AA Roadwatch, the traffic news provider for radio and TV stations in the UK, based in Stanmore, has installed 69 Sonifex Nica X audio codecs to provide travel news to the GWR group of radio stations.
The traffic news service from AA Roadwatch began in 1973 when Capital Radio and LBC turned to the AA for traffic and travel information. The size of the AA’s operation has increased in parallel with the amount of traffic problems on the roads and they now service a number of clients, such as the Capital Radio Group, SRH, Chrysalis (Heart, LBC), part of Radio Investments, the CN Group, Real Radio and now GWR.
Stuart Barton, Area Manager at AA Roadwatch, said "Roadwatch and GWR started discussions about provision of services at the end of 2001, about 10 months before the existing contract was due to finish. We had previously provided some services to GWR so it was a natural progression to service the whole of their requirements. We also have a relationship with the Unique Broadcasting Company (UBC) who manage a service versus commercial air-time business model for us. We provide traffic news in return for commercial air-time, which is sold by UBC. Taking on GWR has been the largest single intake of radio stations for us in our history because we’re now covering 50 stations for them including both the Gold and FM services."
"This project was challenging both technically and in man-power. We had to get 16 new staff in place across the UK within a 2 month period. 6 of those were airborne providing news from aeroplanes based at 3 airports in Southend, Coventry and Bristol."
"The technical challenge was more about speed of implementation. Sonifex have done an excellent job in providing the codecs to us in what turned out to be quite a short timescale. We have 7 Nica X’s here in Stanmore, 10 at transmitter sites, 6 at the airfields, 2 at Exeter, 4 at Cardiff, 4 at Halesowen, 1 in Cheadle, 1 at each at the GWR sites and a couple of spare units. The Nica X’s at the transmitter sites are used for studio to transmitter links. From the planes, the reporters will talk on the transmitter receiver down to the base station, of which there are 5 for the 3 sites. Each of the 5 transmitter points has 2 Nica X codecs, one for each person in the plane. These are each connected to 2 ISDN lines which feed 2 positions each at Stanmore, Halesowen and Cardiff. From there, using another Nica X we then dial out to the appropriate stations to provide the link to the stations from the plane. The reporters in the planes can do live reports to any of the dialled stations in the GWR network. We can also record clips into our database for later traffic reports so that we can broadcast clips recorded within the last 10 minutes to multiple stations at the same time."
Some of the Nica X’s were modified for the airfield sites by the addition of an internal microphone amplifier together with a headphone output built into the codec, so that the operators have a self contained unit. Together with Beyer Dynamic headphones and microphones chosen to cut out background noise, they provided an ideal solution in an area where there is a lot of aircraft noise.
Stuart continued "Most of the FM services will take up to 4 broadcasts per hour, between 6 - 9.30am and 3.30 - 7.00pm. We have about 30 staff here and try to organise the shifts so that the customer will get the same voice reading the traffic reports at the same times for each radio station, so that the listeners can build up an identity with them. They’ll do up to15 broadcasts per hour, whilst other staff will spend time researching and gathering information. Most stations like to have an input from the airborne service which covers all of the GWR stations so we’ve arranged the flight-path of the planes so that the traffic hotspots are covered at peak hours."
When deciding which codecs to use for the job, there were a number of factors which needed to be addressed. Stuart commented : "We needed compatibility with the existing 64kbps codecs, and also Tim Donaldson, Head of Group Engineering Services for the GWR Group, specified that we needed to use 128kbps codecs to provide good audio quality. The existing products we had didn’t do 128kbps so we needed to look for something else. Codecs using the apt-x algorithm were already being used due to their high audio quality and low latency so it made sense to continue using an apt-x based codec."
"Where the Nica X units really won over the competition was in their front-end ease of use, with simple book entries and one touch dialling. Additionally, the Nica X’s were already in use at some of the Nica X sites so it was important for compatibility with these codecs and others. We have 8 broadcast studios here in Stanmore where we already use the Sonifex Arc Multi-Master ISDN codec control system for dialling and routing ISDN calls that are made. So, we were already familiar with, and had confidence in, the Sonifex brand."
Sonifex Ltd Managing Director Marcus Brooke commented "It’s been great that AA Roadwatch chose our Nica X codecs for the provision of services to GWR. Although the timescales were quite short for us, we managed to get them a solution on time with products being shipped out in October 2002 for a November 1st 2002 on-air date. The Nica X code is perfect for this application where low latency, high quality voice reports need to be transmitted."
Tim Donaldson, Head of Group Engineering Services for the GWR Group said : "Our requirement for our on-air travel service was to be able to broadcast high quality audio from the AA. We were delighted when they agreed to purchase Nica Xs for the service, as we needed equipment which would provide 15kHz audio over a 128kbit/sec ISDN connection, and with low delay. The codec has a proven track record within GWR anyway, it’s good value for money, reliable and it’s easy to use. That made it perfect for the job in hand."
To sum up, Stuart commented "Overall, it’s been a very successful project. GWR are happy with our services and Sonifex have done a great job providing us with a solution."
The Nica X audio codec system is a highly configurable range of intelligent codecs that can be set up to allow for several different modes of operation, from the very basic to the most complex.
State of the art electronics and modular design give you the flexibility to choose the most appropriate model to satisfy your requirements. You can then easily configure it to suit your particular application. With 12 models available, coding with either apt-x, mpeg or G.722, whether you need to cover basic ISDN operation or a fixed data link with ISDN back-up, the Nica-X range has the solution.
