How To Add a "Fake-Air Monitor" Processed Headphone Confidence Feed to a WheatNet-IP System

Back in the analog days, we all used to listen to the off-air feed in the studio headphones. Then, digital came around. Between HD Radio diversity delay, latency from digital STL transport, and the increased use of profanity delay, it became nearly impossible to monitor off air in your headphones, and it became necessary to create a headphone sidechain to simulate the sound of your on air processing on pre-delay audio.

WheatNet-IP makes this easy, as every IO blade (IP88A, IP88D, IP88AD) has a 3-band audio processor built into it.

The AuraIP Pro Setup GUI, downloadable from where you obtained WheatNet-IP Navigator, is used to manage the processor. The processor has several presets designed for headphones, so pick one and use that as a starting point for the sound you want.

Once you are in the GUI:

1. Right-click and choose Hardware/Devices
2. Add the blade you want to edit (you’ll need to know the IP)
3. Once added you can select it and connect

To get the audio into the processor:

Look for the destination that’s named BLxxxEQD (where xxx is your blade number).

Then make the crosspoint connection from the studio program out to send program into the processor. 

The output of the processor is a source named BLxxxEQS (where xxx is your blade number). You can rename the source and destination to something more meaningful in Navigator. For example, you could call the source "KBXX HP" (KBXX Headphones) or "StB HPPR" (Studio B Headphone Processor") so the operator knows what to pick. Route the output of the processor into your control room/headphone monitors and you're all set!

You still might consider making the air monitor available on the console. Some talent likes to punch over to the delayed air feed after they close the mic to listen to the break they just completed. One jock at a station with a 22 second delay (profanity delay + HD Radio) called it the "instant aircheck button."

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