[BC] Automation and AoIP

[Mike McCarthy]

This is one reason we decided to go with AoIP in our new operation. The sound card issue is rendered moot and the drivers have been tested with the automation system in a controlled lab. Not at the station level with a whole host of unknowns at play. I like the fact drivers don't age, require power supply or capacitor replacement, or take lightning hits at 3AM (though the computer it's operating within might beg to differ...HIC).

AoIP can be done at the workstation level too. Wheatstone has come out with a less than $1K device called the Razor Blade designed for a single stereo I/O. They also have a 1/2 sized 4 stereo version in the pipe line. I'm sure Axia has something similar. That folks is the next generation professional sound card interface for analog or AES I/O. Not some output challenged hardware sound card with a dongle.

If your station operates a two or three fader system, the cost for the a complete AoIP hardware device suddenly becomes very much within reach without needing to replace the surrounding equipment. One 16 channel (or 8 stereo) I/O device will support a whole station and then some as the automation would be AoIP and satellite inputs come in by the analog ports.  And depending on who's hardware system you buy could also incidentally replace B-tools mixers/switchers as those types of functions are imbedded.

So....as you look at next generation automation system upgrades, consider AoIP's significant benefits very carefully. Sure, it's moe complex to be certain. Never the less, you might be surprised at just how cost cost competitive a complete AoIP system could be after factoring all the external devices needed to compose an analog system equal to that of a single Blade, Node, Jet, or other AoIP flavor.

That...and the AoIP stuff sounds 1000% better than any typical sound card we tried....

MM