Who We Are
PULSAR Radio is a strictly online radio station that broadcasts its program via the internet. The station was established as part of the Digital Audio Creation, Processing, and Transmission Laboratory research activities, headed by Associate Professor Athanasios Koutras of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
His experience from his previous role at the Department of Informatics and Mass Media and the 'infomm radio' station provides the necessary expertise he imparts to students interested in engaging with audio/radio production, processing, and transmission. This simultaneously offers an opportunity for both entertainment and education.
The station started in February 2023 with initial test broadcasts and continued broadcasting throughout the 2022-2023 academic year. Its schedule included diverse music programming as well as a small but notable number of live shows covering various topics. The station aims to continually enrich its program with more live shows, allowing academic community members to share their views and ideas via radio.
The station's facilities are in Patras, at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of Peloponnese. The studio is located on the 2nd floor of Building K (office K2.09) and is equipped with professional audio signal creation, processing, and transmission equipment.
The PULSAR Radio studio is equipped with systems typically used in professional radio environments, enabling the creation, processing, and transmission of the highest possible audio quality for its listeners.
Specifically, the studio includes:
- Analog Broadcast Console: AIRLAB MKII (12 input/output channels)
- Monitor Speakers: M-Audio MS-40
- Microphones: Behringer C-3 Studio Condensers
- Headphones: AKG K141-MKII
- Portable Recorder: Zoom H4n Multichannel Digital
- Digital Audio Workstations (DAW) for audio processing [Systems: Amphion, Thyramis, Pan]
- Broadcast Output Server [Apollo]
- Radio Program Processing Server [Marsyas]
- Two (2) dedicated sound engineer positions
- Five (5) fully equipped positions (mic, headphones, network access) for guests or radio producers
- Guest connectivity options via telephone or Skype/Zoom
- Support for remote broadcasts (from outside the studio) and integration of external audio feeds into the main program.
The station’s program is broadcasted via two different streaming servers, managed by the station’s technicians: an Icecast server and a Shoutcast server, both hosted on cloud platforms. The program is broadcasted in multiple streams at different bitrates and quality levels (ranging from 256kbps down to 64kbps). This caters to the diverse needs of listeners connecting via desktop or mobile devices, allowing them to choose a quality level suitable for their connection.
The station’s program covers various topics, including music shows spanning multiple genres, informative live shows, educational shows and podcasts, sports shows, and other topics of interest to the station’s producers and listeners. PULSAR Radio strives to uphold the principles of equality, impartiality, respect for diversity, and non-discrimination, while rejecting hate speech and division.
Although newly established, the station aims to develop strong partnerships with other university radio stations within Greek Higher Education Institutions. This includes participating in joint activities and broadcast marathons and contributing to the development of open-source software designed to automate the workflow of radio station creation, processing, and stream transmission, as part of its participation in the Panhellenic Network of University Radio Stations.
The station has collaborated with the IEEE Student Branch based at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) in Patras since its inception. This partnership involves creating and editing a series of podcast episodes on scientific topics, presented in a way that is accessible to a general audience both within and beyond the University community.
Just weeks after launching, in March 2023, PULSAR Radio participated in the 1st Panhellenic Conference of University Radio Stations, organized by UP FM (University of Patras) and EAP Web Radio (Hellenic Open University). This event provided an opportunity to meet the teams from other stations face-to-face, learn from their experiences (and mistakes!), and build strong bonds of friendship and cooperation with all participants.
As part of the educational and research opportunities the laboratory offers students, the lab collaborates with the radio station to support thesis projects with direct application and relevance to the radio production/music analysis area.
Topics of interest and research include (but are not limited to):
- Automated radio program generation.
- Automatic music genre classification in large radio station song databases.
- Development of AI radio presenters/DJs.
- AI-driven automatic music composition.
- Developing smart, personalized music players utilizing listener biosignals.
- Mood-based music adaptation for listeners.
For more information, don’t hesitate to contact the responsible faculty member, Professor Athanasios Koutras (koutras[at]uop.gr), or refer to the station’s announcements and listings.
You can bookmark PULSAR Radio in any of your favorite media players (iTunes, Media Player, Winamp κλπ) using any of the following stream links and server (shoutcast/icecast).