Punga Net
In early 2008 the New Zealand government issued a tender to provide a solution to connect 21 regional radio stations in a contribution / distribution network called Punga Net. AVC Auckland, through its wholly owned subsidiary Streamcom, won the contract.
With final delivery taking place in March 2009, the winning design was based upon Telos iPort codec’s at each station providing eight independent and bidirectional audio channels. Transport for the network is over standard TCP IP Data circuits. All switching for the network takes place at the switching centre hosted by AVC using a UDP switch of its own design. Stations take programming from the network using a web based scheduling system also designed by AVC. In addition to their main programme, stations can share resources such as studio microphones with automatic intercom linking across the network. Strong integration with their local Axia Livewire based studio systems using Pathfinder router control software makes this possible.
The network also supports transfer of general data files and shared central IT and storage resources, with bandwidth managed using class of service protocols over Cisco routers. Programme from every station is recorded using iProfiler, a Livewire enabled background audio logging system with web based access. A high quality version kept For Up to 60 days and a low quality version kept for a full year allows stations to produce new programme for rebroadcast and podcasting via www.irirangi.net, a portal site for the Maori radio industry. This site also provides Internet streaming using the latest AAC-HE plus codec’s with the actual encoding of each station carried out at source by their local iPort codec.
Core technologies used in the system were: Telos iPort codec’s, Pathfinder software, AVC’s UDP switch, iProfiler, Fujitsu blade servers, VMWare, Fujitsu SAN, and Cisco routers. The revolutionary UDP switch at the centre of this system will soon be available commercially as a standalone product.
Contact person: Igor Zukina
