Western Kenya's Simba Radio Roars With Lawo

Western Kenya's Simba Radio Roars With Lawo posted: 16/01/2020

Mulembe is not only the guiding principle of the Luhya communities of Western Kenya but also a traditional greeting, literally meaning peace . This spirit extends to radio listening as well: in the 1980s, salamu ya radio , where listeners used radio shows to send wishes of peace to friends and family miles away, was a national phenomenon. These popular shows helped transform Kenyans into the ardent radio listeners they have become.

It is in this spirit that Radio Simba in Bungoma, one of Kenya's newest radio stations covering western Kenya and the greater Rift valley region, was built. When planning their facilities, they decided that their studios should use the most modern, future-proof technology available. They chose Lawo.

Radio Simba purchased their studio equipment from Byce Broadcast, Lawo's distributor and systems integration partner in Nairobi, Kenya. The main studio features Lawo's sleek crystal mixing console and Compact Engine mixing platform connected to a standards-based AES67 / RAVENNA AoIP network. Onscreen control of source selection, EQ and other options are displayed on an easy-to-use graphical interface powered by Lawo VisTool GUI Builder software.

Radio Simba's second studio employs Lawo RELAY VRX software, a professional virtual mixing solution that runs on standard PCs and includes voice processing, mix-minus, AutoMix and more, with an intuitive, multi-touch-enabled graphical interface. R LAY VRX software, installed on the same PC that hosts the playout system, software codecs, streaming encoder and other studio tools, is the equivalent of an entire broadcast studio on a single touchscreen PC.

Byce Broadcast was responsible for the concept, project planning, installation and commissioning of Radio Simba's studios, with a complete review of IT and broadcast technologies undertaken to make certain that Radio Simba took full advantage of the synergies provided by an IP-based studio environment. The new studios were completed and placed on-air in November 2019.

The Radio Simba team are very pleased with both their new studios, and their Lawo radio products. We are extremely proud of what we've achieved, says station owner Joshua Kisiang'ani. Our new studios are both very functional, and very beautiful!

Lawo's complete line of physical and virtual radio solutions include the popular ruby radio console, sapphire, sapphire compact and crystal mixing surfaces, crystal CLEAR and R LAY Virtual Radio Mixers, and advanced VisTool GUI-builder software, all designed to provide more capability for less cost.

About Lawo

Lawo designs and manufactures pioneering network, control, audio and video technology for broadcast and post production, as well as live performance and theatrical applications. Products include control and monitoring systems, digital audio mixing consoles, routers, video processing tools as well as solutions for IP-based A/V infrastructures and routing systems. All products are developed in Germany and manufactured according to highest quality standards at the company's headquarters in the Rhine valley town of Rastatt, Germany.

LINK:	https://www.live-production.tv/news/products/western-kenya%E2%80%99s-s...
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