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Based out of Colorado Springs, KILO FM and KYZX FM both stations of the Bahakel Communications group had been using Dalet 4.30 since the late nineties. Upgrading the digital audio production and playout system was all the more required that servers were reaching their end-of-life. The resulting Dalet Radio Suite platform leverages a Microsoft certified cluster to provide enhanced availability. The centralized content catalogue is shared by both stations facilitating content sharing and media exchange.
Dalet ImpEx dynamically imports Wide Orbit traffic schedules and Music Master music play-lists (1) into the Dalet Content Catalogue (2) which runs on a Microsoft certified cluster. All schedules, audio files and associated metadata are stored centrally and available from any Dalet Radio Suite workstations (3-6). Two production studios (4) take advantage of Dalet Surfer to ensure spot and promo productions as well as voice-over recordings. A self-service workstation (5) is available for preparing music mixes and fine-tuning playlists. On-air studios (6) are each equipped with a Digigram PCX 822 which plugs into the on-air console which can control the Dalet Radio Suite workstation through GPI triggers – allowing Deejays to fader start audio clips when working in live-assist mode.
Extract from Radio World, March 14, 2007
KILO, KYZX Upgrade to Dalet Radio Suite
by John Gray, Chief Engineer
KILO (FM) / KYZX (FM), Bahakel Communications
Colorado Springs, Colo. KILO (FM) and KYZX (FM) recently installed Dalet’s latest generation radio broadcast technology. Dalet Radio Suite. The upgrade to Dalet Radio Suite moved the KILO and KYZX operations from a proprietary audio task specific product set up to a more IT leveraged music production and programming environment with an emphasis is on redundancy.
I have been a user of Dalet products since 1995. The last Dalet upgrade - Dalet 4.3 - was installed at KILO and also KYZX in 1999. While it did carry us through the past decade – it also began to limit us as the audio and IT technology around us evolved. Compatibility issues with emerging formats, support for new hardware etc., became an increasing challenge for keeping our production and playout operations on the legacy application.
Dalet Radio Suite ensures we avoid loss of revenue, and I don’t have to roll up my sleeves and mess with it. The upgrade gives us existing features we were comfortable with such as Navigator, Carts and Surfer with a more IT-centric application. It made the transition more palatable.
Surfing files
The Dalet integrated digital console can replace small traditional mixing consoles that interface external audio equipment like CD and DAT players and recorders, tape machines and telephone lines. Editors can interface up to 16 digital or analog sources. External sources are connected via the console to Dalet Surfer, the audio editor. Surfer has the ability to edit an audio file while it is being recorded. Many different sound effects can be used while recording.
Finished products can be saved as a sound file where edits have been processed into a single audio file, or as a project in which the original audio and subsequent edits are preserved to allow for future tweaks. Fade-ins and fade-outs can be directly drawn on screen with control points. A clipboard allows editors to temporarily store audio segments and insert them back at any position in the audio file. The upgrade also really added quality to the cataloging process by delivering catered meta-data to multiple channels: HD Radio, RDS, and HTML. We didn’t have this before. Making the move to Dalet also eliminated the debilitating file format restrictions, MP3, PCM, WAV, which were issues with 4.3 are now fully supported in the upgraded system.
Another cool enhancement is the new broadcast platform. It is more robust and gives us increased fallback scenarios. We now have dynamic control of traffic and music scheduling that really accommodates last-minute changes; we operate largely on Live-Assist. The new system also incorporates a thorough “Rights Management” control, which organizes who can and cannot access various features, providing organization and protecting content.
This was a pretty sizeable upgrade so Dalet sent in support to help with equipping the two stations. For such a big upgrade, the transition went off with few hiccups. We are so pleased with the upgrade that we are now upgrading our four Chattanooga stations to Dalet.