NOW! 12-13 - Telos

AXIA | CONSOLES | APPLICATION ARTICLE
70
MULTILINGUAL, MULTI-STUDIO
IP-AUDIO AT RADIO FREE EUROPE / RADIO LIBERTY
In the decade since IP-Audio networking technology irst debuted to the broadcasting community, thousands
of studios, from large to small, have been built around it. Still, in conversation, people not familiar
with the technology still ask, “Is AoIP really robust enough for round-the-clock radio?” On those occasions,
the exciting operation that is Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, located in the Czech Republic capital of
Prague, comes quickly to mind as a shining example of just how robust Audio-over-IP is.
The impressive new home of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
For more than 60 years, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty
have been broadcasting news, information and discussion to
millions of listeners throughout Europe and Central Asia. RFE/
RL, as it’s commonly known, originates more than 1,000 hours
of programming per week, in 28 languages and broadcast to
more than 20 countries. That’s a lot of programming, and it
requires a stout infrastructure to keep it all running smoothly,
hour after hour, 365 days a year.
Originally headquartered in Munich, Germany, RFE/RL moved to
Prague in 1995. For the next 13 years, they occupied what had
been the Soviet-era Czech Parliament building in historic Wenc-
eslas Square. It served its purpose, but the structure had been
built to fulill a different kind of mission – one almost diametri-
cally opposed to the one it now served, as a free disseminator
of news and information. As the service approached its sixth
decade and looked to its future, it was clear that to both grow
and update, it would have to move to a new HQ.
The plan, as it evolved, was this: relocate RFE/RL to a new,
modern, purpose-built facility in Hagibor, outside of Prague’s
bustling center. RFE’s new house would be big, with more
than 200,000 square feet to contain the activities of over 500
employees daily.
Bill Cline inspects RFE’s Axia “test studio,” September, 2007
RFE/RL’s Director of Broadcast Engineering, Bill Cline, was intimately
involved in the new studios’ design. He liked the lexibility
of networked audio, and oversaw the building of studios
using Axia consoles and IP-Audio networking equipment in
2007; the success of those tests conirmed that Axia Livewire
AoIP was up to the operational requirements of a large operation
like Radio Free Europe’s.