Megahertz Deliver New Roadcaster To Ireland's RTE

Since the opening of RTÉ's second national radio station in the late 1970s, the station's Outside Broadcast (OB) vehicles have become publicly associated with large-scale events, from important football matches to rock concerts by big-name acts.
The new 2fm Roadcaster went into service at the Euro 2008 Ireland versus Slovakia qualifier at Dublin's Croke Park stadium on March 28.
RTÉ (Radio Telefís Éireann) had wanted to replace at least one of its vehicles for some time, with the intention of using the new unit mainly for pop-music channel 2fm, but also for RTÉ's Radio 1 and Lyric (classical, jazz and world-music) services.
"Our newest radio van is over seven years old, and the oldest was closer to its 20th birthday," commented RTÉ's Dennis Stevenson. "We need to have at least two working trucks at any one time, and we wanted something new and stylish to use at concerts and big public events which people would identify with RTÉ. The Roadcaster had to be capable of broadcasting via satellite link, ISDN or a traditional mast."
Megahertz built a radio broadcast unit for RTÉ back in 2000, so the RTÉ team were already familiar with the company, but as is usual with the state broadcaster, the contract for the new vehicle was only awarded following the usual competitive tender process. RTÉ's specification for the new Roadcaster was for a modern-looking OB vehicle divided into three sections internally: a hospitality area by the entrance (featuring a DVD and LCD TV, so that guests can be entertained) plus the traditional engineering and studio areas.
The Megahertz team made presentations to RTÉ of a full working model of their
proposed vehicle in their now-standard fashion, using the 3D CAD design software package Inventor, and after suggesting several possible designs, Megahertz won the tender.
The truck has doorways on either side, and furniture in the hospitality section is on tracks within the vehicle, so that once the entrance side has been decided at the site, the furniture inside can easily be moved to block the entrance not in use, freeing up space. Similarly, the DJ desk in the studio area of the van can be swivelled for use either way around, so that the DJ can see and be seen by the audience outside. Taken together, all these design features mitigate the effect of the venue when it dictates the working position of the vehicle.
RTÉ had asked for a few other ergonomic considerations to be made, based on experience of their existing vehicles. To avoid the need for tangles of wires to be routed out through the main door in a potential infringement of Health and Safety regulations, cable access, including any that for any mains power cables, was made possible from underneath, through the floor of the vehicle, and also at a high level by means of a specially designed internal duct that runs from the roof area to the ground. Similarly, it was considered important that nothing should stick out too far from the body of the vehicle when in use, keeping it streamlined in appearance.
So instead of the exit comprising outward-opening doors and folding steps, the new vehicle was designed by Megahertz to make use of an internal stairwell and leisure coach-style sliding doors which are almost flush to the side of the truck when open (and which don't foul the station logo on the side, so that people know where the truck has come from). The sleek look of the vehicle was further enhanced by the modern-looking 'wraparound' window at the hospitality end of the truck, an idea that came up while RTÉ's engineers were looking for design ideas at Megahertz's coachbuilders.
In the Roadcaster's completed design, power can be provided by a local mains source via cable or by the onboard 24kVA generator. Audio starts its journey to the outside world with the DJ, who has local control of Tascam CD and MiniDisc players, a Denon DVD player and a Sonifex S2-15 mixer, and the all-important Jutel RadioMan software, which controls the station's playlist, is displayed and run from Neovo 15-inch touchscreens. Monitoring throughout is provided by Genelec 8040As, AKG D3800 microphones are used for the DJ and guests in the studio, and Beyer Opus 500 MkII wireless mics are also on hand so that the DJ
may conduct interviews outside the vehicle when necessary. After passing via the Sound Engineer's larger Sonifex S2-25, audio can be routed to the external PA system, so that crowds at roadshows and large RTÉ events can hear the on-air transmissions. The onboard external PA is distributed on three sides of the truck, and is capable of providing 3600W of output from three QSC PLX302 power amps feeding three pairs of QSC AD-S282H PA speakers.
Final transmission back to the radio station can be achieved via a number of systems. Satellite transmissions are encoded using a pair of APT WorldNet Rio audio codecs feeding into twin Paradise Evolution PD25 satellite modems for fully redundant source encoding. RF amplification is achieved using Xicom's XTS-50K solid state PA, ultimately feeding into Advent's NewSwift 120MA 1.2-metre dish. Transmission can also be passed via a CCS Prima LT ISDN codec. A 16- metre Clark mast was also included in the design and is fully enclosed within the body of the vehicle.
For further information: www.megahertz.co.uk or www.azcar.com
(DS/SP)