Mediahuis Radio Chooses DHD Audio Mixers

Mediahuis Radio continues its expansion with the completion of a new production facility in Amsterdam.

DHD RX2 and DX2 audio mixers connected to XD3 Cores form central elements. These were supplied by Media Utilities, a long-established audio systems integrator based at Almere.

"We are running four stations from the new complex in the Telegraaf building on Amsterdam’s Basisweg: Radio Veronica, 100% NL, SLAM! and Sublime," said Tim Blankman, Technical Manager at Mediahuis Radio. "Radio Veronica and 100% NL are both transmitted on national FM and DAB, SLAM! on regional FM and national DAB, and Sublime on National DAB.

"Time pressure was a significant challenge so we chose to make the five radio studios technically identical with state-of-the-art technology including extensive support for multimedia. Visual radio is available in all of the studios. Much of our content is recorded 24/7 and can be used for social media side channels.

"We chose DHD RX2 mixers for all five radio studios in the complex plus three production studios and two vocal booths. Studios 1, 2 and 3 are branded for Radio Veronica, 100% NL and SLAM! respectively. Studios 4 and 5 are assignable. Selecting the right preset on a given studio's DHD mixing console switches third-party device presets correctly and also sets the light and decor in the right colour. The DHD mixers are all equipped with lightweight manual faders that enable soft fader starts for fast presentations, combined with the reliability and versatility of digital control. The reactions from our jocks have been very enthusiastic.

"Each of the three production studios has a DHD DX2 mixer that can be used in conjunction with our vocal booths. The vocal booths are also equipped with a DX2 mixer for multifunctional use, allowing programme makers to contribute live or recorded content to the production studios. We have built our own I/O platform so that all our software can communicate with hardware, including DHD."

"This is among the most recent of many DHD projects we have worked on over the years," added Daniel Geertsema, founder and Managing Director of Media Uilities. "Tim and his colleagues selected DHD systems for their high audio quality, robust build quality, ease of configuration and ease of operation. Each RX2 desktop console is connected to a main and redundant pair of XD3 cores which enables Mediahuis to switch seamlessly and inaudibly between the cores if they ever choose to perform updates while on air."

DHD RX2 mixers are based on central and fader modules which can be integrated to suit a wide range of radio and TV production environments such as on-air studios, master control rooms and mobile production vehicles. Configuration scales easily from small production units with 6 or 12 faders to large consoles with up to 96 faders, dependent on the capabilities of the connected core. Central and fader modules each have a dedicated high brightness 10.1 inch touch display. The central module provides the most important audio I/Os plus a direct microphone input, loudspeaker output and stereo headphone feed. Assignable hardware buttons are provided in the central section. With adaptive labels in the 7 inch vertical touch display, these allow fast access to important mixer functions such as monitoring and talkback. All RX2 modules are designed for easy maintenance. Power consumption per module is an economical 25 watts.

The DHD DX2 is a compact desktop audio mixer designed for use wherever space is at a premium. DX2 mixers can be configured from a four-fader central module and six-fader expansion unit. Four faders plus a dedicated section for setup, monitoring and talkback are incorporated in the central module. Connectivity features include a broadcast quality XLR microphone input, right and left line outputs to feed active loudspeakers, a 6.3 mm jack stereo headphone output plus a 3.5 mm mini jack input port which allows direct audio insertion from a smartphone for live telephone interviews. The fader module has six professional grade 100 mm faders with dust-protection. Both DX2 modules are equipped with a user-configurable 7.8 inch multi-touch screen for viewing fader and central control parameters.

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