With Consoles, Flexibility of Architecture Becomes Paramount

This is one in a series about trends in radio consoles and related infrastructure.

Luca La Rosa is senior project manager, R&D for Telos Alliance and lead designer on the Axia Quasar console line.

Radio World: What is the most important trend in the design of consoles for radio broadcast? 

Luca La Rosa: The rising demand for faster content creation and the transition towards remote production have led to greater use of cloud-based media production, making it an attractive option for those wanting to shorten their content production timelines. Additional benefits include the ability to collaborate globally and quickly distribute content across various platforms.

This trend has created expectations in the broadcast industry that deeply impact mixing console design by introducing the following challenges/design drivers:

Flexibility of architecture — As production workflows move to the cloud, digital mixing consoles, traditionally consisting of a control surface coupled with a mixing engine interfaced to one or more I/O endpoints, need to evolve to a less fixed architecture to be more flexible and adaptable to both traditional and REMI workflows. In some cases the control surface needs to be virtualized or browser-based; in others, only the mixing engine is virtual. And in other cases, both can be virtualized. 

There are also some remote production workflows where fully virtualized or hybrid architectures can be employed, depending on the complexity of the production. For instance, a remote physical control surface in a remote studio might control a virtualized engine assigned to the production mix and a second physical mixing engine is assigned to the local mix. 

Efficient use of AI — How could we miss AI? The rise of audio over IP in the virtualization world and the widespread adoption of cloud technologies are transforming audio processing and distribution in broadcasting, making them more adaptable and efficient, and raising new expectations in the broadcast console market. 

Many stations and production service providers are looking to minimize their equipment inventory, and “make more with less.” One of the real challenges for console designers is to figure out what are the best AI-driven tools to facilitate the live production and mixing processes. The so-called “Automixing” feature for example is now in every broadcast console, and it could be considered an ancestor of AI-based production tools.

The use of modern AI technology in mixing consoles could introduce a whole new level of interaction with the operators. Engineers will soon expect to be able to control a broadcast orchestrator with voice commands while they’re operating a console. At the same time, the video director could control camera feeds and some inputs on the same audio console in perfect synchronization, using an AI-based video switcher. 

Control-based interoperation — Broadcasters will soon want to couple the control surface that best matches their operational requirements with a third-party mixing engine that might be part of a cloud-based playout system. New standard control protocols, such as AES70, will need to grow in order for such systems to interoperate seamlessly. 

RW: What does scripting make possible?

La Rosa: Lots of things undoubtedly, but at a very high cost. Scripting is an old-fashioned way to achieve custom functionalities from a control surface that otherwise is a dumb controller. While this can be powerful, and achieve high levels of flexibility in controlling the facility, it poses important challenges in terms of costs and efficiency because the customer is often tied to the manufacturer, who is typically the only entity capable of writing advanced scripts and testing them. In the end, control surfaces that allow the implementation of custom functions through scripting tend to impact the customer’s budget after the project’s budget has been closed, by adding costs later on which are difficult to forecast, and can easily go out of control.

At Axia, we try to avoid this approach and give our clients all the tools needed for customizing our devices. We empower them to create new workflows by themselves as the need arises and free them from having to rely on our software engineers to achieve even the simplest function customization.

RW: Are AoIP-based consoles for radio now truly interoperable? Why or why not?

La Rosa: Not completely. Today different AoIP technologies are available from different manufacturers, but only the AoIP transport layer has been completely standardized — the source advertisement and discovery mechanisms have only been partially standardized. 

The AES67 standard relies on device-specific configuration tools and third-party software for system setup and management and does not address some important aspects like Source Control ownership, or Backfeed ownership for example. Imagine a live show where the broadcast console and the live mix console are from two different manufacturers and share the same sources via a common AoIP network. Which will control the individual monitor feeds that need to be sent back to those sources? How can the control be switched from console A to console B if needed? 

The thing that makes one mixing console system easier to use than another one is the automated logic that is behind all its control mechanisms. The high level of integration that can be achieved by a manufacturer within their ecosystem of AoIP devices is still one of the client’s main decision drivers when a company chooses an AoIP technology foe their facility.  

RW: How has the explosion in hybrid and remote workflows influenced the design of broadcast consoles and related infrastructure?

La Rosa: Remote workflows have driven quite a lot of the thinking behind modern consoles. The remote-control capabilities of today’s mixing consoles are much more sophisticated than ever before. We have moved from PC-based remote-control programs to HTML5-based control screens that can run on any browser-enabled device, and even enables tunneling audio monitor feeds back to talent via the remote browser — something that would have required a separate radio channel or telco link in the old days. This technology greatly surpasses traditional point-to-point remote controllers, breaking the closed boundaries of local networks and allowing the connection of multiple control endpoints (browsers) to a single console.

Read more stories on this topic in the Radio World ebook “Trends in Radio Consoles 2025.”

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