The highly anticipated in-person IBC2021 event has been canceled due to escalating COVID-19 concerns in The Netherlands. Originally scheduled for December 3-6 at The RAI in Amsterdam, the decision aims to prioritize the safety of exhibitors and visitors.

As the world’s premier media, entertainment, and technology show, IBC is jointly owned by six leading international bodies, representing a global community. The initial plan was to reunite the content and technology industry for face-to-face interactions and pioneering hybrid events.

With the cancellation of the physical event, IBC2021 is now refocusing on connecting the content and technology community through IBC Digital. This digital platform will provide exclusive content, opportunities to engage with exhibitors, and a firsthand look at their latest products. The shift to a digital format ensures a safe and accessible environment for industry professionals to convene and explore the future of media

Radio Maisha is a 24-hour Swahili radio station with a national reach, Owned and managed by Standard Digital Group and established in Nairobi in 2010, Radio Maisha singled itself out as a market leader with its superior entertainment and current affairs content, as well as top-notch talent. Radio Maisha plays Afrobeat hit music and has twice been voted favorite station nationally in Communication’s Authority Kuza Awards.

Jamiro Broadcast was tasked by Radio Maisha to Supply, Install, Train, and Commission a Robust Multichannel, Hybrid (IP + DVB) Audio Contribution system which could serve both STL application and contribution to Satellite on DVB-S2. With this customers’ requirements, there was no ready hardware in the market which could fit these specs and we had to make our own specifications through our hardware manufacturer in order to meet the customer requirements.

Radio Maisha is the 2nd radio to embrace Digital Audio Mixing Console in Kenya back in 2010. Four (4) Studios were established with 2 housed in SGL Headquarters, 10 Kms from City Square, and the rest located at the I&M building in City Square. All Studios were built with AXIA Mixing Consoles leveraging LIVEWIRE for connectivity between City Square and HQ where the program from HQ connected to Analog STL for Contribution to Nairobi Transmission Site –Limuru, located 40 kms away from the HQ.

With the growing demand for high fidelity audio in FM Broadcasting, Radio Maisha needed an Upgrade from Analog STL Audio to satisfy her listeners and keep abreast with the technological advancement which would allow scalability in audio distribution.

The design specification produced the hardware with the following features:

• MPEG1 Layer 2 Audio encoding, with Audio bit rate up to 384 Kbps
• Support for balanced and unbalanced analog audio inputs: To allow older systems without Digital Audio.
• Supports AES/EBU, SD-SDI digital audio input: Common Standard for Digital Audio from Professional Audio Processors and Consoles.
• ASI output (2 BNC interface): Used for Satellite Uplink –Distribution.
• IP output (unicast/multicast): Used for STL Contribution over IP network between the HQ and Transmitter location.
• LCD / keyboard and web-based NMS operation

The Hardware was finally delivered, installed, and tested for 1 month before going LIVE on November 01, 2021. With Multichannel capability, up to 4 Radio Programs can simultaneously connect which makes the technology scalable to future requirements whilst serving both IP and DVB needs. With this installation, Radio Maisha, Vybez Radio, and Spice Radio can now have a unified Audio contribution to Satellite and for Terrestrial on IP Link.

“This being a special project to us, this project gave us a good opportunity to design specifications which could benefit the market needs for hybrid (IP and DVB) Audio Encoding which we have benchmarked as a solution for future deployments.” Says Benson Nyaga, Technical Director-Jamiro Broadcast.

Mulembe FM is the number one Luhya station speaking to the 17 sub-tribes of the Luhya community and those interested in the Luhya lifestyle. Mulembe is a Luhya word that means peace with the slogan: ‘Omwoyo Kwa Baluhya’ which simply means the heartbeat of Luhya. Owned by Royal Media Services, Mulembe Studio is established in Nairobi, with its transmission sites in Nairobi, Western, Nyanza, and Rift Valley regions of the country.

The Station was established in the mid-2000 on Analog setup which couldn’t meet the increasing demand for IP-based studio infrastructure for today with the current demand for collaborative workflow connectivity which made the upgrade inevitable. With the increasing hardware failures and unreliable operation with the old analog set-up, the operational costs were too high and called for an entire studio and STL link Upgrade.

Jamiro Broadcast was tasked with the entire studio facility installation process required in Designing, Building, Installing, Training, and Commissioning the new facility. The studio was established in a new facility to allow a fresh installation without any integrations with the old system. To leverage on the customer requirements, for a modern studio, Jamiro Broadcast proposed a 100% IP infrastructure set-up which would allow the customer to leverage on DANTE network from the mixing console to the Transmitter, located 30 km away from the city.

In order to achieve the requirements for a modern studio, a careful design was deployed to deliver a “Fully IP-Based’ radio setup with a lot of integration for remote operations which makes it very easy to control devices remotely and share information between studio and transmission sites providing remote support with complete access to every function from a PC with a LAN / WAN connection.

A complete studio with a 12-Fader IP Console and an IP Contribution Link were delivered and networked using DANTE which facilitated Studios, Newsroom, CTA, Offices, and STL Connections and communication. To achieve this set-up, the following key components were delivered:

• 12-Fader Form IP Broadcast Console from AEQ with an outstanding choice is its internal routing capability in combination with the available number of inputs: 4 selectable Mic/Line Inputs, 12 Analogue Inputs, 4 AES/EBU (AES3) Digital Stereo Inputs, 2 USB Digital Stereo Inputs for broadcast automation, 2 optional Inputs through Digital telephone Hybrids. Additional input signals were available for future expansion with an AoIP multi-channel Ethernet connector for 16 channels or a MADI multi-channel fiber-optic link for 64 input signals.
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• Venus 3 Codec from AEQ: a dual IP stereo, full-duplex audio codec system. With a single unit, it was possible to integrate the console with the transmitter with IP connectivity. Designed to transport uncompressed audio from the studio, No hardware connection for audio was required for studio “Program” DANTE from the Console provided the audio to the Codec on a leased Fiber connection link to the transmitter at Limuru, 30 Kms away from the studio.

• Jamiro Condenser Microphones C-100: Our Own Professional large-diaphragm condenser microphone with 34mm capsule designed for LIVE recordings and integration with MIKA TV arms which gives the studio a professional look and allows future integration with “Visual Radio” by having tally lights on the arms controlled by console mic faders for ON/OFF status.

• Jamiro Headphone and Mic Tool: Our Own Headphone mount and control box integrated with the underside of the desk to save worktop space with the low-profile design and contoured edges to prevent painful knee incursions. ⅛ inch jacks are provided to guests and a volume knob to control the audio levels. In addition, a Microphone Cough button is integrated for guests to MUTE their Mics when required.

“Jamiro Broadcast was able to supply a turnkey IP-based radio workflow to Mulembe FM and also ensured the ability to seamlessly scale the system for further modernizations and extensions in the future allowing Visual integration in the studio for a complete visual radio setup for future requirements. The upgrade was carried out within 2 weeks including user training and going LIVE. “With AEQ DANTE and USB features on the mixing Consoles, we no longer need to use the playout and recording hardware PCI cards” Stated Samuel Kibacia, Head of ICT- Royal Media Services.

The project was completed in October 2021 and the station switched to the new studio immediately after the commissioning and user Training. With the IP Infrastructure, the customer is able to have remote console operation and can produce live shows remotely. With this, the producers and presenters are able to have LIVE shows from any location, and station technicians can monitor and control the transmission chain from anywhere.

“Jamiro Broadcast has brought major revolution in the African Media Environment for the last 2 years since our inception. Our continued innovation on system integration has brought new efficiency and sustainable solutions which the customers can leverage to improve their production with affordable systems built in Kenya for Africa ” Says Benson Nyaga, Technical Director- Jamiro Broadcast.

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Innovation and technology have always been the core center of the products and services we offer at Jamiro Broadcast hence our main approach and guidance in order to continuously evolve as a company. We always want to work with companies whose main focus is improving their products so that we can provide our customers with the exact solution they need.

We are currently intrigued with our Partner RFE’s new Audio Over IP Link and Receiver IPA 300.

The IPA300-Link is a fast and reliable solution to stream audio in full-duplex PCM and half-duplex MP3 from a broadcast studio to a transmitter device in another physical location. RTP over UDP protocol guarantees low latency and strong reliability of the audio stream. The application can stream to unicast or multicast destinations (up to eight). Several administration tools like keeping alive handshake, contact closure tunneling, SNMP traps, Serial gateway, multicast, and DNS are supported.

The Audio Over IP Receiver IPA 300-RX is a fast and reliable solution to receive audio stream from different types of IP sources in full-duplex PCM and half-duplex MP3.

The device can receive streams from Icecast/Shoutcast server or other RTP Transmitters (like IPA300-Link). Several administration tools like to keep alive handshake and SNMP traps are supported. The IPA300-RX IP Receiver and Transmitter are both is a very powerful and flexible tools for professional radio distribution.