Nairobi-based Radio Africa, one of Kenya’s most dynamic media companies, recently installed a Lawo RƎLAY PC-based virtual mixing system at sister station Kiss100 FM.  The installation proved so successful that they returned to Lawo to outfit Classic 105 as well, underscoring the group’s plan for transitioning to a modern IP production infrastructure.

Classic 105 chose Lawo’s crystalCLEAR mixing solution, which employs VisTool Virtual Radio Studio Builder software for fingertip touchscreen mixing. The graphical “virtual mixer” interface controls Lawo’s proven Compact Engine, a compact 1RU mixing engine with AoIP audio interfaces and DSP audio processing — the first installation of its kind in East Africa. The touchscreen-operated 12-fader radio console was installed by Lawo distributor and systems integrator BYCE Broadcast, who worked closely with Classic 105 and Lawo to meet the customer’s specific requirements.

“We are happy with Lawo virtual consoles”, states Philip Keter, Radio Africa Group’s Technical Manager. “We have had Kiss100 FM using Lawo RƎLAY mixing for more than one year now, and we have not experienced any downtime. We are even more excited about crystalCLEAR; the presenters love its robustness, flexibility, and agility. It is not only easy to operate but actually helps enhance creativity!”