Owned by Positive Media Inc, 89.9 TheLight is a Christian community radio station in Melbourne, Australia, which broadcasts on the FM band, on DAB+ digital radio and streams online via website and mobile app.
According to Chris Martin, General Manager – Services at PositiveMedia, the station had been experiencing technical difficulties that were creating headaches for delivery of its content. These included: Program Input Equipment being end of life and becoming unmanageable; station backup audio being reliant on CD player, link drop outs, and no remote control or visibility.
Having recently undertaken a significant update to its STL, and now equipped with multiple robust data paths to the transmitter site, The Light engaged Agile Broadcast to provide a comprehensive Program Input Equipment (PIE) and Remote Monitoring upgrade.
A Davicom Cortex 360 was supplied and commissioned to monitor and control all aspects of The Light’s Transmitters and PIE. The Davicom Cortex provides extensive monitoring and control via SNMP, Serial, and analog/digital I/O connectivity.
For studio-transmitter links, the Digigram IQOYA X-LINK LE was chosen for its proven reliability. These highly configurable audio codecs have been installed in a 1+1 redundant configuration at both the studio and transmitter sites. Each studio codec is configured to send a primary and secondary audio stream to each of the TX Site codecs thus providing both hardware and network redundancy for the paths to the Mt Dandenong Transmitters.
The DEVA DB8008 Silence Monitor has replaced ageing CD players as The Light’s emergency program source. Providing auto failover between main and auxiliary inputs, these network-enabled devices also provide FTP access for remote updating of emergency program material.
The Davicom Cortex monitors all aspects of The Light’s links, PIE and Transmission systems. Even reaching back through the dual paths to monitor critical network infrastructure at the studio. The Cortex provides customisable workspaces to provide at-a-glance assurance of system health. The controls are available via the Davicom software or via a Web interface.
According to Agile Broadcast’s Sales and Marketing Manager, Deb Sexton, “Chris and his team were extremely pleased with the amount of information now available to them, a huge difference from how things used to be. When issues occurred in the past – it often required a trip to site to establish what had happened and how to resolve it. Now faults, rare as they are, are easily diagnosed and resolved remotely.”
Visit https://www.agilebroadcast.com.au