The New Zealand-based television, radio and interactive media company MediaWorks has decided to transition to an uncompressed Audio over IP networking architecture with GatesAir and the collaboration of its regional channel partner Gencom Technology.

The solution leverages IP Link MPXp codecs with built-in SynchroCast technology to transport FM baseband and manage local ad insertions across its single-frequency transmission network (SFN), with Flexiva FAX50 exciters to support FM radio signal generation at each transmission site.

“The migration from older E1 linking technology to IP, while partially prompted by the recent availability of the latter, also enabled simplification of the routing for the Auckland transmitter as it now comes directly from the Auckland studio,” said Mark Simpson, account manager, transmission and distribution systems at Gencom Technology. “This eliminates signal drops and vulnerability issues of the legacy architecture, which required Mediaworks to route the Auckland program to Hamilton for local ad insertion. The synchronous performance across the SFN has been outstanding, and Mediaworks reports excellent audio quality and stability from the next-generation Flexiva exciters.”

Ray Smith, Transmission Manager for MediaWorks New Zealand, correlates the audio quality enhancements with the adaptability of MPX over IP transport: “By leveraging AES192, we can maintain high-end digital audio quality throughout the entire chain all the way to the exciter. Uncompressed MPX over IP transport ensures that the transmitters can be fully modulated without any decibel overshoot generated by compression algorithms. The average audio levels are higher, which means the transmitted signal offers the best possible audio quality that FM radio can offer.”