Hebden Bridge, U.K. (August 27, 2025)—WNED in Buffalo, N.Y., has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Calrec Type R consoles, cores and headless controllers for its 24/7 radio output.
“We have main and backup control rooms for all three radio stations,” says Joe Puma, WNED vice president of engineering and technology, who has overseen engineering for WNED’s radio stations since 1998 and its TV channel since 2005. “Each one has a main and backup console with duplicate 12-fader Type Rs, and we also have an 18-fader Type R in our production control room.
WNED operates three NPR radio stations—WBFO, WNED FM classical music station, and WBFO The Bridge, an adult album-oriented HD Radio station—as well as PBS member TV station WNED-TV, from its busy downtown studios.
“All our cores are outfitted with 120 DSP channels and are all fully redundant. If the primary control room were ever to fail, the backup runs on a different core, while Type R’s modularity also means we can easily move from one room to another. Because the modules are all PoE we can literally unplug in one room and plug into another.
“We also operate two headless mixers which utilize Calrec Assist to give full remote broadcast capabilities. Buffalo can get a lot of snow and a few years ago we had a horrendous snowstorm that flooded our studio complex. Our previous system did not have any remote capabilities, so it was a real challenge to get people onsite to keep the stations on the air.
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“While the weather hasn’t been bad enough to warrant working from home just yet, we’ve already used Calrec Assist to deliver remote broadcasts from a variety of client locations, and everything works perfectly. The ability to stay on air in a snowstorm was absolutely key to this installation.”
The upgrade was completed in Spring 2025, but WNED has a long history with Calrec, having installed a Calrec Omega console in its TV control room in the 2000s, which Puma says made the decision to work with Calrec on its IP project an easy one to rubber stamp.
