Axel Technology - Oxygen 3000 Plus 8 Fader 1A

With the Oxygen 3000 Plus 8 Fader 1A, Axel Technology offers a console designed around a simple principle: to bring together, in a single control surface, the tools required for radio production and broadcasting. This configuration combines eight physical faders with an audio I/O card, whilst retaining an architecture that is open enough to accommodate network extensions and additional functions.

Signal processing is fully digital and is based on a 32-bit, 294 MHz Analog Devices ADAU1452 DSP combined with Cirrus CS42448 audio codecs. The system is designed to offer very low latency, advertised at 0.7 ms between an analogue input and an analogue output, making it ideal for both monitoring and live broadcasts.

The console features 8 faders, each offering quick A/B source selection or direct selection. The ergonomic design is complemented by START/ON buttons, customisable function buttons, an RGB LED bar per channel and IPS TFT displays showing essential information for each channel.

The Audio I/O card provides up to 5 microphone inputs with Automix, two analogue stereo inputs, four analogue stereo outputs, one AES/EBU input, one AES/EBU output and USB interfaces. The microphone inputs feature +48 V phantom power and dynamic processing with a compressor and expander.

Automix is one of the console’s key strengths for programmes with multiple speakers. Microphones can be grouped automatically to maintain a consistent level, reduce the presence of unused microphones and simplify the operator’s workload. It is, of course, still possible to regain individual control of the microphones when the situation requires it.

The 50 × 50 digital routing system allows for flexible organisation of the various audio streams. The PGM, SUB, Aux 1, Aux 2 and PFL buses provide a structure suited to the standard requirements of a radio control room, whilst the outputs can be configured in an N-1 layout for telephone applications.

For remote operations, the Oxygen 3000 Plus 8 Fader 1A incorporates a POTS/PSTN telephone hybrid as well as a Telco interface for an external hybrid. Bluetooth adds two capabilities: bidirectional operation for calls and an A2DP mode for receiving stereo audio from a smartphone, tablet or computer.

The console also features built-in audio streaming capabilities, capable of decoding an incoming stream and generating an outgoing one. Several codecs are supported, including AAC, MP3, MP2, OGG Vorbis, OPUS and PCM, with support for the RTP and RTSP protocols as well as Unicast and Multicast modes.