Explain the processes and the technologies involved in producing a radio broadcast
What is a Digital Cartwall?
A Digital Cartwall is an instant audio player with multiple squares. Each square has a sound of your choice assigned to it. You get to customise the squares to your liking (may be that you won't get confused). When you click on the square the audio of your choice begins playing.
In the image provided above a Digital Cartwall is suitable for the studio computer since you can access the Digital Cartwall and put the audio on each channels on the mixer. When clicking on one Cartwall it is taken to channel on the mixer creating audio. With Digital Cartwalls you're able to create different 'walls' with different sounds and save them under different names.
With a Digital Cartwall it is easy to start and stop each audio with just one click. However sometimes it depends on the technology some Cartwalls may have a stop key on the side. Some would either stop when you press the correct button or just fade out. A Digital Cartwall Is good since you can change the audio which is good for studios. They're able to play intro music, sound effects or any music that'll go over a speech.
What is a Playlist?
A playlist is a collection of sounds (mainly music) that will be played. These songs are specially chosen depending on the station it is shown at whether it is popular or a specific genre (Hiphop). This helps the Radio Station have a smooth broadcast. Radio stations have a specific playlist they run on for that day. For an example BBC Radio 4 may have specific songs for winter time (Christmas songs) and summer time (upbeat).
What is a digital playout system?
Radio stations all around the world use a digital layout system since it makes creating a broadcast easier since a digital layout system is a computer used to record, keep and play all audio content for your radio station. This is great for regional, local and national radio stations since it has an automated layout system for the choice of each radio station. It's affordable since it has many different aspects build in, whereas you don't have to buy separate materials for those aspects. With automated playout systems it makes life easier for the presenters since they don't have to search for the content that is going to come up next with each CD instead it's built in on the computer. However since everything is mainly technical now people are unable to have the on-air experience.
