i102-104 - Ireland's first all-digital station!

When iRadio first approached Total Broadcast Consultants, they had a vision. A vision to create the country's most innovative and interactive radio station.

We helped I Radio bring that vision to reality, with studio facilities and a transmission network built to a higher specification than any other in this country.

It was decided that, in order to give the greatest flexibility, highest quality and to make the system future-proof, the entire radio station would be digital.

And digital it is - all the way from the Klotz Aeon desks to the transmitters, the signal never leaves the digital domain.

Total Broadcast Consultants are the first company in Ireland to do this!

The four studios are based around the Klotz desks, housed in custom-designed acoustic furniture manufactured by Total Broadcast Consultants' own specialists. The M!KA mic arm system is used, which provides a hard-wearing but elegant alternative to the traditional noisy 'anglepoise' mic arms.

Microphones are Shure SM-7Bs, (the first and last time an analogue device is used in the studios!) processed by the Klotz Aeon's onboard mic processors.

The AES-EBU ditital signals leave the desks and pass to digital distribution and switching, utilising products from the excellent Sonifex range.

A top-of-the-range Orban Optimod-FM8500 processor then ensures the sound quality is loud and clean, before passing it to the satellite uplink equipment which distributes to each of the 10 transmitter sites.

Backup transmission links are provided by microwave links and ISDN lines, all controlled by Davicom MAC telemetry.

At the transmitter sites, Eddystone transmitters are used throughout, fed by Profline stereo coders and Comstream satellite receivers.

All in all, a very high quality installation, and one which will undoubtedly serve the test of time, being ready for the onset of DAB and other digital broadcast media.