By David Chan, Director, JAA Systems
The end of 2019/the start of 2020 will be remembered mainly for one thing: the start of the pandemic. This is a subject to which I’ll return as it played a major part in an industry milestone that also began at the same time: one of the largest moves to AoIP across a radio network. RTM – Radio Television Malaysia – decided to embrace IP as it looked to replace and upgrade its FM radio production infrastructure. This is the story behind that project.
The raw figures bear out the scale of the project: In total, we have installed 75 Calrec Type R for Radio cores across nine regional radio stations. This includes an initial project with one regional station, PerlisFM, and eight regional radio networks have already been installed at RTM Kedah and Penang; Sabah and Labuan; Pahang and Terengganu; Negeri Sembilan and Melaka. A further three regional stations including RTM Keningau, RTM Sandakan, and RTM Tawau are currently being installed. Calrec has also won the tender to upgrade RTM RAS Kelantan recently. When this installation is complete, Calrec and its partner will have upgraded about sixty percent of RTM’s regional stations with Calrec Type R.
RTM will install a total of 192 Type R fader panels and 104 Type R cores so far. 75 Type R cores across nine regional radio stations are up and running, and 29 Type R cores in four more of its regional radio station networks will shortly be installed, bringing the total to thirteen regional stations.
This, as those figures show, has been a huge project. When we started working with Calrec back in 2016, IP was still far more talk than reality, but that began to change fairly quickly. At JAA Systems, we dedicated a lot of time to really understand the subject, the various protocol options like Dante/AES67 and so on, and what it meant for our customers. In turn, towards the end of the decade, we began an education process with relevant customers to help provide clarity and understanding of what a move to IP would mean and the benefits it would bring. Of course, broadcasters the size of RTM have their own teams dedicated to what the future brings, but even then, we could provide additional value by helping expand upon their IP education.
Radio is very important across Malaysia (we are talking about FM radio here) not only for entertainment purposes but also for information dissemination, including safety alerts where RTM is clearly the major service provider.
In 2018, we began talking with RTM about its future and what IP could mean for them. We built our own proof-of-concept – using a Calrec Type R alongside third-party technologies – not only to educate ourselves but so we could clearly show how it works to our customers. We configured it all and worked through any technical hurdles: this was vital to give us the confidence we needed. We learnt a huge amount. Then we took the whole thing to RTM and showed them it works perfectly.
IP infrastructure provides a range of benefits that were quickly recognised by RTM, with some being scalability and flexibility when it comes to technology purchase and installation. Each set up with RTM is very similar, meaning integration now and moving forward without any conversion or the need for additional interfaces. Then there’s the flexibility of IP workflows and the improved audio quality for listeners. It also increases productivity. There’s no downside whatsoever.
After securing an initial IP contract with the broadcaster for PerlisFM, using Type R, which the broadcaster deemed very successful, it then began an open tender process for the further eight regions: JAA Systems and Calrec won that contract.
There’s no fixed size and scale across the regional stations so each installation had its specific requirements, with the number of studios varying and therefore the number of Type R cores and fader panels also varying. In general, each main and backup on-air studio benefits from a 16-fader panel as well as a main core respectively. For the smaller setups, where there may be ingest studios alongside edit suites, 12-fader panels were installed. The project is AES67-based.
RTM Perlis FM.There’s no two ways about it, the onset of the pandemic provided a set of completely new challenges, and, as far as this project is concerned, the timing couldn’t have been worse. But both Calrec and JAA Systems had to rise to these challenges and that’s exactly what we did.
Travel was, of course, quite restricted and given the scale and geographic reach of this project, this meant we had to find new, remote ways of working. We held a lot of remote meetings with Calrec, scoping out how we could keep the project moving forward. We then spoke with RTM constantly to troubleshoot any issues and provide overall guidance.
One of the many beauties of Type R being fully IP is that fact makes it far easier to provide comprehensive remote support and we can easily access each system via the internet to troubleshoot, correct any issues and then monitor on an ongoing basis. Indeed, even now the project is complete, we are providing 24/7 support and this remote access is key to that. Of course, this is also a far more sustainable way of working, vital for the environment.
But that wasn’t the only set of pandemic-created challenges as we also faced considerable supply chain issues. We had to accept the partial delivery of products sometimes with some components arriving separately and then we had to install and configure the systems: we had to convert our office into a production setup! There was simply no way around this given the global situation. Again, Calrec’s remote support was superb and, combined with our efforts and the team we created, we worked through these situations with the minimum of disruption. Then there was the comprehensive testing we carried out. We had to prioritise and shift things around to keep the project moving forward at all times.
The benefits of this IP move for RTM are huge and clear for all to see – and hear! The broadcaster has future-proof systems in place and no longer faces the issue of support running out across its previous technologies. Then there’s the day-to-day benefits of IP workflows with the flexibility and inherent technological elegance, alongside the aforementioned remote monitoring. And this is not to forget the improved audio listeners experienced. We strongly believe this project acts as a reference for broadcasters across the region.