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PARIS — French media group Lagardère Radio has completed a major project to virtualize and modernize the local studios of RFM and Europe 2, two of its national radio networks. RFM is a music station known for its mix of pop and rock hits, with a daily audience of 1.6 million and over 7 million weekly.
Europe 2 targets a younger audience with contemporary music programming and reaches 897,000 daily listeners and more than 4.7 million weekly.
Planning for the overhaul started in 2022, and work began in 2023. It was completed at the end of 2024. The overhaul was carried out in collaboration with SAVE Diffusion, a broadcast equipment distributor. It included Wheatstone consoles and Tieline codecs, both long used by Lagardère’s stations.
“SAVE Diffusion introduced Zenon Media automation and asset management solutions to one of our stations in 2010 and Wheatstone consoles in 2013. In 2020, the company provided us with all Tieline codecs to interconnect our local stations when we implemented our WAN,” said Damien Gloaguen, broadcast engineering manager since 2023. He oversees engineering and systems maintenance with a team of about 10 engineers and project managers.
Full-scale virtualization
Over 18 months, Lagardère Radio revamped its regional workflows, fully integrating studios and eliminating all analog infrastructure in favor of a complete AoIP system.
The project began close to SAVE Diffusion’s headquarters in Saint-Étienne — in Grenoble for Europe 2 and Lyon for both Europe 2 and RFM. Once the engineering team and station staff defined and validated the framework, the deployment expanded nationwide. Europe 2 operates 22 studios and 14 news booths, while RFM has 11 studios and four news booths.
“We cut technical room equipment by more than half to reduce energy consumption and our carbon footprint. We also synchronized real-time databases across our regional studios, streamlining music downloads, playlists and national ad management. Previously, staff received the RCS GSelector playlist on paper and had to input songs manually,” said Gloaguen.
With the virtualization complete, studios can now broadcast live or record for any station — Europe 2 or RFM. Some journalists have been delivering news updates for both networks for over a year.
“Automating many functions, from music downloads to playlist integration and voice tracking, has simplified operations. When staff travel to Paris for replacements, they now work with identical tools,” he said.
“The audio quality is much clearer — we’ve moved from SD to HD. We integrated modern technologies such as WAV-format audio databases, AoIP with Wheatstone L-12 consoles and Blades at each site, aptX links using Tieline Bridge XTRA codecs, virtualized ad distribution, audience measurement and µMPX signal generation with Telos Omnia.9s processing, alongside Zenon Media and 2wcom technology,” said Gloaguen.
“We’re finalizing the µMPX transport deployment with towerCast. We deliver signals to Paris, where they are routed via an IP switch to transmission sites.”
Transitioning from traditional MPX to a fully virtualized µMPX signal has eliminated on-site audio processing. The network now delivers about 30 local programs, 50 news segments and 100 different ad feeds, all mixed virtually for 150 transmission points.
“We continuously broadcast the local program while injecting national content, either during the local program itself or during ad breaks. The national feed serves as a backup in case of local transmission failures,” Gloaguen said.
We cut technical room equipment by more than half to reduce energy consumption and our carbon footprint.
Damien Gloaguen, broadcast engineering manager, Lagardère News
Consistent sound quality
“We are finalizing the migration to µMPX across all transmission sites. From WAV files in the studio to aptX uplinks to Paris, the µMPX signal eliminates multiple signal conversions, significantly improving audio quality. This ensures uniform sound processing across all sites, with Paris as the central hub for Europe 2 and RFM. It also enhances ad delivery reliability, reducing disruptions,” Gloaguen said.
Tieline Gateway 16 Dante units capture audio from all regional booths. Each studio has an L-12 console, Wheatstone Blade 3s and a Tieline Bridge XTRA codec per transmission feed — 22 consoles for Europe 2 and 11 for RFM. Blade 4 units with Wheatstone’s ScreenBuilder software enable customizable touchscreen controls in 16 Europe 2 booths and four RFM booths.
“Some older studios already had Wheatstone consoles. All towerCast-linked studios have been on a WAN with Tieline Bridge XTRA since 2020. For example, in Lille, seven codecs previously handled each ad feed to various sites. Now, a single codec in Paris manages all ad distributions,” Gloaguen said.
Each city airs local news flashes in the morning and operates independently from noon to 4 p.m.
Lille, one of the largest hubs, has two studios and three news booths producing 12 different feeds — seven for RFM and five for Europe 2. “Presenters in Lille select which city they address, whether for programming or morning news. They also see live updates from our ad servers in Paris and can activate them with a single click,” Gloaguen said.
For example, in the morning, Europe 2’s Lille studio serves Lille and Hazebrouck, the Amiens booth covers Amiens, and the Saint-Quentin booth handles Saint-Quentin and Soissons. In the afternoon, Lille broadcasts to all five zones simultaneously. This flexible system applies to all studios and booths.
Cloud-based ad management
Lagardère’s radio division has adopted a private cloud for ad management. “Previously each studio handled ad feeds separately. Now all ads are centralized in Paris, reducing failures. Around 100 ad feeds are virtualized. Studio audio, journalist booths and national signals are entirely switched and mixed within the virtualized system.
“Audio processing via Omnia.9s is entirely virtual. Zenon Media automation handles playout servers, while virtual switches mix ads, voice tracks, news flashes, local programs and national feeds. These five sources are combined in native IP µMPX format and transmitted via satellite to Tieline or 2wcom receivers at broadcast sites,” said Gloaguen.
“With this private cloud, internal virtualization is the future. It optimizes costs, centralizes core architecture and simplifies technical management for our teams. Even if regional network links fail, we can continue broadcasting programs and ads, ensuring uninterrupted service for advertisers across all 100 regional feeds,” he said.
The author has worked in the radio industry for over 30 years. She has held posts as both a producer and presenter for French stations, such as Radio Notre Dame and Radio France’s France Culture. In addition to being involved with academic research and EU consulting in Brussels, she specializes in print journalism.
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