HIGHLIGHTS
User: Egil Martin Solberg, Owner, General Director and Chief Engineer
Product: Audemat DAB Probe, a complete DAB radio monitoring solution to perform advanced signal analysis, on-site and of broadcast coverage area.
Developed by: WorldCast Systems
Main benefits:
CONTEXT
Egil Solberg owns and runs The Radio Hub, a private radio station broadcasting DAB radio in Norway. The company also brings to their customers a range of digital broadcast solutions including apps, webplayer, software, DAB transmitters and professional consulting.
Over the past few months, Egil Solberg has been relying on the Audemat DAB Probe for continuous monitoring of key points in a chain of 22 DAB transmitters.
CHALLENGE
As for all radio broadcasters, operators, and service providers, staying on-air is crucial. This means making sure your equipment is up and running with minimal or zero down-time. However, finding a monitoring solution that meets their needs for reliability, ease of use, accuracy, and functions is not always simple. As Egil Solberg shares with us, before discovering the Audemat DAB Probe, The Radio Hub had been relying on another solution which unfortunately suffered from many bugs and issues that made monitoring their network complicated and time consuming.
“The Audemat DAB Probe is a fantastic tool! We are running 22 transmitters and it has really improved how we monitor them. I especially appreciate not having to log in every day to check their status and not having to worry anymore because if something fails, I know instantly.”
SOLUTION:
The Radio Hub, already a customer of WorldCast Systems for its different broadcast solutions, discovered the Audemat DAB Probe when it was launched beginning 2019. According to Egil, making the switch to the Audemat DAB Probe has resulted in important time and operational cost savings. It offers all the features his company needs while bringing fantastic performance and greater efficiency; and at a much lower price than most other monitoring solutions available on the market.
SFN Network Implementation
BEFORE: When setting up SFN for a new transmitter, his previous equipment only allowed a 246 microseconds view which made finding a new transmitter within that timeframe challenging.
TODAY: “The Audemat DAB Probe is significantly better to use when setting up SFN for new transmitters. Now we have access to 1 second views, meaning I can try values with much larger intervals and find the correct setting much faster, within only a few minutes,” says Egil.
Alarm Notification & Remote Control
BEFORE: It was necessary for the engineering team to log in every day to check the status of the transmitters. In the case of a problem, another issue would be quick intervention when the 22 transmitters are located at different sites across two large counties.
TODAY: Alarm notifications are sent to the user(s) by email or SNMP traps. Following an alarm, on-air verification can be done remotely through a simple easy-to use web interface with audio service streaming and real-time measurement curves. The Audemat DAB Probe is also equipped with a telemetry board for complete remote control for connected devices, enabling the correction of any critical errors that may occur.
According to Egil, he now has “full control from anywhere”.
