PlayIt Software Support

Hi All, Apologies if this is not the place to post this question or if it's not appropriate for this forum, but I wondered if someone could help please. I am looking to start my own internet radio station and want to be able to handle 2 calls at once so that I can have the presenter, a remote co-presenter calling in and a listener calling in live. We all need to be able to hear each other and be able to talk to each other. I was thinking of one caller (listener) routed through Skype and the co-presenter through mobile phone perhaps. I have been looking at the Behringer DX2000 USB and have got my head around setting up a mix-minus but I can't seem to be able to find anything on how to set this up for two callers. I don't want to invest money to then find out it can't be done. Does anyone know of a way to get two online callers live at the same time so that everyone can hear each other please? I did wonder whether the aux send can be split but couldn't find an answer to whether this was possible or not. Being new to this and not very technical (quick learner mind you!), I am banging my head against a brick wall and would be very grateful if anyone is able to share their expertise. Many thanks.

Hello Paul,

The Alto Digital 1604 is a very capable mixer for the price.

I particularly like the compression on the first few channels and the ability to solo channels (I don't know if this is capable of being PFL or whether it is AFL).

The channel - group (sub) - main structure can be useful as well.

Because the music market is so much bigger the price for features is lower for music desks.

I like the Allen & Heath XB10, like many people, if they did a version with linear faders I would buy it.

I'm looking forward to someone making a radio surface for something like the Behringer XR18. A few physical faders and buttons and a configuration would do it.

For radio a few clear controls and everything else hidden is the best for self operation.

Hi Mark, Thanks for your reply. I looked at the xb 14-2 but it was just out of my price range. I bought an Alto digital 1604 and have been experimenting with using Skype. So far I have managed to get a co-host working fine through it, but am yet to try to add additional callers although I think I can do this through an additional Skype and Skype number connected to another input and thus mix minus on the desk. I have to confess, I hadn't even thought about Google hangout, but that would work for co-hosts equally well and then free up the Skype account. Will look into this more. Thank you for your advice and time. Regards Paul

Paul,

Having given the problem a little more consideration, I'm more inclined to recommend first trying a software mix (Skype etc.) and making your mixer a single connection to that conference (via a PC obviously).

I would also look at Google Hangouts and the Hangouts Toolbox https://www.hangouttoolbox.com/

Paul,

Irrespective of the means of connection of the call, as you have  identified you need two "mix minus" or "clean feed" busses.

With "big" mixers it is possible to produce multiple mixes but it gets unusable for a "self op", you need the brain of a sound supervisor to drive a desk like that.

You are really in the territory of a "proper" broadcast mixer to get something for "self op" that does what you want rather than something like the Behringer.

It is considerably more expensive, but the Allen & Heath XB-14 would be worth a look.

http://www.allen-heath.com/ahproducts/xb-14-2/  

Sonifex also have excellent products which can do what you want but they will be more expensive than the Allen & Heath.

An alternative (not very controllable) would be to Skype conference the 2 remote callers and then bring the composite in on a single mixer channel.