A major player in the delivery of broadcast media in Northern Europe, Swedish company Mobile Links Europe provides connectivity and transmission via satellite, fibre infrastructure and microwave and has a portfolio of productions spanning international live sports events, news reports, video conferences and corporate events.

With a Nordic broadcaster needing to connect its various Nordic/European locations with both audio and intercom links to streamline their operations, the company called on its inventory of Direct Out ExBox.RAV units.

Currently, Mobilelinks has nine ExBox.RAV workinh in this network, plus a further four ExBoxes that work as a Madi bridge to clients’ Ravenna/AES67 networks. The AES67 technology is interoperable with equipment from Riedel and Lawo that is also present in the network. The boxes in Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Amsterdam, and Warsaw were connected to Mobilelinks’ existing Nimbra/DTM network and synchronised with a Precision Time Protocol (PTP) that originates in Stockholm where both companies are headquartered.

Various advantages offered by the DirectOut technology motivated Mobilelinks to use its equipment. First, the FastSRC technology delivers straightforward, high-quality sample rate conversion, even when the ExBox is connected to different digital audio interfaces, which is crucial in extended networks.

Interoperability over such a large network was vital, and the ExBox devices’ compatibility with the open Ravenna standard allows for this. Ravenna delivers low latency, full signal transparency and high reliability, which are essential components of any successful broadcast and streaming service. Likewise, the system was created with in-built redundancy: should the primary red network fail for whatever reason, the secondary blue IP structure will kick in to guarantee continued operation.

‘The ExBox.RAV technology is cost-effective, flexible, and easily scalable, so the decision was a no-brainer,’ explains Martin Simons, the primary technician for Mobilelinks. ‘Additionally, the boxes connected easily to our NMOS system and converted the Madi signals to fit in our Ravenna/AES67 more smoothly than alternatives. Significantly, devices in the ExBox series allow for a complete air gap, which provides an extra layer of security to the network.

‘The ExBox’s have worked flawlessly since we bought them. As integrators and providers, it’s a dream to work with cutting-edge technology that is focused on maximising interoperability, without a reduction in performance,’ he continues. ‘The DirectOut team have created a fantastic, powerful and compact product, and certainly made the correct decision in making a version that is Ravenna/AES67 compatible, in the interest of striving for a more interconnected world.’