How often have you been driving along and noticed a new business sign going up? What used to be Bank A is now Bank B, or maybe the bank is gone and what used to sit at the corner of First and Elm is now a new shoe store.

Welcome to same place, different business, a trend that seems to be happening a lot lately, especially in broadcasting.

“The manufacturer of most of our TV transmitters has been gone since 2014. We’re still running them but it’s a reminder that you have to have a level of trust in what you’re putting into your station because it’ll be there a long time,” said Matt Monin, Director of Broadcast Engineering, TV, for Arkansas PBS who also takes on studio projects for other broadcasters in the state.

His most recent studio projects included the WheatNet IP audio network system, one for the University of Central Arkansas’ KUCA-FM 91.3 and another for family-owned Freedom Broadcasting KFFB-FM covering north central Arkansas.

Two different stations, same AoIP studio.

In fact, Wheatstone has been a player at KUCA-FM for more than two decades as the manufacturer of the Audioarts analog console that the student-run station replaced with the IP-12 console surface recently. Monin had recommended the IP-12 and WheatNet IP audio network for KUCA-FM’s new studio this past year after installing the same at Freedom KFFB-FM a few years back. “Freedom was my first AoIP system. I showed the owner two AoIP systems and he asked me what the difference was. When I told him that all Wheatstone hardware is made in the U.S., he said ‘then that’s what we are going to get,’” said Monin.  

“If I’m recommending equipment, I need to know what the build quality is like and what the support is like,” he commented.

Shown are two studios, KFFB-FM on the left and KUCA-FM on the right. Two different stations, same console and AoIP network. Both are WheatNet IP audio networked with IP-12 console surfaces and Wheatstone Quickline™ furniture. 

Shown above, KFFB-FM’s I/O Blade that has been in operation for 1550 days…and counting. Monin installed the Blade in 2019 and it’s been flawlessly running ever since, one reason why he recommended Wheatstone for KUCA-FM’s new studios in 2023.

Before the completion of KUCA-FM's new facility, which is now visible through these glass windows, University of Central Arkansas students operated the station from an analog studio in the basement. It had a homebrew automation system and a predominately MP3 music library due to hard drive space limitations. Students would bring in their own music on laptops, which they fed into the console. The first hint that it was time for a more modern studio came when the university’s administrators sat down to their weekly show in the basement studio… and had to plug in their iPhones to a laptop in order to get music to the console and out to air. Fast forward to today, and KUCA-FM has a new WheatNet IP audio routed studio with an IP-12 console surface located on the main floor, off the student center. 

No more running through hoops - and A/D, D/A converters- and no more MP3s for KUCA-FM. The station is using RCS Zetta automation integrated into the WheatNet IP audio network, all running in native AoIP out to air. Commented Monin, “The first time I popped on the monitor, Steve [GM] said, ‘Wow, we have bass on the station! We’ve never had bass on the station before.’”

Matt Monin installed the new studio for the University of Central Arkansas in between his full-time  responsibilities at Arkansas PBS in Conway. “I’d get out of work at 4:30, work for a few hours at KUCA and get a lot done. I took a couple of half days and it all came along nicely considering I hadn’t configured a WheatNet system since 2019 when I installed Freedom KFFB,” he said.

Like any sensible AoIP console surface, the IP-12 is scripted so that students don’t have to worry about adding the right mix-minus to mic feeds or summing air mixes from several sources. “Even students starting out can easily use this console,” said Monin, adding that next year this time, the station will have a whole new group of students learning the ropes.

A podcast studio is planned for the future, which will likely include an analog console that will route into the WheatNet IP audio network through an I/O Blade. “We’ll just have the analog console come up on a Blade so that it can go to air or if a student has an interview that needs more mics than what we have in the podcast studio, they can just route that in with the Blade AoIP,” commented Monin.

There are three critical indicators on the mixing desk that help you keep an eye on audio levels.

1. VU indicator. The VU meter has been around for more than 80 years for a reason. It’s predictable, with predictable integration times and predictable release times so you can predictably read volume units. Keep in mind that the VU meter is averaging levels over time so that peaks can be higher than indicated. You can generally expect to have about 20dB of audio headroom above 0dBVU to encompass them.

2. Peak level indicator to read the transient peaks of the signal. This indicator tells you if peak levels are in danger of overloading the dynamic headroom limitations of the console. The clipping point is usually at 0dBFS. Peak signal levels run usually at or above -20dBFS, with transient peaks kicking up to about -6dBFS occasionally.

3. Loudness indicator for compliance with the ITU BS.1770-3 and similar television loudness standards. This indicator came about initially in response to the need to assess and regulate the loudness of adverts compared to regular programming. The Loudness Unit Full Scale (LUFS) or Loudness K-weighted Full Scale (LKFS) measurement shows the averaged loudness level of audio over time, usually much longer than that of a VU meter. The average loudness target level is -24 LKFS or -23 LUFS. By the way, you can’t miss this on a Wheatstone audio console – the LKFS/LUFS numbers are two inches high on the display screen. One LU (loudness unit) is equivalent to 1dB, so there's a direct correlation between how far the meter says you're over/under and how far you move a fader to compensate.

It all began with a handshake between our very own Jay Tyler and Leading Technologies' Vice President and CEO, Marco Porro. 

Now, several months into our new partnership with Italy’s leading audio and video distributor – aptly called Leading Technologies – we are, together, bringing comprehensive AoIP studios to Italian broadcasters and other media professionals there.

Magic happens when we combine our 200+ interconnected studio devices and AoIP elements with distributors that have a strong background in studio design, like Leading Technologies. For details, click to Leading Technologies and Wheat or go to our Distributor Locator page to find a WheatNet IP audio network distributor near you.

It all began with a handshake between our very own Jay Tyler and Leading Technologies' Vice President and CEO, Marco Porro.