DHD audio Adopts IP-Integrated Production System

DHD audio has adopted an IP-integrated production system at the Hilversum studios of NH Media, regional radio and television broadcaster for North Holland.

The recently completed system was designed in partnership with Dutch broadcast and IT solutions specialist D&MS and includes equipment supplied via Media Utilities, Almere.

"We relocated from Amsterdam to Hilversum in 2022 while our sister channel AT5 remained in Amsterdam," said Edgar van Santen, NH Media Broadcast Coordinator. "The engineers at NH/AT5 must be capable of providing technical support for playout, radio studios and TV infrastructure. We opted for unified technology as much as possible across our radio and TV studios and broadcast infrastructure. We also decided to have our radio and TV studios fully IP-based as this provides more flexibility for sharing resources between Hilversum and Amsterdam. It was important that NH Media and AT5 newsroom journalists be able to operate the equipment without technical assistance.

"All video sources use the NewTek NDI protocol for production networking and all audio is Audinate Dante. We have chosen a NewTek TriCaster for daily news switching in the TV control room. It is an all-in-one machine that's easy for everyone to understand. We use vMix for streaming, supplemented by Visual Radio Assist for visual radio.

"Audio production in our radio and television studios is via DHD audio mixers, chosen because they are easy to operate. Complex audio setups can be preconfigured so that end users never need to worry about details such as clean feeds, IFBs or voice processing. We also experienced good support from the supplier. The audio mixers are a combination of RX2 desks, XC3 Cores and TX panels. We designated key users in advance and made them an integral part of the change process. Everything is running smoothly."

"The NH Media team has created an impressive system which demonstrates the ease of installation, versatility, user-friendliness and space efficiency of our modular audio systems plus the ease with which they can be reconfigured or expanded to accommodate future workflows," added Marc Herrmann, Managing Director of DHD audio. "It is also pleasing to see the growing popularity of visual radio as a medium combining the strengths of traditional radio and television broadcasting."

DHD RX2 audio mixers are based on two panel types – central and fader – which can be combined to match a wide range of radio and TV production environments. RX2 configuration scales easily from small production units with 6 or 12 faders to large consoles with up to 96 faders. Each module has a dedicated high brightness 10.1 inch touch display. Supported character sets include West European, Arabic, Burmese, Chinese, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Tamil and Thai.

The central RX2 mixing panel incorporates the most frequently used audio I/Os plus a direct microphone input and a stereo headphone output. Loudspeakers can also be driven directly from this panel. Assignable hardware buttons are provided in the central section, supplemented by administrator-configurable labels in the 7 inch vertical touch display. The combination allows fast and tactile access to important mixer functions such as monitoring and talkback. RX2 modules are designed for easy maintenance and economic power consumption (25 watts maximum each). An included chaining kit allows physical connection of fader modules.

The XC3 IP core comprises two high efficiency DSP modules which combine into a single 1U chassis. In combination these support up to 48 stereo faders, 72 stereo busses and 16 channels of AES67 IP audio. IPx expansion modules can be added to accommodate 128 channels of AES67/Ravenna IP audio in/out and up to 512 Dante channels.

DHD's TX mixers are ultra-compact tabletop touchscreen panels optimised for daily operation wherever space is at a premium. Typical applications include news desks, edit suites and communication link vehicles. Just 256 mm wide, 58 mm high and 272 mm front-to-back, the TX has a 10.1 inch IPS LCD monitor with capacitive touchscreen faders plus six hardware pushbuttons and two assignable potentiometers. Other features include an XLR microphone input, an XLR/6.3 mm jack combination headphone output, an integrated talkback microphone and a loudspeaker. A single network cable up to 100 metres in length connects the TX to a DHD processing core or concentrator. The cable transmits all audio and control signals plus power.

www.dhd-audio.com