Absolute Radio at The Olympic Stadium by Stuart Edwards

Absolute Radio was reporting live to the Christian O’Connell Breakfast Show from the ‘Two Years To Go’ event at the impressive Olympic Stadium earlier this week, and we were even fortunate enough to get interview with Lord Coe live to air.

A live broadcast from a site such as this poses some problems, mostly that it is not a completed structure with the facilities and connectivity that you would get at a completed venue. As such the Technology team at Absolute Radio had to think carefully about the method of relaying live audio from the stadium to the studios at One Golden Square, balancing cost, reliability, quality and ease of use. Broadcasting from large metal objects, such as a stadium, causes particular problems for any wireless equipment as there are lots of reflections and ‘sash’, but in this case it was the only option.

The team considered using a Nera M4 satellite kit and a long run of Cat5e cable to connect the ISDN codec in the stadium with the satellite kit that could be outside of the main structure with a clear view of the sky and they also considered using a 3G IP codec, although previous results with 3G connectivity have not been encouraging. However, they eventually opted to use a new piece of equipment that was supplied by a company called Wired For Sound, who have an inventive way of combating the inherent problems with 3G networks.

The equipment, known as the ‘Mediahub’, comprises of three 3G modems that can act independently and across a variety of different networks, providing a much more resilient connection to the Internet. For our broadcast we opted to use three different networks, O2, Vodafone and Three (which performed the best by far, if you’re interested) and a TieLine IP codec, with built in mixer facilities for our microphones and headphones, that connected to a matching TieLine unit at One Golden Square. The ‘cool bag’ sized over the shoulder Mediahub, with 3G aerials built into the case, is battery powered and is able to run for around four hours, or it can be powered from the mains or even a car battery.

The main benefit of the Mediahub is the networking that it is capable of. For audio traffic (provided by the IP codec) it can be configured to send the exact same packet across all three mobile networks to an assembler, at a wired location (such as your office) with lots of connectivity, where it will only take and use the first correct packet that arrives. This therefore means that the networks with the most latency (which changes dramatically with usage on a 3G network) are not used, and you always use the fastest packet – this facilitates a much smaller buffer size on the IP codec, meaning that round trip delay is kept to a minimum and that a two way interview can then be conducted. Quite often with 3G networks you lose throughput entirely, and this kit copes with that nicely, considering it’s ‘first correct packet’ scheme that doesn’t mind if only one correct packet is ever received. The unit even comes with a laptop (separate to the over the shoulder bag) that allows you to monitor the state of the networks, allowing you to see signal strength and the quality of the network.

The Mediahub also has another few clever tricks up its sleeve. Firstly, it has the ability to multilink 3G networks for data traffic, separately to diversified audio traffic. We know that for voice it will diversify packets across all three networks, but for data traffic it will combine the three networks to give you effectively three times the throughput than a standard 3G connection. Wouldn’t it be really excellent if you could then connect a laptop to the Mediahub then and transfer audio via FTP, access emails, etc? Well that’s the second trick that this nifty piece of equipment can do – it has a built in wireless hotspot allowing you to do just that.

We used the equipment for the full four hours that the battery could handle and found it to be very reliable and hugely cost effective compared to using a satellite kit at roughly £5 per minute. The ‘Mediahub’ also has a bigger brother that features more 3G modems and an ADSL modem, which is perfect for more established venues where using 3G is a backup to a wired connection.

Wired For Sound can be contacted on +44 (0)20 8880 4840, or alternatively can be found at their website.

- Stuart Edwards

Absolute Radio June Engagement Metrics

Absolute Radio is the most advanced digital radio station in the commercial sector, and we’re committed to transparency and accountability. We’ve pioneered the release of monthly digital engagement metrics as part of our duty to clients in a digital age, and we remain the only UK commercial radio station to publicly release streaming, and on demand, listening hours.

The Absolute Radio network of brands recorded 6.6 million streamed hours of live audio in June, an increase of 5% from May, 2010.

Ahead of next week’s RAJAR, this includes figures for Absolute Radio 90s, our newly launched DAB Digital radio station, which is the first sign of the success it’s had since launch.

On demand listening is a huge growth area for the station which rose in June to 1.9 million hours, which is a 12% increase. This not only opens up our valuable content to be consumed when it’s most convenient for listeners, but it’s also an attractive and pioneering proposition that can be ‘owned’ by commercial partners. And this is currently in the marketplace with advertisers.

Absolute Radio has also reached over 3 million podcast downloads in June, which is up 60% from the previous month, alongside 325,000 Youtube views, which is also up 60%. The increases can be attributed towards the successful Baddiel & Skinner World Cup campaign, which incorporated podcasts, live shows, digital content, and a live event strategy.

This month, figures for the Absolute Radio mobile downloads include 284,000 downloads on Nokia’s mobile platform. In May we reached one million downloads across four platforms: Nokia, Apple, Android and BlackBerry.

Absolute Radio is working hard across the radio industry to ensure we provide consistent figures. The statistics are gathered using actual listening data and associated information accessed via internet radio devices, mobile phones and computers. It also includes data recorded by the use of cookies for internet visits.

Playlist: 27th July

The playlist is out now.

Manic Street Preachers – (It’s Not War) Just The End Of Love (13th September)
The Manics have hit a rich vein of form since 2007’s ‘Send Away The Tigers’ album – and this is a classic Manic Street Preachers track. It’s the first song from new record ‘Postcards From A Young Man’ (20th Sept) – the follow-up to last year’s excellent ‘Journal For Plague Lovers’ album. And there’s more great singles to come. Straight to the A-list.

Vampire Weekend – White Sky (16th August)
The New York 4-piece lift another lovely song from their ‘Contra’ album
Hear live tracks from the band’s headline set at Latitude at Absoluteradio.co.uk.

Fyfe Dangerfield – She Needs Me (6th September)
To follow Top 10 smash ‘She’s Always A Woman’ Fyfe returns to ‘She Needs Me’, from his album ‘Fly Yellow Moon’. Watch Geoff Lloyd talk to Fyfe about the album in an interview recorded in January this year at Absoluteradio.co.uk

Media Week honours Absolute Radio’s Luke Moore

luke moore

When Media Week announced its 30 under 30 list, it was revealed our very own Luke Moore, Head of Sponsorship made the list after being narrowed down from more than 120 strong entries. Luke has been at One Golden Square for nearly ten years after joining the team for work experience, and it’s clear how well he has fitted in within the company.

There pretty much isn’t a job Luke hasn’t had at Golden Square, from joining as Work Experience, to becoming a Runner, Luke went on to became a member of the Sales Team as a Sales Planner. Within three years he became an Agency Account Manager before moving into the Sponsorship department in 2006 to become the Sponsorship Account Manager. Within his first year in the Sponsorship team, Luke secured a massive deal with Hyundai as the World Cup sponsors, giving away 40 pairs of tickets and flights to see the matches in Germany.

Within all of the job positions, one of Luke’s most memorable moments was working with Russ Williams as the producer of Rock N Roll Football for 6 years as he not only organized the Premier League Cup to come into the studio but also some unforgettable Cheerleaders!

This year’s World Cup saw Luke secure mobile phone giants Sony Ericsson, as the official sponsors of the hugely popular Baddiel & Skinner podcasts. With Luke’s well known love of football (even if he supports Ipswich), we all know at Golden Square how well his passion to the sport has proved his commitment to securing these deals.

Chris Goldson, Commercial Director, is certain of Luke’s capacity as he says ‘Absolute Radio’s sponsorship credentials are widely viewed as second to none, Luke is the reason’. With a highly anticipated secured deal with the new sponsors of the Premier League rights, exciting times are ahead for this rising star.

New Radio Section added to Apple App Store

A new section dedicated to Radio apps (Apps On Your Wavelength) has been added to the Apple app store and the Absolute80s app sits firmly at number four in the chart.