Bonneville and Wheatstone share something in common besides consoles and a love of the broadcast industry.

We both practice vertical integration, the short meaning of which is to own every critical piece of your organization rather than contracting it out to other companies.

In other words, if we can do it ourselves, we will.

For Wheatstone, this means machining our own chassis along with a million other parts and details under one manufacturing roof in New Bern, N.C.

For Bonneville, it means becoming their own systems integrator for its most ambitious studio project yet.

Instead of contracting out to a systems integrator, the group put ownership and control of the project in the hands of regional and market CEs and then combined their collective skills for standardizing studios across the entire group.

Its Salt Lake City location was the first market to go all in with WheatNet-IP in 2018, with Bonneville Regional Director of Technology Aaron Farnham leading the project under the guidance of Senior VP of Engineering Scott Jones. Then came Denver, San Francisco, Sacramento, Seattle, and finally Phoenix, affecting all 22 stations in six markets.

They dealt with all the usual bumps along the way, plus a few new ones − like, a pandemic. Bonneville’s recent CBS/Entercom merger acquisition also added more logistics, and more stations, to the project. Two of the six locations required drastic downsizing, one required a move to an entirely new facility, and all six locations went through a major overhaul as they converted from a hodge-podge of studio consoles, automation and routing systems to RCS Zetta automation and WheatNet-IP networking (with L-8s, DMXs and LXE consoles/touchscreen interfaces and networked-in talent stations).

As an interesting aside, Wheatstone’s DIY approach to manufacturing was one of the reasons why Bonneville standardized on WheatNet-IP audio networking and consoles across all six markets. “We couldn’t have foreseen COVID happening or the supply chain issues that followed, but back then that was one of the deciding factors to go with Wheatstone. We liked the idea that Wheatstone manufactured everything in-house and we liked that scalability…we knew it could probably affect how we scale on a project like this,” said Farnham.

In fact, he added, “Wheatstone was the only manufacturer at one point still producing products. I waited nine months for a shipment from one vendor, but when I called Jay (Tyler) and said, ‘I need three consoles and a handful of Blades,’ they had it here in no time.” 

The engineering team officially wrapped up the corporate-wide project earlier this year but the benefits of being their own systems integrator are ongoing. 

“By building that knowledge base within Bonneville, we’ve been able to share ideas and share resources as one engineering team. This also gives market engineers ownership of their facilities.  That was one of the big motivations for keeping integration in-house,” said Jason Ornellas, Regional Director of Technology for Bonneville International.  

Both Ornellas and Farnham are quick to point out that not every broadcast group can or should be their own systems integrator, just like not every manufacturer has the collective resources to manufacture products under one roof. “There are some really good integrators out there. But for us, with our corporate culture evolving away from silos to being one big team, we wanted to get that sense of ownership. We wanted to grow our engineering team so we could make changes ourselves when we needed to, without having to call in an integrator later,” commented Ornellas.

All of which will help Bonneville adapt in the future but came with a huge learning curve up front. Check back here as we follow how that curve played out as six market CEs and two regional engineers, under the leadership of their corporate engineer, renovated more than a hundred studios for 22 stations in six Top 25 markets over a four-and-a-half year time frame.

Planning a studio project? Download our new ebook Studio Project Planning Guide for tips on design and project flow.

You can’t just willy-nilly change out the audio processor for a beloved station like Z99.9 in the Cayman Islands. Z99.9 has a fiercely loyal listener base and that also means you can’t pass up an audio processor like MP-532, either. 

Islanders here had grown up with the heritage CHR, the first commercial station on the air in the Cayman Islands more than 30 years ago, which explains why Compass Media Operations Manager Mark Lee proceeded very cautiously. 

He started with the MP-532’s CHR preset and quickly noted the clarity on the high end. “It is so much brighter than anything we’ve had before, especially on the high frequencies. It’s just much cleaner up there,” he commented. He then began tweaking using the processor’s bass tools, starting with rolling back the clipper a bit. Getting that balance right− a deep, impactful bass and detailed highs − is the test of any audio processor. 

Did the MP-532 FM/AM/HD multiprocessor pass the Z99.9 listener test? 

Not only did it pass the Z99.9 listener test, it passed the operations manager test; the MP-532 is now being used on other Compass Media stations. “For heavy baseline urban and R&B, it definitely copes with the low end much better than the processor we had before. And, of course, it’s just cleaner on the high end,” said Lee, who also manages operations for Compass Media’s Gold 94.9, Island FM 98.9 and Rooster 101.9. 

“It’s the best processor I’ve laid my hands on,” he said.  

Are you a Screenbuilder or Consolebuilder user? Register and log onto our Scripters Forum. This is the meeting place for anyone developing new screens and workflows for our WheatNet-IP audio network. Share scripts, screen shots and ideas with others also developing virtual news desks, control panels, and signal monitors. You’ll find documents, starter scripts and a whole knowledge base available to you for making customized screens.