Linear Acoustic, Funky Junk Italy Deliver Quality DTV Audio for Radio Iglesias

Linear Acoustic dealer Funky Junk Italy is an independent part of the Funky Junk group. Known for its extensive catalog of renowned audio brands and its team of passionate audio experts with decades of industry experience, the Funky Junk Italian company serves a wide range of customers, including recording studios and production houses, as well as public and private radio and television broadcasters of all sizes. When Radio Iglesias on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia off the coast of Italy set out to launch its ambitious new “Visual Radio” DTV music channel, it turned to Funky Junk for their audio solutions.

Founded in 1975 as one of the first private FM licenses in the Italian market, Radio Iglesias has expanded over the years to include four FM stations, streaming and satellite delivery, and now a music television channel. Director and co-founder of Radio Iglesias, Gianfranco Secci, was already extensively familiar with Omnia products for his FM signals as well as for its web stations, which are available to stream from its website or via Android or iOS app. “We love Omnia processors and the Omnia sound,” says Gianfranco. “In fact, many years ago, we bought one of the very first Cutting Edge Unity 2000 units for our FM signal, then upgraded over time to Omnia 6, Omnia.9, and Omnia.11 processors.”

When asked about audio processing for their new DTV service, Gianfranco said that they were initially using the digital output of their Omnia 6, but wanted to improve the sound even further with a processor designed specifically for DTV service to be more competitive with other television music channels. After seeing and hearing the AERO.10 at IBC, Secci exclaimed, “I want it…I want to be the first in Italy with one, and I want to be the first in Europe with one!” Funky Junk happily obliged and supplied Radio Iglesias with an AERO.10.

Installation of the AERO.10 was very straightforward — it was inserted directly in the SDI signal path between the playout server and the DVB encoder for the Visual Radio service. The user interface was already extremely familiar to Gianfranco, since AERO.10 shares the same comprehensive NfRemote software used by Omnia.9 for remote control. He was able to fine-tune the processing to achieve the sound he was looking for in a very short period of time.

Linear Acoustic AEROMAXprocessing gives Radio Iglesias a consistent and competitive sound for its Visual Radio service, while onboard loudness metering ensures full compliance with ITU rules. UPMAX II automatic upmixing and downmixing provides a compelling listening experience with both stereo and 5.1 source material. “We can reproduce a great stereo image like never before when upmixing, with excellent management of the LFE channel,” says Secci. “We chose the AERO.10 because of the great sound, the feature set, and the excellent balance between price and quality. We’re very satisfied and would certainly choose Linear Acoustic AERO processing again in the future