On the air since March 2005, IB3 Ràdio is the radio station for the Public Entity of Radio and Television of the Balearic Islands and property of the Balearic Autonomous Government in Spain.
The station has a production unit on each of the three main islands of the archipelago, a delegation on Formentera and also broadcasts a basic program through a network of 11 broadcasting centers. It produces podcasts and author programs as well. IB3 Ràdio’s content focuses on culture, information, involvement and social integration, with its own distinctive identity.
Through a tender process in 2004, AEQ was selected to supply the initial equipment for the launch of the staton, and had been responsible for technical updates since. The company recently won a new tender process to update the audio mixing consoles for the stations on Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera.
Under the new agreement, AEQ supplied three Atrium consoles for the Palma de Mallorca center, one for the main studio in Menorca and one for the Ibiza center.
In addition, two Forum IP Split consoles were installed for the editing cabins at Palma de Mallorca, one in Menorca, one in Ibiza and another one with additional features and inputs/outputs for the local station at Formentera.
AEQ also supplied two Systel IP 16 talk-show systems to handle the broadcast communications for the Menorca and Ibiza studios. The company also provided the technical furniture for the new mixing consoles. The setups can also handle visual radio broadcasts, reported AEQ.
The systems are designed to provide networked audio connectivity over IP, with analog/digital backup in all production centers. Additional components include managed network switches to run the local audio and control networks in the studios, a Dante IP audio connection card to connect to the consoles in Palma de Mallorca from the existing AEQ BC 2000D matrix switcher, monitor speakers, amplifiers/headphone distributors, audio line, microphone and headphone connector panels and patch-panels for the backup audio connecting the matrix to the consoles in parallel with the IP audio.
Installation took place at the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021 in parallel with the acoustic refurbishment of all the studios. The project was led by the sales manager of AEQ for IB3, Bernardo Saiz, in coordination with the technical services of IB3 Radio.