Bern, Switzerland, April 2020: STAGETEC, the Berlin-based manufacturer of professional audio technology, supplied three ON AIR flex mixing consoles, two NEXUS STAR routers, and a NEXUS network for the audio equipment renovation in the Bern parliament building. The original installation comprised an ON AIR 24 console and a NEXUS network, which had been installed since 2011. The modernization project was planned by WSDG and executed by Kilchenmann.
The three ON AIR flex consoles were installed in the National Council Chamber, the Council of States Chamber and in the largest committee room. The mixing consoles are used there for recording debates, sound reinforcement, multi-language operation (German, French, Italian) and for connection to the SRG (Swiss Radio and Television Corporation).
The 2011 NEXUS network has been completely replaced and now consists of eight Base Devices plus two routers located in different buildings for redundancy. "The decision was again in favour of NEXUS because operational safety and reliability are top priorities for our customer and NEXUS fulfils all requirements. Uninterruptible redundancy was one of the main reasons for replacing the audio equipment. NEXUS modular design is also very flexible and thanks to Logic Control, all the Parliament's wishes could be met," explains Thomas Jud, head of engineering at Kilchenmann.
NEXUS MADI connections are used to connect remote broadcasters live or via a control room in Zurich. In addition, broadcasts from the parliament in three national languages can be followed as live streams on the Internet.
In addition to audio routing, NEXUS also performs various control and monitoring tasks. For example, the programmable Logic Control software is used to activate the light rings on live microphones, to report the status of the AMX control system, and to monitor the signal path levels of third-party systems.