiator comes down to how the operator uses it and the surfaces and control systems they’re sitting in front of.”

Wheatstone is “seeing a small uptick in demand” for virtual consoles to control audio hardware, according to Owens. “Touchscreens do offer some advantages, such as fewer moving parts, making them easier to maintain or replace, plus lower cost,” he says. “But most audio operators still prefer the ‘fader in hand’ approach. Of course, that may change as more of the ‘iPhone generation’ step into board op roles.”

The transition toward cloud-based DSP and remote production workflows has introduced more agile and distributed approaches to audio mixing, including the use of virtual control surfaces and computer-
based mixing, according to Struck.

“However,” he adds, “for large-scale, high-profile events such as international sports broadcasts, consoles in the tradition of haptic faders and real rotaries and buttons remain essential. Controllers and in-the-box workflows have gained traction for less demanding or smaller-scale productions but they cannot replace the traditional console in high-pressure scenarios.”

What’s Hot, What’s Not
Whether physical or virtual, all modern consoles—and their manufacturers—support immersive audio, which usually means Dolby Atmos. While the big streaming services—notably Netflix and Amazon Prime Video—specify Atmos for high-end drama, as Struck points out, it is still not yet a standard requirement for broadcasters and most streamers. “The interest in immersive audio workflows remains confined to a smaller portion of customers,” he says.

Goodman wonders if much of the viewing public takes advantage of what immersive audio is available, adding that “the vast majority of distributed content” is still not in the format. Even less exploited, in Goodman’s opinion, is the use of object-based audio (OBA) to personalize broadcast audio.

“Alternative languages are the obvious application,” he says, “but in sports coverage, OBA can also offer a choice of commentary and a different mix relating to the team a viewer supports. It’s still not very commonplace, for a number of reasons—the main one being it’s not cheap to do, because you’re effectively creating another mix. How you would commercialize it is another question.”

Some sports broadcasters have picked up features of OBA, but it is not a priority in other areas. “We haven’t seen [demand for] that,” Owens says. “But we deal primarily with live news. OBA requires more from audio systems in terms of an expanded number of sources and the ability to pan in new directions. I’m sure that will become a need at some point but I would put it in the scope of five to 10 years.”

Personalization is not the main reason to adopt NGA/OBA, Struck adds. “What we see is a growth of the channel count, from 5.1 to 5.1.4 or 7.1.4 and higher rather than broadcasters striving to achieve an OBA workflow with personalization,” he says. “It is an emerging trend, however, and the shift to OBA workflows has already redefined expectations for mixing consoles, particularly in terms of resource management and operator assistance.”

The mixing console has come a long way in a relatively short period of time. It will doubtlessly continue to evolve over the coming few years, while, based on recent developments, remaining very much itself.

NEW BERN, N.C.—Wheatstone Corp. has named veteran audio engineer Kelly Parker as director of product development.

Parker returns to the audio equipment supplier from broadcaster Townsquare Media, where he was vice president, broadcast operations, overseeing the technical operations of 349 radio stations in 74 markets. His new role calls for him to direct development for the company’s audio-over-IP, streaming, virtualization, mic, on-air processing and software server lines.

“Kelly has that rare perspective that comes with first-hand experience both as a developer and user of our technology, which will be important as we enter what is expected to be a transformational period for broadcasting,” Wheatstone CEO Gary Snow said.

Parker had been a systems engineer at Wheatstone for 14 years during the peak development of AoIP, from 2004 until he left to join Townsquare Media in 2019.

"I’ve been on the other side of the industry running 300-plus radio stations for the past few years,” Parker said in a statement. “Things are definitely changing and Wheatstone is uniquely positioned to adapt technology to those changes."

He cited the nature of Wheatstone’s centralized operations as an advantage, as it allows the equipment maker to quickly design and test new product developments for broadcasters.

Parker played a lead role in the development of Wheatstone’s WheatNet IP audio network in early 2005, the company said, introducing the first AoIP system that combined routing, control and utility mixers into one intelligent input/output unit. In subsequent years, he led the development of Wheatstone’s flagship LXE console, the first unit to use soft controls as a reconfigurable AoIP console surface.

He will be based in Wheatstone’s New Bern, North Carolina, factory.

Missed any of our recent product news? Here is TV Tech's weekly wrap-up of new products, services and deployments we published in our newsletter between August 5 to August 9. The stories are listed from the newest on Friday August 2, day by day back to our stories from Monday August 5. 

Telemundo Takes VR Studio Tech from Miami to the Paris Olympics

Telemundo's virtual reality studio in Miami uses Unreal Engine and Chyron to provide a "photo-realistic look" that shows small details of the Paris landscape like the "wind in the trees".

Haivision To Feature Live Video Contribution at IBC 2024 

The company will show the latest developments in its live contribution ecosystem.

Imaginario AI To Demo Video Indexing, Search, Curation At IBC 2024

The company will show its multimodal artificial intelligence solution in the AI Tech Zone.

AI: The Unsung Hero of Olympic Sports

Can AI sustain Olympic revenue during and between Games?

A New Take on Reflectors: Cine Reflect Lighting Systems

The need for better tools has inspired lighting innovation.

Disney+ Launches Nat Geo Immersive Environment for Apple Vision Pro

Disney+ has announced that subscribers to the streaming service can now experience a new immersive environment from National Geographic with the Disney+ app on Apple Vision Pro.

Wheatstone to Showcase Blade 4 at IBC 2024

The expanded capabilities of the 4th generation AoIP Blade 4 include high speed transport protocol to routable audio codecs, audio processing, scripting, and studio control in 1RU.

Telos Alliance To Feature Next Generation AERO DTV Audio Processors At IBC Show

The AERO.20, AERO.200 and AERO.2400 include new features like AoIP support via AES67.

Finding The ‘Boun-dairies’ For AI In Media

TV channels are using AI-generated presenters to read the news. The question is, will we trust them?

M&E’s Embrace of AI Dampens Potential for Damage Mitigation

Amid the hype, industry struggles to establish guidance and guardrails.

Google TV Streamer Launches at $99.99

The new Google TV Streamer offers an AI-powered, personalized 4K HDR streaming with Dolby Vision Dolby Atmos and a smart home experience.

2024 IBC Show to Focus on AI, Business and Tech Innovation

IBC President Michael Crimp previews the upcoming gathering.

Mediaproxy To Show AI-Powered Captioning, Transcription for LogServer At IBC 2024

LogServer now supports AI-Media Technologies LEXI Recorded and Skyline Communications DataMiner.

Kramer Buys ZeeVee To Expand AVoIP Portfolio

ZeeVee’s expertise in AVoIP will expand Kramer’s product lineup and accelerate growth.

EVS Invests in TinkerList

EVS becomes a shareholder in the broadcast software provider as part of its strategy of offering simplified live production solutions.

XR Extreme Reach, Roku Expand Streaming Ad Partnership

The expanded collaboration allows advertisers to link all ads on the Roku platform to performance outcomes.

Arkona, Manifold Partner To Show EASY-IP At IBC 2024

EASY-IP combines arkona’s BLADE//runner and manifold’s CLOUD routing, processing and multiview tool.

NEW BERN, NC—Wheatstone has announced new capabilities for Blade 4, its fourth generation WheatNet IP I/O unit, that continue to build on the intelligent AoIP network to combine studio facilities, create new workflows, and eliminate costly studio hardware.

For the upcoming IBC show, the company is demonstrating the WheatNet IP audio network as well as streaming software for provisioning and processing streams on a local server, plus a DMX console system for going from analog to AoIP in a snap, Ethernet switch included. The products will be shown at the  Wheatstone stand 8.D91 during IBC 2024 from Sept. 13-16. 

Unique to Blade 4 is its complete AoIP toolset of audio processing, codecs, mixing, routing, control and operating system in one rack unit, Wheatstone reported. Included are optional dual OPUS audio codecs for streaming between studio facilities, home studios, or transmitter sites and updated CPU with GPU graphics acceleration for running customized scripts, apps, and virtual interfaces directly on the Blade 4 itself.

Now with the addition of Reliable Internet Stream Transport (RIST), an open-source transport protocol developed for reliable transmission of video and audio in real time, Blade 4 adds enhanced network security and reliability as well as lower latency, higher quality audio streaming across the public internet, where links are less reliable and distance adds more delay (read White Paper: RIST Explained).

This fourth generation Blade is fully AES67 compliant for interoperability with a wide range of AES67 devices and supports SMPTE ST 2110, including NMOS discovery.

Blade 4 puts I/O, control and audio tools in one AoIP unit for everything from streaming audio, mixing sounds and processing feeds, to turning mics on or off, controlling consoles and triggering mix-minus presets by show, location or talent, the company said. 

Blades are the I/O units engineered and manufactured by Wheatstone making up the core of the WheatNet IP audio network, which can include 200+ interconnected elements.

It will come as no surprise that artificial intelligence (AI), virtualization and the cloud will be the major trends dominating the agenda at this year’s NAB Show. This applies as much to audio as it does to the visually oriented contingent that will be at the exhibition but the sound side is seeing some very different or specific applications of these shared technologies.

When it comes to audio mixing consoles, virtualization and cloud processing are “weekly conversations,” according to Henry Goodman, director of product management at Calrec Audio. “The majority of people want to talk about what will happen in the future with those technologies and how they might benefit from those kinds of workflows,” he says.

Another hot topic, Goodman adds, is, almost inevitably, AI. “It’s an area we’re all  looking at with a great deal of interest,” he comments, “and we’re looking at it to see how it can provide benefits for us.

“On the console side, the area that would interest us is providing facilities that offer some kind of assistive mechanisms for the operators. It could be for balancing external feeds coming in or providing standardized EQ for certain types of microphones. It’s not something that is at the forefront of our development programme right now but we’re definitely keeping a close eye on it.”

AI and cloud processing were highlighted by other manufacturers in TV Tech’s focus on audio mixing consoles in the January edition of TV Tech ("Audio Mixing in the Age of Remote Production") As with many technologies, virtualized mixing and processing is not an entirely new technology; it is now being used increasingly in radio, with Telos Alliance company Axia supplying consoles for one of the first implementations, the BBC ViLOR project, completed in 2019.

‘Headless Mixing’
Martin Dyster, vice president of business development for TV at Telos Alliance, highlights another trend that, although it first appeared elsewhere in the world decades ago, is now gaining traction in the U.S.

 “Audio follow Video [AFV] is becoming increasingly prevalent, particularly in live news at local stations,” he says. (The AFV concept  involves automatically adjusting the timing of audio signals to match the timing of corresponding video signals.)

“In some instances the consoles aren’t even a surface, they’re completely under the automation control of the orchestration layer managing the show,” Dyster adds. “This kind of ‘headless’ mixing is not new but the U.S. has caught up with it and it’s becoming widespread there.”

Similarly, Dyster continues, Europe is ahead of the U.S. when it comes to immersive audio, although NBC has broadcast Olympics in some form of immersive audio for the past decades. 

Christian Struck, senior product manager for audio production at Lawo, comments that broadcasters are currently demanding “intuitive and comprehensive immersive audio features,” with the ability to mix over wide area networks plus support for decentralized mixing involving several consoles.

“Just when immersive audio looked all set to take the world by storm, it was put on the back burner by the pandemic,” Struck says. “But it is back in full force, thanks to the ready availability of playback devices, including smartphones and binaural headphones.”

The IP Network
The last few NAB Shows have seen the growth in products that conform to SMPTE ST 2110 for the transport of media streams over IP networks. But, as Phil Owens, senior sales engineer at Wheatstone, outlines, the cloud is the next challenge for the standard.

“We have seen the whole issue of 2110 environments, where a physical installation has two distinct networks, with audio and video on each,” he says. “The audio goes to both simultaneously, so if there is a drop-out on one, it picks up from the other instantly within a frame of audio. But there is now the issue of how a 2110 environment will work in the cloud, which is still in its early stages.”

Wheatstone is also devoting what Owens calls “a great deal of R&D” in its Layers cloud/server software platform for mixing, streaming and processing either at cloud data centers or local servers. However, he also sees more emphasis being put on voice processing, particularly for news and sports coverage.

“Broadcasters can get away with less acoustic treatment or design in the studio and report from environments that they might not have broadcast from in the past because the mic processor can cover a multitude of sins,” Owens said.

Larry Schindel, product manager at Telos Alliance, agrees that processing is “quickly moving” into the virtualized space. “Cloud processing is gaining in popularity as more workflows migrate to the cloud,” he says. “But there is still a large base of customers who prefer to keep everything ‘on prem’ or at least use a bit of a hybrid approach.

“Some of the more common types of processing in use today are loudness control and upmixing but processes like Object-based Audio with Serial ADM [a metadata format for use with Dolby Atmos] and automatic voice-over mixing are also starting to emerge in the marketplace,” Schindel adds.

Software-Driven Processing
Loudness will again be a focus for NUGEN Audio during the NAB Show, with previews of the latest version of its VisLM3 metering plug-in. New features include user-defined program segments, which can be used where multiple integrated measurements are required, such as between ad breaks; support for up to 22.2 audio channels; stem monitoring; and loudness measuring for individual deliverables.

Professional audio is definitely seeing a “shift towards software-driven processing,” according to Will Waters, principal product manager at Audinate. This, he says, “underlines the industry’s commitment to leveraging advanced technology” to meet the evolving demands of broadcast production.

Waters also sees software processors having an increasing role on the intercom side of broadcast production. “This offers broadcasters even more versatility and efficiency in managing their intercom solutions,” he explains. “The evolution of broadcast technology, especially with digital and IP-based systems, has significantly impacted intercom.

“We’re now seeing Dante as part of intercom communications by being integrated into the networked audio infrastructure, enabling any number of audio mixes or routes to exist from the production equipment,” Waters added.

Staying Connected
IP-based intercoms are now well established but, as Martin Dyster at Telos observes, the sector continues to evolve.

“We’ve found an increasing number of customers moving towards either full Live Cloud Production (LCP) or a hybrid of on prem and cloud,” Dyster said. “From the finance angle, and perhaps surprisingly, we’ve witnessed most of our customers adopt the Infinity VIP system via a one-time buyout capital purchase route. But we have also seen increasing interest in subscription models, especially where the intercom is associated with a cloud-driven video production system like Grass Valley AMPP or Viz.”

Some intercom manufacturers were quicker to offer IP systems than others but now all the major brands have at least one system based on the technology.

“I think IP is now firmly in place,” comments Marco Lopez, vice president of engineering at Clear-Com. “There was a natural progression of first standardizing the way we were distributing audio signals across the various infrastructures and now those are being used for digital audio that could be wired but is also a means of achieving wireless audio connectivity where, typically, you would have had to build a network of antennas, especially for very large scale events with many users connecting to that environment.

“From a technology point of view it’s all about the standards now, ensuring we have good connectivity and integration using ST 2110, along with NMOS support. as well as AES67 and Dante,” Lopez added.

With such a variety of technologies and applications to investigate and discuss, it could be that audio is something of a trendsetter in Las Vegas this year (again). 

Register for the 2024 NAB Show, April 14-17 in Las Vegas at https://nabshow.com/2024/

NEW BERN, N.C.—Wheatstone recently received certification of its core streaming software from Nielsen for inserting the ratings firm’s Portable People Meter (PPM) encoded watermark, and now that capability is available to broadcasters from their streams and in the cloud.

Wheatstone’s Layers Stream, a full suite of software for streaming from an on-premise service or a cloud data center, now supports the watermark as does the company’s Streamblade and Wheatstream AoIP streaming appliances, the company said.

Whether streamed from a Wheatstone appliance, an on-prem server or in an AWS cloud data center streams can be counted separately or tallied with on-air listenership to attract advertising buys.

“In the case of Wheatstone, we’re integrating the encoding right there in processing software rather than running it through a hardware encoder after the fact,” said Nielsen product manager Eric Kmetz. "It's a much better way to operationalize it." 

Having the Nielsen encoder certified as part of the Wheatstone processing chain gives broadcasters confidence that their station will be measured by Nielsen, said Wheatstone senior product development engineer Jeff Keith.

Wheatstone and Nielsen engineering teams completed the certification process in January after extensive testing for quality and error detection of both audio content and the watermark being streamed through Wheatstone processing software, the company said.

More information is available on the company’s website.

Audio mixing is and will always be a key component of live broadcast production. How, where and on what kind of equipment it is carried out in the future is not entirely certain but trends are emerging and technology is being established that already give some indication of how the audio console is evolving to meet the changing requirements of broadcasters.

For the time being at least there is still a definite need for big, physical multiple fader sound desks, most especially on large-scale, prestige broadcasts such as premium sports events and entertainment shows. The difference, according to Henry Goodman, director of product management at Calrec Audio, is where the mixing surface is located and where the processing takes place.

‘Distributed Production’
“What we’re seeing is a break in the geographical connection of the control room having to be where the studio is and the operator having to be at the venue,” he says. “If you don’t have to physically tie your operator to the venue or a truck, you can put them in a nicely built studio where they have the space to monitor properly with all the necessary equipment. That changes how you can manage the operator and the equipment, as well as providing greater consistency in the mixing.”

Software and the cloud play major roles in this new arrangement, which Goodman prefers to call distributed production rather than remote production.

“It’s not just remote, it is distributing the different elements of the production in different places,” he explains. “The cloud part is another step along that way. Instead of having your physical DSP processing next to the console or in a central control room, you have it either in a public cloud or on COTS hardware that’s under your control, replacing the traditional DSP engine with a software-based engine. 

“Quite a few of the broadcasters we’re talking to are not necessarily totally sold on public clouds, so building their own private cloud and running software on that in an agile way is quite appealing,” he added.

Calrec’s parent group, Audiotonix, has produced a technology Proof of Concept (PoC) for audio cloud processing that is now providing what is described as the “backbone” of live broadcast consoles being developed by both Calrec and fellow subsidiary Solid State Logic (SSL). 

For Calrec, it involves a RP1 remote production unit at the venue linked to an Argo mixing surface in a control room over Dante Connect, with an Audiotonix New Heights audio DSP mix engine in AWS Cloud. 

“When we started thinking about what we needed for cloud processing we looked across the group for technology we could use, which is why it’s seen as an Audiotonix development,” Goodman says. “Calrec and SSL are working on it at the moment because we’re both operating in the broadcast sector and it’s mainly broadcasters that are driving the need to get audio processing in the cloud.”

Best of Both Worlds
Other leading broadcast audio console manufacturers are also adding their own takes on how to provide more flexibility by splitting up the various aspects of the mix process and putting a substantial part of it in the cloud. Wheatstone’s Layers Software Suite brings mixing, processing and streaming capabilities to any server, either on premises or in an AWS or other cloud data center. 

Senior Sales Engineer Phil Owens comments that in a “typical console system” today, which will be based on audio over IP (AoIP), some of it can be easily virtualized and other parts of it will remain physical.

“But you want the part that’s physical to work in your dream system in the cloud at some point,” he says. “For this we have virtualized the guts of some of our consoles. By that I mean when you sit at a physical console and push a switch or raise a fader, there’s CPU hardware in that console that’s telling the rest of the system what you did. 

“When you virtualize that, you’re still going to push a switch or raise a fader but it’s going to be on a touchscreen and those commands still have to have a CPU that tells the rest of the system you took those action,” Owens continued. “So we have the console virtualized to the extent it will run on a Linux server and you interface to it via a touchscreen, which can communicate with a server in the next room or the next town or in the cloud.”

Lawo has developed the HOME IP management platform as the basis of its audio mixing systems, with various apps for different requirements.

“We have not decided to nudge our customers in any particular direction,” says Christian Struck, senior product manager for audio production. “While these containerized microservices can run in the public cloud if users so wish, they are as effective on standard servers in a data center as on-prem. We like to call data centers that can be accessed from just about anywhere in the world a ‘private cloud,’ which is easier to protect and more affordable with respect to ingress and egress costs.”

Just Getting Started
Even with this activity, it can be said that— as Martin Dyster, vice president of business development for TV at Telos Alliance observes—these are still early days for software and cloud-based mixing. 

Dyster highlights the Audiotonix New Heights project and AWS’s involvement with audio companies, adding Telos is also working with the cloud platform but more for its virtual intercom system. 

“Audio has been left behind when it comes to cloud production and we’re all playing catch up right now,” he says. “I’ve been involved with the cloud for about three years through the comms platform and have become very aware that the landscape around us for cloud-based mixing has been pretty sparse. 

“A lot of broadcasters we talked to early on were using things like REAPER [digital audio workstation] but we weren’t seeing the major console brands you might expect. That’s starting to change now but it’s still not a well populated landscape and it will be interesting to see what develops over the next five years.”

Dyster notes that the concept of a virtualized console is picking up more in radio, with Telos’s Axia Altus virtual cloud mixer now being used for some applications on that side of broadcasting. While TV and radio sound desks are different animals, there is now more crossover between the two areas due to the growth of visualization in radio, with cameras now becoming more common in on-air studios. 

“Features like automix are an absolute standard now,” he says. “Automation control from third party orchestration layers is more requested, particularly with visual radio and algorithms that can automate based on the schedule of the show, so the console cuts itself to some extent, with more audio-follow-video features.”

What About AI?
As with all broadcast production technologies, many are now considering what influence or impact artificial intelligence (AI) might have on audio consoles. Dyster points to specialized mixing systems from Salsa Sound and LAMA Mix, which provide features such as ball tracking for sports coverage, automixing and monitoring for language recognition. 

Lawo’s Christian Struck adds that “there is no doubt AI will find its way into future audio mixing consoles or their DSP engines,” while Wheatstone’s Phil Owens says that although AI is working its way into the broadcast workflow, it hasn’t hit audio yet. 

But it does have potential. 

“What AI can do for sound is provide the basis for plug-ins that perform noise cancellation. When you apply an AI to that job it gets better at doing it, recognizing noise as opposed to signal,” Owens said.

Henry Goodman at Calrec agrees it is an interesting area and one people are looking at to see what benefits it can bring.

“On the console side, the area that interests us is having facilities providing assistive mechanisms for the operators, whether that’s balancing external feeds coming in or standardized EQ for specific microphones,” he said. “It’s something we’re keeping a close eye on but it’s not at the forefront of our development right now.”

All of which makes the audio console the gear to keep watching, if only to see where it ends up in the broadcast center. 

NEW BERN, N.C.—Gone are the newscasts of yesterday when one person ran the Chyron, another person ran the switcher, yet another on the mixer, and several technicians along with a director and producer overseeing cast, cameras and live breaking updates. Today, many of those jobs are done by the producer, the director and perhaps a teleprompter operator, who may or may not double as a presenter.   

That’s two or three people with their heads on a swivel trying to manage all the work once done by seven or more people during a typical newscast. The TV news team has evolved and so has the audio mixing system in six key areas. 

All Part of the Workflow
Audio is a workflow: Production automation systems now manage audio as part of a workflow that needs to be coded, normalized for levels, and slotted in as elements in the newscast. This has been true for some time in larger markets, but hometown news operations are now also adopting these systems. 

Bringing audio into the overall production workflow as an element, rather than mixing as you go, requires a much tighter working relationship between the audio mixer and the automation system. For this reason, AoIP console systems today interface easily to the automation and some also provide a means for fully integrating the automation and mixer into one native IP audio environment.

Motorized faders are the new VU Meter: Those swiveling heads now doing many different jobs rely on motorized faders tracked to the automation to indicate that newscasts are going along smoothly. Consoles that have motorized faders let producers monitor the faders as they fly and make adjustments when needed. 

Occasional mix-ups: The two or three newscasts produced in the day of a television station are typically done with production automation whereas for the occasional news report or sporting event, hands-on mixing is generally the norm. Today’s newsroom console has evolved to include more backend functions on the AoIP network and more upfront functions on the surface. 

Tactile faders on the one hand and touchscreens on the other make it easier to adjust EQ, fix levels and mix in feeds for the producer or director who is busy making sure talent is hitting all their marks and the robotic cameras are pointed in the right direction. 

Fewer Personnel
The shrinking news studio: Virtual production sets continue the great downsizing of the news studios and with this comes a much smaller console. Consoles that used to take up half a room now take up half a desk, thanks in part to AoIP networking. AoIP carries much of the load that once sat on the console and simplifies the layout of the board overall. 

No audio operator onboard: The person overseeing the audio is likely to be the same one running the video switcher, and both of those duties are likely to fall to the sole producer on set. Bottom line: the news studio console has evolved to be far easier to navigate than ever before. 

IP accessibility rules: Booking satellite time for a guest interview and rushing them over to a studio for a three-minute segment is so 2019. Web conferencing is in along with IP overall, and embedders/de-embedders and HD/SDI are out. By connecting routing, mixing and studio control through Ethernet cabling, AoIP opens up accessibility and gets rid of outdated wiring and layers of audio infrastructure. 

For example, we’re seeing more and more stations that are dropping an I/O Blade (which are basically our AoIP access units) at various mic or talent workstations in the studio and then running a cable back to a central rack room. We’re also seeing more stations connecting the wall of plug-in mics and other auxiliary XLR devices to the control room using something like our WheatNet-IP high-density I/O Stagebox One and a cable. 

AoIP mixing consoles come with expansive IP audio networks that can scale all the way up to several network elements and geographic locations, such as across a WAN for use in REMI or other remote broadcast applications. 

As NAB Show New York prepares to return to the Javits Center after several years away due to COVID-19, TV Tech caught up with Phil Owens, senior sales engineer at Wheatstone Corp. Attendees at the show can find Wheatstone in booth 1518 with the company’s latest innovations.

TV Tech: What are you most looking forward to at NAB Show New York?

Phil Owens: As a regional East Coast show, NAB Show New York focuses on several very big markets (New York City, Washington, Philadelphia, Boston) and it’s always a pleasure to personally connect with our clients and friends from these cities.

TVT: What will be Wheatstone's most important product news?

Owens: Our new Layers Software Suite, which runs on enterprise IP servers and includes full-function virtual radio and television consoles, as well as glass user interfaces for backend mixing, audio processing and streaming into a transmitter or CDN provider.

One server can host multiple broadcast instances, replacing dedicated hardware for many studios and locations—specifically audio mixing consoles, standalone audio processors and streaming appliances.

To learn more about the Layers Software Suite, visit the company’s website.

NEW BERN, NC—At this year’s NAB Show, April 23-27 in Las Vegas, Wheatstone is introducing several new AoIP-based audio consoles plus an upgrade to its Blade 4 access unit.

Tekton 32, Wheatstone’s latest AES67 and WheatNet-IP audio networked TV console will show for the first time at show. Tekton 32 interfaces with all major production automation systems through a unique control interface for tight integration of automation and mixing in one native IP audio environment. Tekton 32 has standard 64 channels (layered) and motorized faders tracked to automation so whoever is producing or directing, or doing both, can keep an eye on what the automation is doing and make adjustments as needed.

The AoIP console is also very easy to navigate for the occasional news report or sporting event that requires hands-on mixing. Tactile faders on the one hand and a touchscreen interface on the other make it easier for the busy producer or director to adjust EQ, fix levels and mix in feeds. All routing and control for the Tekton 32 is handled by the WheatNet IP audio network, an AES67 compliant and SMPTE 2110 supported IP audio network. If it’s on the network, it’s routable, programmable, and accessible – often automatically. For example, when a field reporter’s mic turns on, the correct mix-minus can be automatically sent back to the field reporter’s headset for IFB. 

The compact size of Tekton 32 is due to AoIP carrying much of the load that once sat on the console. Plus, by connecting routing, mixing and studio control through Ethernet cabling, AoIP opens up accessibility and gets rid of outdated wiring and layers of audio infrastructure. Tekton 32 is also WAN and REMI ready. Tekton 32’s WheatNet-IP audio network can scale from one location to several geographic locations across a WAN for use in REMI or other remote broadcast applications.

Also new is the GSX console surface, Wheatstone’s latest fully reprogrammable AoIP console and the newest addition to the WheatNet-IP audio network family. Wheatstone’s flagship LXE console surface, introduced in 2016, was the first completely customizable control surface for IP audio systems. 

The GSX AoIP surface features:

• Scriptable knobs and controls for customizing by show, talent or studio. Customize once and set it or quickly re-configure controls and displays for any purpose or application using Wheatstone’s ConsoleBuilder™ software.
• Up to 32 input channels with as few as four physical faders, or any combination that fits the studio size and function needed.
• Metering on-screen instead of on the console for a low-profile workspace that lets talent focus attention where it’s needed.
• Tactile surface on the one hand and touchscreen interface on the other for the best of both worlds. Faders and cue events on the surface. Pinch and drag EQ settings from the touchscreen.
• Modular design. Configure as a drop-in or tabletop console surface, or split into fader wedges in separate rooms connected via WheatNet-IP audio networking for fast and easy talent and show collaboration.
• Remote operation. Optional standalone virtual mixer or remote mixer that mirrors the physical surface offers an independent, yet shared user experience.
• Optional Automix, Layers, ScreenBuilder™, Smart Switch panels and IP accessories. Add any or all at any time to adapt the GSX to evolving needs.
• Empowered by WheatNet-IP, a complete intelligent network of connected elements, audio tools, and third-party products and applications.

Wheatstone has also added new audio tools on its AoIP network. This latest AoIP unit includes audio routing, control, codecs, processing, mixing, operating system and NMOS/AES67 interoperability in 1 RU. Blade 4 can be integrated into any new or existing WheatNet-IP network and includes:

• Selectable Opus, MP3 and AAC codecs for integrating workflows from remote venues or home studios into the studio operation as needed. All codecs are routable in native AoIP; no additional studio hardware required.  
• Built-in OS for running customized scripts and specialized software, metering apps and virtual interfaces.
• AES67 compliance, from .125 ms to 5 ms packets, for a wide range of interoperability with other AES67 devices and networks.
• Support for SMPTE ST 2110, including the NMOS discovery standard for AES67 and next generation television networks.
• Dual Ethernet ports available on every Blade 4 for failsafe redundancy.
• Integrated audio codecs, processing, mixing and operating system in one native AoIP environment for resource sharing.
• Two separate audio clip players, enhanced to play compressed or uncompressed audio files from the built in USB ports to virtually eliminate memory storage issues.
• Full AoIP I/O and intelligence in one unit for routing audio, mixing sounds, processing feeds, and controlling mics, consoles, and other studio appliances. Blade 4 has all the standard Blade features, including two 8x2 stereo utility mixers for online mixing of sounds or segueing remotely between feeds; routable stereo processor with parametric equalizer, compressor and limiter; and 12 universal logic ports plus 128 software LIO ports, programmable as inputs or outputs, and routable through the network.
• Codecs, software apps, mixing and audio processing, plus AoIP routing, control and interoperability in 1 RU for reducing rackroom real estate and associated cooling, cabling and other expenses.  

Wheatstone will be in booth N2631. For more information on the NAB Show, visit nabshow.com/2022.

LAS VEGAS—Sound is part of the many different aspects of broadcasting that will be featured at the 2022 NAB Show. Two elements in particular—immersive/personalized audio and intercoms—will attract a lot of attention in Las Vegas.

A trend that is still in its relatively early days is immersive and object-based audio (OBA). Both of these, which come under the general heading of “next generation audio” (NGA), have been discussed and promoted as “the next big thing” to hit broadcast television for at least the last decade. 

Dolby Atmos
This year will mark a decade since the first film in Dolby Atmos—Disney’s “Brave”—was released in cinemas, according to Mathias Bendull, vice president, Living Room, for Dolby Laboratories. “It’s incredible to see the progress we’ve made and the growing excitement from consumers and the industry demanding immersive sound experiences brought to life by spatial audio,” he said.

Today the world’s top streaming services—Apple TV+, Disney+, Netflix, and many others—deliver their most-watched movies and streaming shows in Dolby Atmos (and Dolby Vision) and Dolby Atmos devices are widely available across various price points and form factors from home theater systems to smartphones and TVs, Bendull said. 

With Samsung’s recent announcement that it would support Dolby Atmos in its upcoming Micro LED and Neo QLED TV, this means all major global TV manufacturers are now delivering TVs with Dolby Atmos, according to Bendull, who added that a majority of these TVs in North America also support ATSC 3.0 tuners, which will provide consumers access to NextGen TV delivered via Dolby AC-4.

“Consumer interest in Dolby Audio technologies, such as Dolby AC-4 and Voice+, has also shaped how broadcasters promote the benefits of NextGen  TV,” Bendull said. “This includes the recent NextGen TV holiday campaign, which aired commercials in participating ATSC 3.0 markets promoting the features of Dolby Audio, such as improved dialog audibility enabled by Voice + and consistent loudness.” 

Dolby is also teaming up with Pearl TV to amplify these messages at the NAB Show and through consumer education and retail point of sales initiatives,” he added.

Personalization & Immersive
On the horizon, the benefits of personalized audio features like home and away commentators, multiple language support, and audio description for 5.1 and Dolby Atmos are being explored by key industry players jointly with Dolby.

There is the view, from institutions such as Fraunhofer IIS—the main developer of MPEG-H 3D Audio—that the personalization aspect of NGA is the more compelling and necessary feature, rather than immersive sound. Christian Struck, senior product manager for audio production for Lawo, comments that the current trend appears to be creating presentations—in other words, “audio stems”—that can be used for different applications whose volume levels are set by viewers at home.

“A stem-based approach means that more channels and busses are needed than for a 5.1 setup,” Struck explains. “This means the ability to set channel levels for a variety of presentations becomes paramount and a flexible array of monitoring options is required.” 

On the subject of immersive audio, Struck describes it as “the perfect complement to 4K picture quality” and says it is being increasingly demanded by rights holders. “The main features for audio consoles in an immersive workflow, such as high channel counts and the bussing, monitoring and mixing infrastructure to support them, will become available in 2022.”

In terms of greater capacity on mixing consoles, at this year’s NAB Show, Lawo will be showing a 48-fader version of the mc²36 at the booth in the Central Hall. Other introductions include a software version for the mc² range, the A_UHD Ultra-High Density IP audio engine and new software features for the V_matrix routing, processing and multiviewing platform.

While sport and drama have fully embraced immersive audio—for future-proofing post-production if not for transmission at this time—there are areas that do not appear immediately well-suited to the technology.

“Our ‘bread and butter’ is TV news and it will be some time before that sector gets into the immersive environment,” comments Phil Owens, senior sales engineer at Wheatstone. Of personalization he adds, “There are a lot of levels to that. You can pick and choose different channels for things like second languages. But that’s not really immersive audio.”

At its booth in the North Hall, Wheatstone will launch Tekton 32, its latest audio over IP (AoIP) console for TV. The networked console is based on the company’s WheatNet-IP protocol that is aimed at smaller, local TV stations, which are either installing automated production systems or downsizing staff. It has 64 channels, which are layered, and motorized faders that can be controlled by the producer or director through the automation system.

Also on the subject of IP, a highlight at Calrec's booth will be a demo in which three independent consoles will be operated from a fully redundant pair of ImPulse cores; a 48 dual fader Apollo console, a 40 fader Artemis console and a headless console running Calrec Assist on a PC. The ImPulse DSP features native SMPTE 2110 connectivity and is compatible with the Calrec Assist web interface as well as Calrec’s Apollo and Artemis consoles to provide a simple upgrade path for existing Calrec customers moving to an IP domain.

It also provides 3D immersive path widths and panning for next-generation audio with height and 3D pan controls, flexible panning and downmixing built-in.

AoIP for Comms
IP is now firmly established in most areas of broadcast audio, from mixing to networking to distribution and contribution links. Another area that is now exploiting the full potential of AoIP is communications. 

The major intercom manufacturers—Clear-Com, Riedel and RTS—each has its own take on the technology, while other, smaller developers, or those entering this market more recently, have put their own spin on comms through IP. These include Green-GO, Glensound, Sonifex and AEQ, all of which will be exhibiting at the show.

Clear-Com, which will be exhibiting in the Central Hall, began investing in IP technology during the mid-2000s. Product Manager Kari Eythorsson explains that this was primarily to add remote connectivity for large comms systems in an efficient way. This, of course, proved beneficial during the height of the pandemic when production teams were either operating remotely within a broadcast center or working from home.

“In TV and film production, there was a need to build bubbles for people to work within,” Eythorsson says. “It was possible to reduce the number of people in a bubble [by connecting] with simple wireless systems.” He adds that the AES67 interoperability standard has allowed for expansion of IP systems, while virtual intercoms were facilitated through linking key panels, computers or smartphones over Wi-Fi, LTE or 5G connections.

Riedel also saw IP and remote communications become more in demand because of COVID-19, with the creation of hybrid environments.

 “Due to remote and virtual productions, as well as hybrid workflows, the IP connected intercom is becoming a new normal or a new requirement in projects and applications,” comments U.K. Sales Manager Nacho Lee. Despite the growing ubiquity of IP intercoms, Lee adds that more established technologies, such as matrices, still have a place in comms setups.

Audio may be a smaller percentage of the companies at exhibitions like the NAB Show but it is certainly making an impact with technologies that are significantly changing both the way people work in broadcasting and what TV services can offer their viewers. 

NEW BERN, N.C.—Wheatstone is doubling down on manufacturing with a million-dollar investment in large component buys and new factory equipment that will help double production in its New Bern factory where all Wheatstone and Audioarts products are made.

“Manufacturing in-house lets us respond more quickly to changes and gives us much better control over a volatile supply chain,” commented Matt Wilson, Wheatstone's production Manager. “By maintaining high inventories on components and investing in additional machinery, we are more than able to meet our customer requirements well into and past 2022.”

The new additions to its 52,000 square-foot factory floor include a second multi-axis CNC mill and a larger-format brake press to keep up with the production demand for precision metal work. An additional surface mount machine also will be added to increase the production quantity and quality of the circuit boards used in Wheatstone consoles, Blades and audio processors.

Wheatstone was one of the first in the industry to invest in surface mount technology more than a decade ago.

In March of this year, Wheatstone was awarded a multi-million dollar contract that includes WheatNet-IP audio console surfaces, network devices and system pre-configuration for 247 studios in 32 U.S. markets, with the majority of completed systems to ship through September.

LONDON—All technology evolves and adapts to suit the changing requirements of its end users. Audio consoles have been through significant changes over the last 30 years, with analog giving way to digital for large-scale television, radio and live event production. This in turn has led to smaller desks, with more touchscreen control and, increasingly, mixing “in-the-box” on digital audio stations (DAWs).

While these refinements and alterations have taken place over time, the outbreak of coronavirus and the impact of national and local lockdowns on broadcast and facility operations have had more immediate effects on mixing console design. The most obvious of these is the adaptation of desks for home working, which can be regarded as positive and was already beginning to happen.

HOME CONTROL

“The pandemic has accelerated the take-up of working from home,” agrees Andreas Hilmer, director of marketing at Lawo. “We have designed that capability into our consoles, which can be used for a range of applications. These include distributed production, where an operator can be in an audio room next to the main production suite or another building or a different city.

“It can also be used for home working, with a full console in the studio, being controlled by software, a touchscreen and maybe a compact fader bay by somebody in their kitchen,” Hilmer added. “All the live audio stays in the audio suite, with only the control chain going to the home.”

Just before Christmas, Lawo launched second-generation versions of its compact mc² desk and audio console engine. In an event streamed live from the Jazz Club Karlsruhe, near the company’s headquarters in Germany, the new mc² 36 and A_UHD (ultra high density) Phase II Core were introduced.

Hilmer explained that Lawo always tries to rejuvenate its product line at regular intervals and this updating brought a new platform for the entire mc² range and additional capabilities on the mc² 36, which was originally introduced in 2014, including native IP mixing and more powerful DSP.

PHYSICAL OR VIRTUAL: DOES IT MATTER?

Another company that has seen its ongoing development find almost instantaneous acceptance during the COVID-19 crisis is Wheatstone. In what Senior Sales Engineer Phil Owens describes as a “flurry of software development” during March, Wheatstone created the ReMIX app, which controls the software mixer in I/O BLADES interfaces and is designed for Windows tablets and PCs.

Wheatstone also offers the ability to create virtual consoles through the combination of the ACI (automation control interface) protocol and ScreenBuilder suite of touchscreen tools.

Owens observes that with such new technologies, whether a physical or a virtual console is being used “doesn’t really matter.” What is important, he says, is remote connectivity, which has become the most requested feature from Wheatstone clients.

Owens adds that the same attitude applies to whether mixing is carried out using a dedicated control surface with faders or “in-the-box.”

WHILE SOME THINGS CHANGE ... 

Peter Walker, senior product engineer at Calrec Audio, acknowledges that priorities during 2020 due to the circumstances brought about by COVID-19, with a focus on safe, reliable and flexible workflows.

“Because of this, there’s definitely been an increase in automation/remote control for smaller productions,” he says. “But live broadcast still needs high-quality systems with niche broadcast features. Regardless of the controller type, processing and routing are still at the center of the sound suite, whether it is located in an audio studio, a local equipment room or a server center.

“Practical considerations such as DSP resources, flexible routing, mix minus feeds and IFB mixes all existed before COVID and still exist,” Walker added. “Broadcast networks will always require refined control.”

The argument against touchscreen-based mixing for live production has always been that it does not have, as Tom Knowles, broadcast systems product manager at SSL, says, “the immediacy of physical, tactile controls.” But, he adds, the sound desk is no longer a standalone unit, it is often part of an integrated system of distributed components.

“Physical surfaces, software control interfaces, DSP computer and I/O devices are the building blocks that perform audio console functions,” Knowles said. “Systems can be scaled to meet the task at hand, providing the flexibility and agility a traditional console may not have provided, with the connecting software being the key element.”

COMPACT DESIGN

Blackmagic Design has been at the forefront of the trend toward more software-based operations, notably with the DaVinci Resolve suite of color correction, editing and visual effects tools. Version 17 of Resolve also includes Fairlight sound editing and mixing capability, which, when used in conjunction with the Fairlight Audio Accelerator, can handle up to 2,000 tracks, which is typical on film soundtrack mixes these days.

Recent trends have moved away from relying on large digital consoles for routing and distribution to DAW-based systems with additional DSP for larger systems, according to James Townsend, digital audio technical sales specialist with BMD.

“The console’s role then becomes one of control, providing the fastest possible interface for the software,” he said. “It provides familiarity for the operator, who can concentrate on the picture while working instead of continually scrutinizing a DAW user interface.”

BMD has different options for this new role, from large-scale Fairlight consoles to the new Desktop Consoles.

VIRTUAL AND SCALABLE

Telos Alliance has fully embraced virtualized audio mixing with the new Axia iQs software, which has AES67 audio over IP (AoIP) capability as well as being cloud deployable. Martin Dyster, vice president of business development for Telos Alliance, comments that the global broadcast market is rapidly leaning toward a remote production model. 

“That looks as though it will be here for keeps, long after COVID has been suppressed or controlled,” he says. “Customers are looking for truly virtualized, rapidly deployable and scalable solutions, not just a means to remote control the back-end of a ‘traditional console.’”

The iQs is described as “multipurpose” and Telos/Axia is also moving beyond its traditional radio market with the physical console that was launched at the 2019 IBC Show. Dyster comments that the company’s Quasar AoIP mixing console is being sold into TV as well, which further extends the reach of audio over IP, something Telos has been advocating for many years, into the visual production domain.

All of the major console manufacturers producing desks for TV work offer some form of AoIP capability: Wheatstone with its own WheatNet-IP system, Calrec (both Dante and RAVENNA), Lawo (RAVENNA/AES67), SSL (Dante) and BMD. With its extended connectivity capabilities, the audio console is now much more than a means of mixing sound. Whether it will evolve fully into the virtual realm is debatable, but it shows no signs of finishing its development any time soon.

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The newsroom at WDRB TV 41 and WBKI TV 58 in Louisville, Ky., has been getting quite a workout lately.

In a normal week, we produce more than 58 hours of live and local news. At the height of the civil rights protests in June, we were doing back-to-back coverage for five-six hours at a time with reporters embedded with protesters in the hot zones while conducting live interviews on Zoom, Skype and FaceTime.

Already, our new Strata 32 audio board from Wheatstone was easily juggling dozens of feeds at once and bouncing from one newscaster or reporter to the next—some reporting remotely—due to the pandemic.

TIMING IT JUST RIGHT

The Wheatstone Strata 32 is our first AoIP console, purchased months prior to the events of 2020 after a Wheatstone D8 TDM routed console gave us years of service.

We didn’t make a conscious decision to go IP; we just simply decided to go with the next generation of audio mixing available. It was really a stroke of luck that we made the transition to a fully IP audio-networked board when we did.

What we liked about the board right away was that it packed a lot of capability into a compact frame. It has dedicated faders for eight subgroups and two masters along with 32 physical faders that can be layered for 64 channels, all in a 40-inch frame with a central touchscreen interface. The Strata 32 puts all the controls on the surface and uses the Gibraltar IP Mix Engine for networking, which handles digital signal processing.

Because it’s an IP audio-networked board, there are no limitations with fixed connection points on the console chassis itself. Strata 32 has access to all sources in the network and any channel can connect to any audio source or destination, using any preferred audio format at any time. Strata 32 is an AES67-compatible board, which helps make it future-proof.

Once installed, we quickly discovered the Strata 32 makes simple tasks like being able to create mix-minuses for interviews a lot easier. This board has routable mix-minus with talkback interrupt, as well as routable tracking, routable mic presets and—most important to us at the time of purchase—routable EQ, filtering, compressing/limiting and expander gate.

I’ve actually been able to get my staff to embrace dynamics processing as a result. It’s always been a challenge cutting from the sports guys, who really like to project to the point of screaming, and then going to the weather announcer, who has more of a “normal” tone of voice.

Unlike in the past when we had to train staff on voice processing techniques live on-air, with Strata 32’s IP audio networking, I can train staff on the new console offline without every mistake going directly to air. Next, I plan to establish floating presets specific to each sportscaster, newscaster and reporter that will give operators a starting point for processing mics on the fly.

OFF TO THE RACES

We added the Strata 32 console to our news operation last September just as we began planning for the Kentucky Derby Festival’s “Thunder Over Louisville” fireworks and air show and the Kentucky Derby race, content which our 200-person staff produces every year at nearby Churchill Downs.

COVID-19 has bumped the race from the usual April and May timeframe to Sept. 5, and we plan to set up in the usual location near the Kentucky Derby Museum. For this year’s Derby, we’re told that protesters will be on site, so it could be interesting.

Throughout it all, the Strata 32 will be in the newsroom as usual, taking it all in.

David Callan is the media director of production for Louisville’s WDRB TV 41 and WBKI TV 58 TV stations. He can be contacted at dcallan@wdrb.com.

For more information, visit www.wheatstone.com.

installed on a Windows PC or tablet for home access to an existing studio’s WheatNet-IP audio network. A software extension of the WheatNet-IP audio network, ReMIX provides a quick alternative to a physical home studio for remote broadcasting and voice-tracking by remotely accessing existing equipment at the station.

With ReMIX on a home laptop or tablet, an existing WheatNet-IP audio network at the studio and an internet connection between the two, all facility resources such as codecs, hybrids and playout systems, are remotely available to the home studio. ReMIX allows talent in home studios or other remote locations to access station sources, turn channels on or off, control levels, advance to the next track in the automation system and build mixes on the fly through one standalone mixing application.

ReMIX provides a direct UI to the utility mixers found in the I/O BLADEs that make up the WheatNet-IP audio network. Each I/O BLADE includes two built-in 8x2 stereo mixers, the inputs and output busses of which are available as resources on the network.

NEW YORK—Wheatstone is expanding its Blade offerings with the StreamBlade, a WheatNet-IP appliance that accepts up to eight input steams of native WheatNet-IP audio directly from a soundcard or AoIP driver as well as RTP sources and can output each in four streams; providing up to 32 total streams per device.

Output choices include Opus, AAC and MP3 encoders. The company says it is cloud-ready and compatible with standard CDN and streaming platforms, including Icecast, Wowza and RTP.

The StreamBlade has on-board processing with a six-band parametric EQ, a five-band AGC, a two-band final limiter and a stereo width control.

Wheatstone says that the AGC is designed for streaming. Jeff Keith, senior product development engineer for Wheatstone’s audio processing line explains, “Fast time constants (compression) can add intermod sidebands around a sustained note or bass note, which the codec has to spend bits on instead of the signals that are actually part of the program. That can be bad for any stream, but it’s especially bad for low bit-rate streams that don’t have a lot of data bits to begin with.”

StreamBlade can be configured and managed from a laptop and web browser using WheatNet-IP Navigator software. The box has two Ethernet ports, one for direct connectivity into the WheatNet-IP audio network on one end and another for connectivity into a WAN for streaming to a CDN or other service provider.

Wheatstone will showcase the StreamBlade system at NAB Show New York at booth N167.

BETHLEHEM, Pa.—In 2011, PBS39—WLVT-DTV, serving the Greater Lehigh Valley in Eastern Penn. and Western N.J.—moved from their legacy studios on the grounds of Lehigh University to a state-of-the-art facility at the base of the iconic Bethlehem Steel blast furnaces. Along with the move came a new Wheatstone D-10 5.1 console that served us well for many years.

Fast forward to 2019: WLVT-DTV received a windfall of funding due to the FCC spectrum auction. Upgrades began immediately by replacing the D-10 and its network with an updated Wheatstone Blade-3 system and a Dimension Three Touchscreen 5.1 console.

KEEPING UP WITH UPDATES

Audio over IP has improved greatly in the past decade and a multitude of developers have jumped into the mix. However, the decision to stick with Wheatstone was a no-brainer. The Dimension Three Touchscreen, a WheatNet-IP audio networked console, has the durability and service of Wheatstone products we like; and now with AES67 compatibility across the industry, the future is full of endless audio possibilities.

The system quickly proved its worth. A USB input is a highlight when first facing the faders. You can also plug and play your preloaded playlist or news clips in a standard Windows format during any event.

STUDIO-WIDE APPLICATIONS

Our plant features three main shooting locations, all of which can now be used at the same time from the Dimension Three console. In studio A, we track a news interview being recorded on the fly. Jump to the rental event in studio B with a presenter and PowerPoint with embedded videos going seamlessly over the house speakers. In studio C, local dignitaries drop in for a satellite shoot with CNN/FOX/MSNBC.

The functionality and utility of the Blade system cuts out the previous patches and hard routes needed to jump special audio needs room to room. Two 5.1 busses, two stereo busses, plus multiple auxiliary and sub mixes are all part of the setup.

In 2011, contractors set up an Ethernet pipe between our studios and a huge arts complex next door, but they had not been connected until this past May, when we brought an eight-channel mic Blade to the arts complex and finally connected the buildings. We used the fiber haul for the cameras and the mic Blade for the audio. We were able to produce our athlete-of-the-year event live, no audio delay, no problems.

On the video side, the HD/SDI de-embedder Blade was a huge help, effectively integrating de-embedding of the audio channel directly into the Dimension Three. That alone eliminated extra wiring and the breakouts we needed with the old AES de-embedder.

The ability to spill a 5.1 channel is a lot better on this console as well. The satellite feeds from PBS send standard eight channel SDI audio. With the Dimension Three spill button, we can hear all eight or isolate a few of those channels easily. We call it “5.1 quality control in a button.”

With this new sound board, we have gone from the routing cages and crossover cables of 2011 to one-rack unit audio over IP control. As a sound designer and media transmission engineer, I am sleeping sound in a dream come true.

Jonas Bowen is a former iHeart Radio DJ and engineer whose career spans five markets, including D.C. & Philadelphia. He now works in public broadcasting in Bethlehem, Pa. He can be reached atjonasb@wlvt.org.

Andrea Cummis is the CTO of WLVT. Previously, Cummis served as the managing partner of AC Video Solutions, senior vice ppresident of Engineering and Operations at Oxygen Media, and director of Network Operations for USA Networks. She can be reached atandreac@wlvt.org.

For more info, visitwww.wheatstone.com.

AMSTERDAM—In what will be its first showing, Wheatstone’s Strata 32 audio console is heading to Amsterdam for IBC 2019, which takes place from Sept. 13-17. Strata 32 is a compact console that includes 64 channels and the latest IP audio technology in a 40-inch frame.

The new audio console features dedicated faders for eight subgroups and two masters, along with 32 physical faders that can be layered for 64 channels. It is able to integrate with all major production automation systems and has an IP audio mix engine and optional stagebox, per Wheatstone.

Strata joins Wheatstone’s family of consoles powered by the WheatNet-IP audio network, an AES67 compatible IP audio ecosystem with online mixing, audio processing and virtual development tools, as well as SIP/VoIP and codec appliances. All of the WheatNet-IP resources are available through Strata’s touchscreen interface with an intuitive menu. Per-channel OLEDs also display all relevant editing and operating functions.

The console has access to all sources in the WheatNet-IP network, and any channel can connect to any audio source or destination using any preferred audio format. With unrestricted routing, all faders are available to dial up whatever source needed.

There is also a Gibraltar IP Mix Engine as part of the console, capable of 1,024 channels of simultaneous digital signal processing and provides specialty features like a new automixer with four separate automix groups and onscreen weight control.

The optional 4RU StageBox One extends the console’s I/O, offering 32 mic/line inputs, 16 analog line outputs and eight AES3 inputs and eight AES3 outputs, as well as 12 logic ports and two Ethernet ports.

Wheatstone will also plan to show its new SwitchBlade appliance for the WheatNet-IP audio network, which includes AoIP logic control, SIP and codec bandwidth optimization for sharing studio operation and programming between facilities.

Wheatstone will display these products at stand 8.C91 during IBC 2019.

TV TECHNOLOGY:What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trend at the 2019 NAB Show?

PHIL OWENS: The move to IP is happening, but we realize that the transition may be gradual for some stations. It will be important to offer systems that incorporate the newest IP-related requirements while also supporting the embedded architecture in current use. Not everyone will be able to just flip that switch.

TVT:What will be your most important product news?

OWENS: Wheatstone will be showing an enhanced version of the IP-64 TV board. It has enhanced graphics, more context sensitive touch screens and a more flexible Automixer. Layer management has also been improved.

We’ve been able to leverage our development work on the IP-64 to create a new TV board, the Strata 32. Like the IP-64, it’s fully IP-based and AES67-ready. It uses many of the same touchscreen functions as the IP-64 and has 32 physical input faders with two control layers, providing 64 mix channels, all in a 40-inch wide footprint. We’re able to use the Gibraltar IP Mix Engine to produce 16 aux busses, 16 mix minus busses, eight sub masters, stereo and 5.1 master outputs, all at a very attractive price point.

We’re also introducing a new Stagebox for IP-connected I/O with 32 mic/line in, 16 line out and eight-by-eight AES in a 4RU enclosure.

Finally, we’ve “virtualized” our Dimension 3 console to run on a touchscreen app for stations that require high channel counts but no physical console, for automated newsroom operations.

TVT:How is your new product different from what’s available on the market?

OWENS: Wheatstone is addressing the changes we see in the market—the move to IP, the need for higher functions/lower cost and the need for powerful virtual mixing.

TVT:What is it about the NAB Show that brings you back every year?

OWENS: We all work better with deadlines! Every year the NAB Show drives product development at Wheatstone. We take all the feedback from our customers both at the show and over the year to help us create and display great new gear in Vegas! Plus, we enjoy seeing our friends and making new ones!

LAS VEGAS—Wheatstone is planning an unveiling of its new Strata 32 IP audio console on the NAB Show floor. The new system features dedicated faders for eight subgroups and two masters, along with 32 physical faders that can be layered for 64 channels. Strata 32 can integrate with production automation systems and comes with an IP audio mix engine and optional stagebox.

The Strata is a new line of consoles powered by WheatNet-IP audio network. The unit provides access to all resources in the network through a touchscreen interface with intuitive menu for adjusting EQ, dynamics, setting talkback, configuring mix-minus feeds and bus matrices, muting mic groups and managing sources and destinations. Per-channel OLEDs display relevant editing and operating functions. It also has access to all sources in the network, and any channel can connect to any audio source or destination using any preferred audio format—HD/SDI, AES, MADI, AoIP, Analog or TDM. There is also unrestricted routing that allows faders to dial up any source.

Strata 32 also features a Gibraltar IP Mix Engine that is capable of 1,024 channels of simultaneous digital signal processing and provides advanced features like a new automixer with four separate automix groups and onscree weight control. An optional 4RU StageBox One extending console, which is also new, can be added, providing 32 mic/line inputs, 16 analog line outputs, eight AES3 inputs and outputs, 12 logic ports and two Ethernet ports.

In addition to the Strata 32, Wheatstone will also display its new SwitchBlade system at its booth, N6808, during the NAB Show.

LAS VEGAS—SwitchBlade is a new AoIP appliance from Wheatstone that will have its unveiling during the 2019 NAB Show. The product is designed to assist with the ability to share studio operations and high-quality programming between facilities.

The 1RU SwitchBlade is part of the WheatNet-IP audio network that includes audio codecs, SIP messaging and ACI control interface. The SwitchBlade combines AoIP logic control with SIP connectivity and codec bandwidth optimization to transport programming and the control logic for full studio operation between two sites.

SwitchBlade includes WheatNet-IP’s Application Control Interface for remotely triggering events and elements in the WheatNet environment. In addition to the ACI-supported control commands, specialized virtual interfaces for SwitchBlade can be developed using ScreenBuilder virtual development tools. SwitchBlade also has two Ethernet connections, one to connect to an SIP service provider or SIP-enabled PBX phone system, and the other for connecting directly to the WheatNet-IP Audio network. In addition, SwitchBlade comes with the 256 Kb/s stereo Opus and G.711 codec for distribution.

When connected, SwitchBlade can offer up to 24 modules as sources/destinations in the WheatNet-IP Navigator software. Each module can carry ancillary signalling embedded in the audio streams for equipment activation and control, and each can be controlled, configured and reset without interfering with any of the others. All 24 modules can also link to any remote SIP-compliant Opus or other codec, or another SwitchBlade, to deliver programming direct to all channels on the WheatNet-IP network.

Wheatstone will display SwitchBlade at its NAB Show booth, N6806. To register for the NAB Show, visit www.nabshow.com.

The Wheatstone factory in New Bern, N.C., officially reopened Wednesday, a few days after Hurricane Florence tore through the region.

“The factory is open, and our building and its contents weathered the storm completely unscathed,” Wheatstone Systems Engineer/Webmaster Scott Johnson reported via email. “As far as we can tell, the building never even lost power.”

He explained, “Our building is a high, reinforced concrete structure with a relatively new, well-maintained roof. it sits on a reinforced concrete foundation. Our power comes via an underground, redundant ‘loop feed’ to a padmount transformer, and that feed has been pretty rugged. Our Internet connectivity, which is via dark fiber to a communications nexus nearby, is also fully operational.”

[Read: Industry Groups Stations Prep for Storm]

Johnson estimates that 60% of the manufacturer’s staff also returned to work, with more expected to return Thursday. Some of the areas surrounding the factory are still experiencing flooding, and the rivers near New Bern are predicted to actually crest in the coming days, so some closed roads may continue to present problems. Additionally, some employees evacuated ahead of the storm but have been unable to return due to the closures.

Although the factory fared well, many in New Bern were not so lucky. The city and surrounding Craven County are still operating under emergency declarations, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Red Cross are on site helping those affected by the storm and its aftermath.

New Bern, After Hurricane Florence

Scott Johnson shares photos illustrating some of the damage the storm caused

Several Wheatstone employees have reported damage to their property — at least one house and one roof were lost to Hurricane Florence. Many others, including Johnson, were without power for days.

Johnson wrote Wednesday, “Most of the folks here have ridden out at least one hurricane since they’ve been here, and the message I’ve gotten from each of them is the same: They have neverseen anything like this.”

In an earlier email to RW Editor in Chief Paul McLane, Johnson wrote, “We’re reeling here, but it’s a strong, resilient town, and we’ve got a great, can-do group of Wheaties. We’ll bounce back.”

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Bahakel Communications is a family-owned communications business with 14 TV and radio stations primarily based in the south. When we decided to move to IP networking to share live productions between three of our six TV stations, we wanted to push the envelope of IP without getting into unproven territory. We needed the system to work reliably and that meant the right IP networked audio console.

We planned to produce most of the newscasts and weather reports for WCCB-TV, WOLO-TV, Columbia, S.C., and WFXB-TV, Myrtle Beach, N.C. from our WCCB newsroom in Charlotte.

RELIABLE IP AUDIO NETWORK

We were looking for the ideal IP networked console to replace our Wheatstone TV80, which had served us faithfully for the past two decades. We didn’t have to look far—we found it in Wheatstone’s Dimension Three, a capable board like our TV80, yet with the proven WheatNet-IP audio network that could handle mic control, IFB and final mixing for all three stations from our main studio in Charlotte.

For our purposes, Dimension Three was perfect. It was layered, had a very capable touchscreen interface on the bridge, and more busses than we’d ever need (16 mix-minus and 16 AUX sends on every channel, plus two stereo and two 5.1 surround master busses), plus stereo and 5.1 surround panning… with EQ and dynamics processing available for each input, each subgroup and each program bus.

Most important to us was the proven reliability of the IP audio network behind Dimension Three; WheatNet-IP is an AES67-compatible audio network known to be reliable and fail-proof.

THREE FOR ONE

The Dimension Three IP audio console now handles mixing, mic control and IFB for all three stations from the Charlotte studio. This is done through I/O BLADEs, the access units that make up the Wheat- Net-IP audio network. All studio cameras, mics, IFB, prompter, weather system, and set monitors in the Columbia newsroom are linked to Charlotte by IP. In Charlotte, it all goes through production and master control, and is then re-encoded with all the subchannels and sent back to Columbia via IP transport for transmission. The same setup is used for some programming for WFXB-TV in Myrtle Beach. Mid-day weather is presented from the Columbia newsroom, through WCCB-TV production, and fed back via IP to WFXBTV for air. News and weather can originate from any of the three locations for all or any of the three stations, as was the case during Hurricane Matthew.

When the storm hit in late 2016, we broadcast live updates for all three communities from each of the locations as it developed, and we continued to broadcast updates even during a mass evacuation in Myrtle Beach without losing connectivity. As WFXB-TV’s building sat empty and dark, we remotely produced live updates for the Myrtle Beach community from our studio in Charlotte.

Recently, we expanded on the WheatNet-IP audio network with Wheatstone’s EDGE and AuraIP-8 BLADE for an eight-channel audio link over Ethernet IP. We now use the system for transporting multiple Columbia radio stations’ audio back to WOLO-TV’s master control in Charlotte for EAS compliance.

Bob Davis is director of engineering and operations for Bahakel Communications LTD. He can be reached atbdavis@wccbcharlotte.com.

For more information, visitwww.wheatstone.comor call 252-638-7000.

By now, you’ve heard that AES67 is part of the SMPTE 2110-30 standard and that all the major IP audio vendors offer this audio transport standard as part of their system.

The AES67 format will be useful for streaming audio between the control room and the master control and there’s good reason to believe that it will effectively eliminates the practice of HD/SDI audio embedding/de-embedding with video, and all the hardware that goes along with HD/SDI workflows.

There’s been a great deal of talk about AES67, but that is as far as it’s gone for most broadcasters – essentially a new standard still sitting on the dealer lot waiting for a test drive.

How easy will it be to commission AES67 in your plant?

We decided to take AES67 out for a spin to find out. Earlier this summer we did a trial run of AES67 through a large WheatNet-IP system staged at the Wheatstone factory in New Bern, North Carolina, during what we call a BLADEFest. (BLADEs are the I/O access units that make up the WheatNet-IP audio network). We do BLADEFests periodically to test our system under real-world conditions, and for this one, we added in a few AES67 devices while we were at it.

We added AES67 devices from Genelec, Ward-Beck, Dante, and Axia into the WheatNet-IP system of 12 mixing consoles, 62 hardware BLADEs (or I/O access units), 100 software BLADEs, talent stations, SideBoards, Smart Switch panels, and software including three different vendors’ automation systems. It was all tied together through Cisco and Dell switches.

We ran the system through a series of automated torture tests that included completely rebooting the system and verifying proper operation afterward. We’re happy to say that after more than 160 reboots, not a single connection failure or loss of audio occurred. We also learned a great deal about commissioning AES67 in a plant. Here are a few major findings.

Finding #1. AES67 specifies version 2 of the IEEE-1588 Precision Time Protocol, or PTP. For an AoIP system to maintain timing and stay synchronized with other AES67 devices, the system timing must be controlled by PTPv2. For that to occur there must be some device in the system that serves the role as PTPv2 timing generator to which all other devices slave their timing. Standardizing timing makes it possible to re-synchronize audio to video since every packet in the AES67 audio stream carries a time stamp. Once the PTPv2 clock is running, it’s possible to begin connecting AES67 devices to the network. 

Once the PTPv2 clock is running, the system is licensed for AES67 and it’s possible to begin connecting AES67 devices to the network.

Finding #2. Before connecting AES67 devices, map out an IP and stream multicast address plan with all devices on the same IP subnet. Each AoIP vendor has their own way of allocating addresses and a plan will assure there’s no overlap and that AES67 devices will be on the same IP subnet since multicasting does not normally cross subnet boundaries. Start with the AES67 devices that are least common or least flexible in specifying or changing multicast addresses.

Finding #3. When adding an AES67 device to the network, set the system sample rate at 48kHz unless you know the device sample rate. AES67 does not require devices to support 44.1kHz and many do not. You’ll most likely find this setting option and others in the admin software that comes with the network system. For example, the WheatNet-IP audio network uses Navigator, an interface screen of which is shown below. 

Finding #4. When adding an AES67 device to the network, pay attention to packet timing incompatibilities. WheatNet-IP uses 1/4 ms packet timing for minimum latency. Most AES67 devices also support 1/4 ms packet timing but some, such as Dante, do not. For those devices that do not use 1/4 ms packet timing, we enabled the AES67 1 ms Support option in WheatNet-IP Navigator, as shown below.

Finding #5. Some AES67 devices do not offer an easy way to manually manage streaming details, although these devices often can ingest these details in the form of an SDP file. In our case, we created SDP files by simply right-clicking on the desired source stream’s name in the Navigator crosspoint grid and opening a window that let us create the file. 

Above are a few sample SDP files from WheatNet-IP and Dante showing multicast address, packet timing, sample rate and stream formats.

Overall, commissioning AES67 in most broadcast plants should be a nonevent as broadcasters begin adopting the SMPTE 2110 suite of standards. 

Andy Calvenese is vice president of engineering for Wheatstone.

Editor's note, Finding #1 was updated July 30, per author's request. 

NEW YORK—Wheatstone will feature the WheatNet-IP audio network for live remote productions and other purposes. Wheatstone’s WheatNet-IP is an AES67-compatible IP audio network system made up of I/O BLADEs for ingesting audio, controlling microphones and other studio devices, and transporting real-time audio over IP. As part of a wide area network between the main studio and a sports stadium or other venue for live remote production, the WheatNet-IP M4IP-USB BLADE is used at the remote site as an interface between the network and up to four microphones. This four-channel mic processor has four XLR inputs and an Ethernet output port, with parametric EQ, de-esser and compressors for each channel.

The M4IP-USB can be used as a standalone BLADE, or it can be part of a network of BLADEs to form a WheatNet-IP audio network. The company says it can also be interfaced to almost any analog or digital mixer that takes AES or analog audio. As an AES67-compatible unit, it can be interfaced into IP audio networks that have AES67 (such as Dante).

Like other BLADEs, the M4IP-USB has two eight-channel utility mixers that can be assigned to be a very low-latency IFB subsystem and/or premixer with remote control capability in a network of other BLADEs. It includes built-in silence detection on all outputs with auto switchover and auto fall back for operational reliability, and USB ports for ingesting audio directly from computers and other devices. As an I/O BLADE, it can route audio streams to anywhere in the network.

Wheatstone will exhibit in booth N171.

NEW BERN, N.C.—Wheatstone will use the IBC Show platform to feature its WheatNet-IP system and its AES67 compatibility and IP audio networking capabilities for radio and television environments.

Wheatstone plans to demonstrate WheatNet-IP’s AES67 compatibility in an overall system based on SMPTE ST 2110 final draft standards. This will be included in the larger IP Showcase that will take place during the IBC Show, which will be held in room E106.

Wheatstone will also display WheatNet-IP and some of its other products at booth 8.C91 during IBC 2017.

NEW BERN, N.C.—The PR&E brand is back at Wheatstone, as the audio equipment manufacturer has announced it has begun production on the new PR&E DMX digital audio console. This is the first product in an expected new line of studio products to restore the PR&E brand, which Wheatstone acquired in February.

The DMX digital audio console is an IP networked broadcast studio console, with the new consoles adding IP audio routing as a studio add-on to the traditional PR&E model. The DMX will come in eight fader and 16 fader control surfaces and are available with a 1RU DMX mix engine and 1RU Razor I/O module, which include 1GB Ethernet ports and RJ-45 interfaces.

The DMX, as well as future products, are set to replace PR&E’s legacy Vistamax and Envoy router lines and RMX consoles. The PR&E branded NetWave and Oasis consoles will continue to be manufactured by Wheatstone.

In addition, Wheatstone is also issuing an expanded technical support program for existing PR&E customers. The support program will offer 24/7 support, onsite troubleshooting, spare part kits and a parts inventory. Wheatstone says it will continue to honor currently active PR&E hardware warranties and related tech support.

DMX is expected to begin shipping by the end of the summer.

NEW BERN, N.C.—Wheatstone will use the NAB Show floor as a chance to showcase its virtualized audio services through a live remote production in partnership with Artel.

The demonstration will see foosball players playing a simulated sporting event on one side of the Wheatstone booth. The camera feed will be picked up on the other side of the booth for final mixing and production using the Dimension Three (Touch) IP audio networked console. Audio routing, control, mixing and processing will all be done over the wide-area network through Wheatstone’s WheatNet-IP network of virtual audio services made up of I/O Blades.

Each I/O Blade features two stereo 8x2 utility mixers and audio processing tools to mix sources from the network and process the resultant mixes. Blades also provide cross-point control for the signal matrix. For the demo, one Blade will be used to retrieve SDI audio directly from the camera, de-embed it and send it as discrete audio, while another will ingest the audio feeds. The M4IP-USB mic processor is also available as a Blade, allowing mic adjustments to be made locally or remotely. In addition, an Ethernet Cisco edge switch is included in the demo’s rack system to network it all together.

The goal of the demonstration will be to show how to control levels remotely from the studio IP console, as well as trigger IFBs and turn mics on or off.

Attendees can see the demonstration at either Wheatstone’s booth (N6531) or Artel’s (N4511).

NEW BERN, N.C.—Following its acquisition of the Pacific Research & Engineering console brand from GatesAir last week, Wheatsone has named SCMS as its exclusive U.S. distributor.

Effective immediately, SCMS will handle all deals for PR&E consoles and networking wares across theU.S. The acquisition was for all of PR&E’s assets and intellectual property, which includes audio consoles, the networking system, the furniture lines, all designs, trademarks, engineering files and tooling.

In addition to the PR&E consoles, SCMS will continue to serve as a non-exclusive distributor for Wheatstone’s audio processing and Audioarts console lines.

NEW BERN, N.C.—Wheatstone Corp. announced that it has acquired the assets and intellectual property of Pacific Research & Engineering from GatesAir of Quincy, Ill. (formerly Harris Broadcast) for an undisclosed amount. The purchase includes audio consoles, the networking system, the furniture lines, all designs, trademarks, engineering files and tooling, effectively restoring the PR&E console brand under the Wheatstone umbrella.

PR&E is a console manufacturer dating back to the 1970s with more than $80 million in products and services sold globally.

“We have a respect for the PR&E brand that goes way back,” said Wheatstone CEO Gary Snow. “They were considered the MercedesBenz of consoles at one time, and today, the name PR&E still stands for quality. Our intention is to not only restore the PR&E brand, but to grow it and give existing as well as new customers the mobility to easily transition to IP networking.”

Wheatstone previously acquired Auditronics in March of 1999 and Audion Labs in October of 2015,and currently manufactures a complete line of broadcast studio products that includes Audioarts Engineering and VoxPro brand names, as well as Wheatstone IP audio networking, control surfaces,talent stations, audio processing for FM, AM and streaming, software applications, and other products developed and designed specifically for broa

NEW BERN, N.C.—While it might not take up a spot in agora as it would in ancient times, Wheatstone will be offering its products in Greece after announcing that it has added AV SYS as a new representative.

AV SYS is based in Athens, Greece, and provides integrated systems in IP transport, head-end compression and 4K software technology. Among the products that it will be offering customers is the WheatNet-IP system, an AES67 compatible IP audio network for audio mixing, routing and control into a single studio environment. Additional products include Wheatstone mixing desks and consoles that work with the WheatNet-IP network.

Effective immediately, AVS SYS will represent Wheatstone’s product line of IP based products and systems in Greece and Cyprus.

NEW BERN, N.C.—Lon Neumann is joining the Wheatstone team in this new year, as the company has announced his appointment as sales engineer for its audio consoles and IP routing systems for TV broadcast.

Neumann comes to Wheatstone after holding past positions that include senior technical consultant for THX; regional manager/field applications engineer for Linear Acoustic; and regional manager for NVision. He also currently serves as secretary of the SMPTE committee that develops international interoperability standards for object-based immersive audio systems in digital cinema.

Neumann will begin his responsibilities effective immediately from his offices in Sherman Oaks, Calif.

NEW BERN, N.C.—The AirAura X3 processor from Wheatstone is now capable of off-air monitoring, measurement and real-time correction of HD diversity delay sans external gear thanks to the addition of HD/FM time alignment.

Wheatstone has embedded the diversity delay, as well as its measurement and correction, within the AirAura X3 audio processor.

The goal of this is minimize listener tuneouts when the HD signal blends to analog at the fringes of a station’s coverage. The diversity delay is kept in alignment, removing the need for outboard hardware.

NEW BERN, N.C.—Wheatstone has thrown a new tool into the mix for its FM-55 audio processor and SG-192 stereo generator units, the Multiplex Power Wizard. This new feature reduces or eliminates the undesirable audio effects that can result from the restriction of multiplex (MPX) power to minimize adjacent channel interface.

Wheatstone says it is specifically targeting this product for European broadcasters and other regions where short-spaced FM frequencies reduce the average RF sideband energy through restrictive MPX power control. The Multiplex Power Wizard is designed to keep MPX power up at the legal limit of the European ITU-R BS.412-7 modulation standard, but without artifacts such as gain swelling or gain pumping.

The Multiplex Power Wizard uses a program-dependent prediction, detection and measurement algorithm that can adapt the MPX power controller’s behavior to incoming program content. The feature’s location in the signal path allows it to be aware of audio power increases generated by all prior processing.

Wheatstone has made the Multiplex Power Wizard a standard feature for the FM-55 and SG-192 running version 1.2.19 or higher.

NEW BERN, N.C.—Wheatstone continues its international roll-out of the VoxPro system, announcing that MRZ Broadcast in the Netherlands is the latest dealership to add the digital audio recorder and editor to its line or products. Wheatstone previously announced deals with distributors in Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland.

VoxPro is a PC-based software that can be used in live and on-air broadcasts and in production suites. Its control panel surface provides one-touch recording and jog wheel and scrub key features. It can digitally record and edit on two tracks, and imports and exports all popular file formats.

Wheatstone acquired the VoxPro system as part of its acquisition of Audion Labs in October.

NEW BERN, N.C.—Wheatstone continues its expansion of the VoxPro digital audio recorder and editor with the announcement that Agile Broadcasting will represent the system in Australia. This comes after Wheatstone recently announced distribution deals in both New Zealand and Switzerland.

VoxPro is a PC-based software for live on-air broadcasts and in production suites. Features include a control panel surface with one-touch recordings, and jog wheel and scrub keys for editing. It digitally records and edits on two tracks and is able to import and export all popular file formats.

Wheatstone purchased the VoxPro system from Audion Labs in October.

NEW BERN, N.C.—The VoxPro is heading to New Zealand as Wheatstone and New Zealand-based Southern Broadcast have comes to terms on a distribution and support agreement. Wheatstone, who acquired the VoxPro in early October, has previously announced new distribution deals in Switzerland.

VoxPro

VoxPro can be used for live and on-air broadcasts and in production suites. A PC-based software program, VoxPro features a control panel surface that provides one-touch recording and features like a jog wheel and scrub keys for quick editing. It is able to digitally record and edit on two tracks, and imports and exports all popular file formats individually or in groups.

As a part of the Wheatstone line of products, VoxPro can now be integrated with the WheatNet-IP audio network.

NEW BERN, N.C.—After acquiring the VoxPro digital audio recorder and editor earlier this month, Wheatstone has announced that it will be distributing the unit worldwide. Switzerland’s Media Engineering will be the first to distribute the VoxPro under the new network.

VoxPro

VoxPro is a PC-based software program with a control panel surface that provides one-touch recording and features like a jog wheel and scrub keys for quick editing. It is able to digitally record and edit on two tracks, and can also import and export popular file formats individually or in groups.

Wheatstone acquired VoxPro from Audion Labs back on Oct. 5. The VoxPro unit can now be integrated into the WheatNet-IP audio network environment for online sharing, editing and archiving of audio.

NEW BERN, N.C.—Wheatstone has announced that it is expanding its sales and support team with the appointment of Lukas Hurwitz to the position of sales engineer. Hurwitz will work out of his office in the San Francisco Bay area.

Lukas Hurwitz

Hurwitz comes to Wheatstone with more than 15 years of experience in the audio, music and broadcast industries. Most recently he served as the sales and marketing manager for Inovonics.

Hurwitz will start immediately.

NEW BERN, N.C.— Equipment manufacturer Wheatstone has acquired Audion Labs, maker of the VoxPro digital audio editor.

“Audion Labs will remain a separate brand entity under Wheatstone,” the company stated in an announcement.

Terms were not announced. Rick Bidlack, Audion Labs’ chief technology officer, will remain with the company and operate from Seattle, Wheatstone said.

“Audion’s VoxPro is a staple in radio studios as one of the few broadcast-specific digital voice editors designed to record and quickly edit phone calls on the fly for on-air broadcast,” Wheatstone stated. The product is a PC-based software program with optional control panel surface, seen in a marketing image released with the announcement (right).

Charlie Brown created the editor in the early 1990s while working on-air in Seattle; he later founded Audion Labs. He was the seller in this transaction and was quoted in the announcement citing the benefits of the acquisition for “the care and growth of the VoxPro brand.”

North Carolina-based Wheatstone makes IP audio networking products under the WheatNet-IP brand, as well as audio processors and other gear for radio and TV broadcast uses including Vorsis and Audioarts Engineering products.

In the announcement, Wheatstone founder and CEO Gary Snow stated, “This is a terrific little company that with one product has made a big difference in the day-to-day operations of most radio stations today.”

Wheatstone said VoxPro would benefit from its 24/7 support and worldwide distribution footprint.

NEW BERN, N.C.—Wheatstone, the provider of audio products for the TV and radio industries, has announced two new products that it will premiere at IBC 2015. Set to debut are the IP Mix Engine, a AES67 compatible IP audio network interface, and a new touchscreen for the Dimension Three audio console.

The Gibraltar IP Mix Engine provides Wheatstone audio consoles with direct connectivity into WheatNet-IP, an AES67 compatible IP audio network. The new engine can handle 1,024 channels of audio, allowing IP audio consoles to handle live and post-production. The Gibraltar IP Mix Engine will be available for the Dimension Three, Series Four, D8-EX, Series Two and IP-64 digital mixing console.

Dimension Three

Wheatstone will also showcase its updated Dimension Three TV audio consoles, now featuring a touchscreen option. Eliminating the “sea of knobs,” as Wheatstone describes, the touchscreen option features a tabbed menu for basic functions like talkback, configuring bus matrices, muting mic groups, and managing sources. It also utilizes smartphone-like gestures, including pinching. In addition, a new interrogation feature is available for drilling down into function settings.

To find out more about these products you can visit Wheatstone’s booth, 8.A86, at IBC 2015, which runs from Sept. 11-15 in Amsterdam.