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Fig. 1: David H. Layer, NAB vice president for advanced engineering, addresses the audience at the Digital Radio Summit 2020.

U.S. radio technologists look forward each April to hearing about new developments from David Layer, the vice president, advanced engineering of the National Association of Broadcasters.

But with the NAB Show cancelled, Radio World asked our correspondent Davide Moro to report on Layer’s presentation in February at the Digital Radio Summit 2020 in Geneva, an annual meeting at European Broadcasting Union headquarters.

That presentation — about HD Radio developments, all-digital AM, hybrid radio and voice platforms — doubles as somewhat of a state-of-the-industry technical report for U.S. radio.

Among other things, attendees heard about potential new costs for U.S. broadcasters that could result from wider deployment of new “hybrid” receivers that combine over-the-air and online connectivity. NAB technologists are involved in research that may help resolve the problem.

They also heard him describe an NAB effort to create a standardized broadcaster database so that stations can interact more consistently with the many new voice-controlled audio platforms.

DIGITAL DATA Fig. 2: Spectrum distribution in the FM IBOC asymmetric sidebands broadcast mode.
CREDIT: David Layer/NAB

Speaking first about the status of HD Radio, Layer described continuing uptake in Mexico and Canada. In the United States he noted the proliferating number of receivers, though on the station side, “frankly there’s still work to be done.”

The majority of radio stations in the U.S. are not yet broadcasting in digital. However, FM stations doing so now cover the large majority of the population with their signals, so overall coverage is very good, but many smaller-market broadcasters in particular haven’t converted yet. “We at NAB understand that and are trying to work with Xperi and equipment manufacturers to develop less expensive ways for broadcasters to deploy HD Radio.” Xperi is the owner of HD Radio technology.

On the receiver side, deployment continues to grow at a steady pace, to an overall figure of 70 million receivers sold as of the end of 2019. Layer said roughly 25% of 275 million vehicles registered in the U.S. are capable of receiving digital broadcasts now. Noticeably, penetration is greater in the major markets like New York (37.5%), Miami (35.9%) and Los Angeles (34.3%). 

Fig. 3: HD Radio mode “MP1” spectrum distribution.

Layer said how those figures are potentially important for AM broadcasters.  Awareness of a proposed all-digital option for the AM band is growing, and it is inherently supported in all existing HD Radios. He noted however that when a given station decides to move to all-digital AM, listeners won’t be able to receive those signals on analog-only receivers. 

He said solid, well-established digital radio receiver penetration is key if broadcasters are to consider offering an all-digital AM service.

In November, as RW has reported, the FCC announced plans to give AM stations the flexibility to voluntarily adopt all-digital broadcasting, and it has been taking comments from industry about it.

ASYMMETRY

Layer also updated attendees on the proposed use of the FM IBOC asymmetric sidebands mode. Under this mode, which currently requires an experimental authorization, FM HD Radio broadcasters in the United States can increase their digital power on just one side of the signal (Fig. 2). 

Fig. 4: HD Radio mode “MP3” spectrum distribution is the most commonly used by U.S. broadcasters.

 When first-adjacent channels are closely spaced on one side of the signal but not on the other, this waveform helps broadcasters achieve better digital coverage since the entirety of the digital broadcast is present in both sidebands. NAB, Xperi and National Public Radio recently filed a Petition for Rulemaking with the FCC asking for a routine authorization for this, but no decision has been forthcoming yet.

Like most digital standards, HD Radio also allows for a number of different operating modes. NAB recently investigated the mode called MP11, which until recently was not supported by commercially available transmission and reception equipment. 

Compared to the standard hybrid HD Radio modes MP1 and MP3 (Figs. 3 and 4), which are currently used by most broadcasters, MP11 adds additional digital sidebands (Fig. 5) and offers broadcasters an additional 25 kilobits per second of capacity. 

“Working with Xperi and equipment manufacturer Nautel, PILOT, an innovation initiative of the NAB, tested this mode using the PILOT radio test bed, confirming that it works great and manufacturers are now implementing that,” Layer said. MP11 mode also has been demonstrated to have minimal impact on analog FM reception and audio quality, he said.

Fig. 5: HD Radio mode “MP11” spectrum distribution, featuring additional digital sidebands.

Layer reported that Xperi is also looking for new operation modes for digital FM broadcast, especially targeting a long-term potential future where FM could be all-digital in the United States. The HD Radio standard dates to the early 2000s. Since then, hardware technology and coding methods have improved and it’s now possible to do much more with the same signal and spectrum, he said.

Xperi and NAB PILOT are investigating new modes that provide much higher throughput, up to 320 kbps (Fig. 6), to support higher levels of service as well as new applications.

AM CHALLENGES

In-car listening accounts for more than 50% of overall radio listening in the United States, so Layer also is paying attention to new car and dashboard designs.

“As the great U.S. philosopher Yogi Berra used to say, ‘You can learn a lot by just watching.’ So I visited the November 2019 LA Auto Show, sitting in  over 50 cars and operating the radios. I was looking for certain things like the radio button, whether there was a tuner knob, HD Radio capabilities and so on.” 

Fig. 6: Xperi and PILOT are investigating new HD Radio modes which provide enhanced throughput, up to 320 kilobits per second.

Layer compared the experience with his prior findings from the Detroit Auto Show of January 2017 and provided a brief comparison (Fig. 7). In a couple of years, HD Radio availability in the vehicles on display at these auto shows rose from 78% to 82% while the presence of a physical “radio” button dropped down from 39% to 26%. 

In addition, the presence of a physical tuning knob dropped from 54% to 38% while cursor knob presence rose from 31% to 36%. Layer says this expanded use of cursor knobs is evidence of how the dashboard is becoming more like a computer platform. 

He also found that Apple CarPlay was more prevalent than Android Auto (92% vs. 70%). 

Three out of nine all-electric vehicles he saw did not feature AM radio at all, presumably in part because of issues with electric motors creating interference to the AM signals. 

Fig. 7: Layer compared the dashboard features he encountered at new car shows 2-1/2 years apart.

At the most recent CES, NXP demoed a solution to solve this issue; but an obstacle for car manufacturers is the cost of these advanced tuners. The challenge for U.S. broadcasters, considering the huge number of AM stations on air, is to ensure there will continue to be consumer demand for AM services based on their content; Layer said this will be the best reason for automotive manufacturers to keep AM radios in electric cars. 

HYBRID RADIO

Meanwhile, hybrid radio is poised to be of growing importance. Here the term refers to emerging platforms that combine over-the-air broadcast reception with online connectivity that extends a station’s coverage beyond its OTA footprint (with the use of audio streaming), offers the possibility of enhanced metadata and listener interactivity, and provides the ability for analytic feedback to broadcasters about listening.

Layer noted the hybrid radio platform 360L recently announced by satellite company SiriusXM as a remarkable example of hybrid radio capabilities, user experience and listener engagement (see a video tutorial at http://tinyurl.com/rw-hybrid). 

But the growing popularity of hybrid radio comes with a major drawback for local U.S. broadcasters. Once a driver tunes to a given station, a hybrid radio receiver may silently look for and stay connected to the broadcaster’s streaming audio signal to support time alignment of the over-the-air and streaming versions of the signal.  This is done so as to allow seamless switching to the streaming feed in case the broadcast coverage weakens. 

In this scenario, the streaming signal is in use even when a receiver is playing the RF feed and no one is listening to the stream. As a consequence, performance rights costs significantly rise. 

“I’ve heard a broadcaster say, ‘This just completely breaks the business model,” Layer noted. “This is a big problem; hybrid radio offers so much promise but there’s a peril for U.S. broadcasters because of the streaming fees.”

BROADCAST-ONLY ZONE

NAB is seeking to define a way for broadcasters to try to control such costs. The idea is that the broadcaster creates a description of a “strong signal area” in which streaming is not allowed; the receiver gets information about the broadcast-only area via the internet-delivered portion of the hybrid radio signal, exchanging data with the onboard GPS system. 

Thus the receiver can detect the position of the vehicle with respect to the broadcast-only area and, when within that zone, the receiver tunes to broadcast signals only, with no streaming. Beyond this broadcast-only area is a “gray zone” where the receiver selects either source according to RF reception metrics. Outside these two areas, the receiver is allowed to force streaming. 

This process would give the broadcaster an opportunity to better manage streaming costs. 

Fig. 8: A possible implementation of the “broadcast-only zone,” which drives the receiver in tuning to RF-only signals. The orange line visible over the red is created using only 36 points.

Layer believes it may be a challenge to convince receiver manufacturers to implement this solution because it adds cost and complexity. “But it’s very important and it’s something that we’re going to continue to work on,” he said. “Maybe we can come up with a simpler way to achieve the same goal.”

The idea of conditioning a receiver’s action on its geographical position is not virgin territory; it is one of the pillars on which emergency alerting in mobile phones is based. It’s common practice to create a contour and dictate that an alert will only be received by smartphones in a certain area. So the basics are proven, but it has not been applied to radio broadcasting in this fashion. NAB is exploring this with the RadioDNS technical group, Xperi and receiver manufacturers. 

Layer believes a basic broadcast-only area can be adequately shaped by using a contour with well under 100 points (an example using 36 points was shown during the EBU presentation), thus making communication to receivers a relatively “light” task. 

POSITIVE THINKING

Finally, Layer discussed voice platforms, which are becoming a major channel through which consumers receive audio services. When listeners attempt to  access broadcast stations using, for example, smart speakers, he noted that they have to face some issues. 

Instead of asking for the name of their favorite station, many Americans are accustomed to asking for the frequency on which a station is broadcasting. So, when a listener asks for 97.1, they might end up hearing the wrong 97.1 which disadvantages the local broadcaster and annoys the listener. (Read about an effort to resolve this problem in Australia at https://tinyurl.com/rw-smart-3.)

For the broadcaster, one issue is that voice platforms often connect the listener to a station only via a particular aggregation platform. The audio feed is not coming directly from the broadcaster, meaning it is out of the loop in controlling that experience.

“We are talking to Google and to Amazon,” Layer said, “and we are working at a solution where broadcasters can be more involved in selecting where a stream originates from, maybe from broadcasters’ own platforms.”

Layer feels positive about this process and hopes that broadcasters in various countries can work toward a common approach because the web companies are accustomed to targeting global audiences through global solutions. 

With that in mind, NAB PILOT is working on creating a standardized broadcaster database of how voice platforms find and ingest data, with the goal that each station would have a say in what information is shared with the voice platforms, such as station name, frequency, branding, location and market. The database would allow stations to prioritize stream location for voice platforms.

“If we can collaborate on these activities and develop a database that broadcasters have access to and control, I think that would really improve the experience from both the broadcasters’ and listeners’ perspectives,” Layer concluded. 

Comment on this or any story to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post NAB Radio Technologists Look Ahead  appeared first on Radio World.

As the quality of smartphone cameras has improved over the years, many people are now using them to broadcast from their homes or facilities, especially during a time when our mobility is limited. The Video Call Center, a provider of video remotes and production automation for media companies, is among the most experienced in advancing remote production technologies using smartphones.

The company’s patented technology allows seamless connectivity for broadcasting over cellular connections with zero latency. No apps are involved; all that’s needed is a smartphone camera and cellular connection.

Larry Thaler, CEO for The Video Call Center and contributor to TV Technology, said the company was seeing steady growth well before the pandemic.

“We have watched our new, location-agnostic, smartphone- and IP-based production processes steadily gain traction over the past couple of years with sales up nearly 100%,” he said. “Even before the pandemic, our clients found that we offered creative flexibility, while making more effective use of their available budgets. Although we are concerned about the pandemic and our hearts go out to those affected, the VCC’s customer base has grown by an additional 30% and production hours are four times higher than this time last year.”

TV Technology recently spoke with VCC Producer Jonni-Lynn Galietti about her work in helping prepare clients for their live appearances on TV.

VCC call producer Jonni-Lynn Galietti manages production for a national news program from her home. (Photo: Video Call Center)

TVT: What’s the first thing you do to help prepare for broadcasts?

Jonni-Lynn Galietti: The first thing we do when we connect with the smartphone is we analyze the connection. Sometimes Wi-Fi is great, but sometimes it’s not, so we would have to switch to data — so there’s really only two options.

It’s really easy to analyze the connection — within the first 10–20 seconds of our conversation, we can see if it’s good or bad. After that, it’s all about propping up the device. We ask them to hold it full screen horizontal and then we really analyze the room. If the first thing I see is light behind the caller, I know that there’s some beautiful natural light coming into the room. But the last thing I want to do is to put it behind the caller.

So we utilize anything we can to have that caller move to use that light, so that the light is in front of them. Window sills are great, as they can prop the device so it’s at 90 degrees. But the real challenge is getting it eye level, so we’ll ask them to use ordinary household items to prop these devices to get them at eye level with the caller. We don’t want any tilts or look up somebody’s nose and we don’t want any ceiling in the shot, so there’s a lot of filters that we really have to go through to get that perfect ideal shot.

If I have my overhead light on in the room I’m using, it’s not really going to provide a balanced light on my face. What matters most is that the person you are speaking with, that their face is lit up. It’s not the overhead, the shoulders or behind them, you want to see their face clearly.

TVT: How far away should the smartphone be placed?

JG: That’s really at the client’s request. I’ve had clients connect with callers at campsites where they want the full body shot, tent and fire in the picture, but the majority of our clients want to match up the caller to the host that is interviewing them.

It’s usually the eyes, and the top part of their chest, maybe a little more headroom, but it’s really based on the client’s request.

TVT: Do clients ever want to use the camera vertically?

JG: We’ve had requests to do it vertically before but we really like to provide horizontal connections because we want the caller to see as much return as possible. I think it’s just as important for the full screen to be taken up in the control room so they can crop it accordingly.

TVT: How long does set-up take?

JG: This window varies. A lot of our clients put very strict time constrictions on us — we’ve had less than seven minutes to connect with the caller to put them on live TV. We’ve had callers in Israel with absolutely no connection and we needed to provide a clear HD signal and we spent hours connecting them to see what the best results were.

As a rule of thumb, we typically ask for 15 minutes just to get it perfect. We know everyone’s time is valuable but we feel confident that we can get a really good signal within 15 minutes.

TVT: Beyond the tech support, how would you describe your role?

JG: I am their cheerleader! There’s a lot of people who get nervous about how they look, but I’m only here to make sure your connection is good and your shot looks good. I’m also here to amp you up.

There’s different challenges every time. Everyone is unique.

 

The post Broadcasting Via Smartphone: Some Tips & Techniques appeared first on Radio World.

2wcom says its MoIN software solution provides all functionalities that traditional hardware AoIP codecs offer. The company also points out that it adds benefits such as scalability, usage-oriented pricing models, optimized rack space or flexibility in application.

The system features Icecast to DVB transport stream transcoding so web streams are available on DVB transport stream for distribution in cable networks or via satellite. In addition, its software can feed a streaming encoder or transcode an audio signal to adaptive bitrate protocols like HLS for further distribution via CDN.

[Check Out More Products at Radio World’s Products Section]

As a studio-to-WAN bridge, the server allows for the transformation of AoIP protocols like AES67, Dante, WheatNet, Ravenna or Livewire+ to a format that is suitable for wide area networks.

SMPTE 2022 conform error protection or Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) ensure transmission robustness, even with imperfect network conditions.

On-demand transcoders in means of number and time enable users to flexibly handle alternative audio streams like audio description or additional audio streams of a video contribution, such as for example for social media platforms and radio.

MoIN software is also available as hardware if required.

Info: www.2wcom.com

 

The post 2wcom MoIN Links Production and Distribution appeared first on Radio World.

Robert Ferguson

The author is a support engineer for Wheatstone. He says that nearly every customer support call has been COVID-19-related since the middle of March.

How many of you have bought a virtual mixer, set it up initially, and forgot about it — until recently?

You’re not alone. I’ve talked to quite a few broadcasters who are discovering that they’re far more prepared for a pandemic like COVID-19 than they thought.

Many are grabbing mics from the studio, and Tielines or other codec units off the remote rack and sending them home with talent so they can remotely voicetrack or broadcast their shows.

Others are using SIP software codecs such as LinPhone or OnSIP that they’ve installed on tablets, PCs or phones. Still others are using a combination of both. One group, for example, is setting up WheatNet-IP VoIP-AoIP multichannel appliances at the studio headend with any combination of SIP software and hardware decoders at the home studio end. As a result, it was able to deploy multiple work at home studios at once.

Codec choices range from G.722 to Opus, any of which add some lag that can be a factor for live shows (the biggest problem being that hosts talk over each other). But at 256 kbps, Opus can provide a decent amount of dynamic range and it’s fairly robust — certainly not as robust as linear audio, but it’s cheaper to carry that encoded audio across the internet or across a WAN than straight linear audio.

If you have a USB mic or small mixer type application with a USB audio output, you can put that to good use as well. I’ve talked to several who are broadcasting with these or their mobile phones temporarily. The frequency response is limited, especially on those smart phones, and the quality isn’t as good as a professional mic with processing, but for doing live news, it’s a quick way to broadcast remotely in near real time.

MIXING REMOTELY

When it comes to mixing feeds, in almost all cases I recommend that this be done from the station studio where you have all the tools of the trade on hand.

Since you already have all that professional gear at your studio facility, why not remote into that facility and gain access to it? While there are ways to remote into an analog studio (more on that in a minute), it’s easier with an AoIP networked studio.

If you have an AoIP console surface, you can probably use remote control software to control it. Many of the broadcasters I talk to are setting up a gateway machine somewhere in the building to protect the main network, and then remoting in through a VPN to control the console. OpenVPN is a popular open-source VPN option for creating reliable tunnels into the studio. To get around internet speed issues and dropouts that can be a problem in more rural areas, WHIZ CE Kevin Buente in Zanesville, Ohio, configured OpenVPN to bond across multiple WAN connections into the TV/radio combo’s WheatNet-IP networked studio.

Remote control software for consoles and AoIP systems varies, from basic GUIs to virtual mixers like our Remote LXE client software that mirrors a physical LXE console surface. Talent is able to access and control the physical console in the facility from a Remote LXE client on a laptop or desktop at home, usually through a VPN into a gateway computer at the station studio.

We are seeing a huge increase in interest in our Remote LXE and other Glass remote client software for this purpose and for remote engineering access as well. Radio Operations Manager Tom Barclay with Georgia Public Broadcasting recently ordered a Glass E remote client for a LX-24 console mainly for remote engineering access, but he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of using it for remote mixing by producers that are currently on-premise. The pubcaster keeps a board operator on-premise in its talk studio for daily shows like its Political Rewind show, which is being hosted remotely by a host in a home studio using a codec with typically two or three guest call-ins on telephone.

Overall, the trend seems to be software apps as an alternative to physical home studio gear. Apps like our remote mixing app ReMIX can be installed on a gateway PC at the station or used over a VPN connection to the WheatNet-IP network, which can be used to control utility mixers in the WheatNet-IP Blades. This is useful for broadcasters who have Blades for I/O, but do not have a surface capable of remote control. (The utility mixer output(s) can be routed to the air-chain. Assignments to the utility mixer can be made using WheatNet IP Navigator or salvos fired from logic inputs for a predefined set of inputs to the utility mixer being controlled by ReMIX). Any source on the WheatNet-IP network can be assigned to utility mixer inputs; mics, codecs, and automation playouts are the most common. With the two available program busses on the utility mixer, a quick mix-minus could also be set up to send to a codec or phone hybrid.

CHALLENGES OF BACK FEEDS TO STATIONS

Next to remote access, setting up confidence monitoring and mix-minus or bus-minus feeds for home studios make up the majority of our support calls since the pandemic started. Most of these are a simple matter of setting bus-minus assigns (all of our IP surfaces have bus-minus sends from the fader and these provide an automatic mix-minus of program content minus the source, so in most cases it’s a simple fix of pairing faders to the codec.

It gets harder for some of the smaller plants that have a limited number of AoIP I/O units feeding a small console. The tricky part is how to route several home studio feeds and their respective bus-minus presets along with assigned codecs using shared hardware I/Os and faders. This can often be done in the software realm, using AoIP features like WheatNet-IP’s Associated Connections that let you build a set of rules to automate some of that routing in smaller plants that are short on faders or outputs.

FOR YOU ANALOG GUYS

Analog consoles can also be remotely controlled with a little ingenuity and using the GPI/O in most any program playout or automation system. GPI/Os can be programmed to fire closure contacts that remote control the console. I recommend that you set up a gateway computer for logging into the network from the outside, and then set up a remote utility such as TeamViewer to keep your playout system secure.

Another option is to add an IP I/O unit to the analog console and then routing control and audio through that for remote access of the console.

There are as many ways to “social distance” the broadcast studio as there are ways to build a studio. The building blocks are pretty much the same as you’d find in-house — codecs, client software, surface control — and it’s just a matter of putting it together with a little bit of ingenuity to get what you need.

Radio World welcomes suggestions for other articles about how radio companies and technology suppliers are solving problems during this current health and business climate. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Radio From Home: You May Be More Prepared Than You Realize appeared first on Radio World.

The author is membership program director of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. NFCB commentaries are featured regularly at www.radioworld.com.

The coronavirus pandemic has had a tremendous impact on local media. You need only turn on commercial radio or television to catch rebroadcasts, Skype interviews and replacement programming. At many community radio stations, the situation is no different.

With worries about infection, plenty of community stations have opted to send volunteers home. In several cases, volunteers are encouraged produce their shows remotely. The catch? Stations are largely letting volunteers figure out this stuff on their own.

[Read: Community Broadcaster: Salute to Stations Fighting On]

So, if you are a community radio producer or DJ, how exactly do you create your weekly radio show without a studio and minimal technology?

These suggestions are by no means complete for everyone, but here is an overview for any community radio volunteer.

It cannot be overstated that where you record is literally more important what you record and what you record it with. As the National Federation of Community Broadcasters notes in its free guidance for stations, the two primary issues volunteers must be aware of are the areas they will record and then the microphones they use.

Your first task is selecting where you will record your voiceovers. Rooms with high ceilings, open floor plans, hard surfaces and rooms likely to pick up ambient/white noise should not be used to record a program. This means living rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms and garages are out. Veteran journalist Ron Gonyea presents extensive insights in Current on what to look out for as well. Vents, street noise and pillows are among the items on your checklist.

Now, test out your sound deadening tactics. If you are not satisfied, vocal booth boxes and microphone sound shields are available online for under $50 and will vastly improve sound. For an even more extensive dive into acoustics, NPR Training provides diagrams that help you think about your space.

Next, for the thing everyone focuses on first: your microphone.

Do not use your mobile phone’s or laptop’s built-in microphones to record a full program. You’ll likely not get the sound you aspire to have. Quality microphones are available for under $50 from music equipment stores and online. These include the Rode, Audio-Technica, Samson and Shure lines of USB microphones. YouTube features many products tests. If you can’t test a microphone out, skim those tests to choose the right device for your vocal delivery.

If you’re worried about a microphone working with your sound card and input, or that your desktop or laptop is too old to work with a USB microphone, there are many lines of handheld recorders available. With these, you can record your spots directly there, then move the recorded files for production. Affordable brands used for media production include Tascam and Zoom (not to be mistaken for the video platform).

And finally, there are a range of software audio editing packages that volunteers can use, including Audacity, which is free, and Adobe Audition, which is part of Adobe Creative Cloud. Again, YouTube is a go-to. You’ll find beginner to advanced techniques for your software of choice.

At-home production may ramp up the switch to digital, especially for music DJs dependent on records, compact discs or cassettes. Additionally, the remote production road is sure to be bumpy for those new to it. However, during COVID-19, such program creation is required. And it could be just the kind of learning experience you didn’t know you needed.

 

The post Community Broadcaster: Tips for Better Home Recordings appeared first on Radio World.

Sine Control Technology, maker of PowerClamp Surge Protective Devices, has introduced the new Series 200 PowerClamp models. It describes the AC power line surge suppressor as ideal for broadcast transmitter sites or any other installations that require clean and reliable AC power.

[Check Out More Products at Radio World’s Products Section]

The new Series 200 PowerClamp units are rated at 200,000 amps-per-phase of surge suppression capacity, and will be available for single-/split-phase and three-phase WYE electrical service in all standard voltages. The Series 200 units will suppress short-term power line surges to within a few volts of the sine wave, thus protecting transmitters from AC spikes that cause serious damage and unreliable operation. This new design also features internal LEDs to indicate if a fuse needs replacement, and remote status monitoring that can be interfaced to any transmitter remote control system.

Solid-state transmitters with switching power supplies are especially vulnerable to power line spikes and surges. These AC power disturbances often cause irreparable damage to power supply components. The new Series 200 PowerClamp surge suppressors will greatly reduce the chances of damage and keep the transmitter reliably on the air.

Series 200 PowerClamp units are housed in a NEMA-rated enclosure with all critical components hermetically sealed to prevent degradation. They are installed in parallel with the transmitter electrical service. Load-matching is not required, and power to the transmitter is not interrupted even if a PowerClamp fuse opens.

Info: https://henryeng.com/powerclamp

 

The post New Sine Control PowerClamp Series Available appeared first on Radio World.

For on-air audio radio and television production with high-demand operational requirements and workflows. Its X-Core engine can manage up to 1,024 audio channels of local content or AoIP that can be controlled using one or several control surfaces. Each control surface can have more than 90 motorized faders with pages for snapshots or memories.

Atrium offers simplicity of operation through a set of touchscreens, encoders, indicators and keys, all of which can be preconfigured and dynamically adapt their function to the operational context. This avoids unnecessary steps in workflows, maintaining the precise information visible and simple operation.

[Check Out More Products at Radio World’s Products Section]

Each Atrium control surface and its individual controls can be customized for most any operation. Thus, classic workflows can be implemented. Users can also configure mix or very special workflows with flexible programming of keys to act on the routing of the console, maybe controlling external equipment such as routers, audio codecs, telephony broadcasting systems, broadcast automation, or IP intercom systems.

Atrium’s simplicity of configuration and integration within a system is not only restricted to the local production center, but reaches outside. It allows connecting with external events and remote production centers, enabling the creation of a multichannel audio network as extensive as the user application may require.

X-Core is a broadcast IP audio mixing, processing and distributing matrix. It can work as an audio matrix, intercom matrix or a combination. X-Core also can work as the audio engine of an Atrium console or set of consoles. Native IP (Dante, Ravenna, AES67, SMPTE ST 2110-30, SMPTE ST 2110-31).

Info: www.aeqbroadcast.com

 

The post AEQ Enters the Atrium appeared first on Radio World.

The FCC has said it declined to reconsider the selection of HD Radio as the U.S. digital radio standard. But Alan Hughes, a broadcast technical writer in Australia, believes the industry should not convert to all-digital HD Radio on the AM band but should consider Digital Radio Mondiale in the 47–88 MHz band, which he notes has been “virtually vacated by TV.” He says available DRM channels are more than enough to cover existing AM and FM stations, plus new entrants. 

The following is from comments he filed to the FCC about proposal to allow the MA3 all-digital mode of HD Radio for AM stations in the United States. It has been lightly edited for style and clarity.

Currently, radio in the USA is in an interference-fueled mess. 

VHF Band 2 (FM band) — According to the FCC database, there are nearly 14,000 FM broadcasters with over 10,000 translators, causing this band to be overcrowded and getting worse, particularly with the addition of FM translators for AM broadcasters, and FM/digital HD Radio sharing half of the channels either side of them which are used by other broadcasters. Digital power is 4–10% of their FM power to prevent digital interference to their own signal and others. This substantially restricts the coverage area before the receiver goes back to FM or, if it is HD2–HD4, drops out altogether.

There are no pure digital HD broadcasters in VHF Band 2.

Medium Frequency (“AM band”) — In the FCC database there are 4,616 AM broadcasters in North America; 240 are authorized for HD operation but this does not include broadcasters who have switched off HD.

Interference from electrical disturbances is caused by electrical switch mode power supplies, which are in virtually everything electrically powered including LED lighting, and electric cars when charging and moving. Petrol-powered engines can cause interference. Electric power line insulators also can cause considerable interference. 

[Real-World Tests Make Business Case for MA3]

On AM this causes annoying static but also unreliable digital reception, particularly for AM/HD where the digital signal is only 1% of the carrier power.

Interference between broadcasters is caused by AM broadcasters sharing half of their channels used by other broadcasters; this also occurs with HD Radio and is worse in its mode AM/digital mode. This is why many AM broadcasters have stopped broadcasting digital at night.

There are no high-powered pure digital HD broadcasts in the MF band. There is only WWFD, a city-wide station, on air.

Vehicle manufacturers have stopped using long telescopic antennas, which gather more signal for this band than the “Shark Fin” type, which is just too short. The “Shark Fin” antenna contains an amplifier that overloads on strong interference and will then affect the reliability of reception.

The FCC needs to do an independent survey to determine what proportion of the population actually listen to HD Radio. Since the HD standard has existed for 19 years some radios will have died. One would have expected that analog AM and FM should have been superseded by now.

OPTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT

Hybrid Digital (HD) Radio is not feasible because the digital signal has to be so weak and because listeners have to remember whether it is AM or FM, the frequency and if it is HD1–HD4. This approach seems to have not been able to produce a national conversion to digital.

Pure digital HD Radio in VHF Band 2 in this mode still requires 400 kHz (two FM channels) to transmit one broadcaster’s programs. Interference will continue when all broadcasts are pure digital in Band 2. In the medium-frequency band a signal can fit in a non-interfering channel but the sound quality is poor and it lacks the ability to carry data information, alternatively the wider channel will cause interference to broadcasters in the adjacent channels.

DAB+ is in widespread use outside of North America but cannot be used because TV is using nearly all the available DAB+ channels.

DRM in VHF low band (TV Channels 2–6) in this mode only requires 100 kHz. Thus four DRM transmitters can replace a pure digital HD signal in Band 2. Each of these DRM transmitters can carry three sound programs. DRM has not been trialled in North America. It does not use any of the existing bands used by broadcast radio. This means it can be broadcast in addition to any existing broadcasts without interference with existing services and also without power limitations caused by existing broadcasters. There is no sharing with adjacent channels.

See the accompanying graphic (Fig. 1).

66–72 MHz provides 59 channels that can be used around the locations of the above TV transmitters with the exception of TV Channel 4. Where radio broadcasters are near the seven medium-power TV transmitters they can use 47.1–49.9 and 76.1–77.9 MHz.

The FCC needs to allocate DRM frequencies to all broadcasters in groups of six consecutive channels, allowing broadcasters to share transmitters, antennas and towers. DRM can use the same frequency over the whole license area including repeaters in black spots. There are enough channels for both AM and FM broadcasters, leaving the medium-frequency band for low population density areas such as Alaska and Arizona.

Fig. 1: VHF band 1 uses from the FCC. High power is to cover a region, medium a district, low a city and LPX a village. CONCLUSION

In 1998, when Australia was selecting which system to use for digital television, our Communications Lab did a side-by-side performance tests (see http://tinyurl.com/rw-hughes) between DVB-T and the Advanced Television System Committee’s systems. 

As a result the only countries to take roll out ATSC were the USA, Canada, Mexico and South Korea. The rest of the world use DVB-T, its upgrade DVB-T2 and a later Japanese IDSB. 

The FCC should follow this example and do the same trials for radio. There are two United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union standards for digital radio, DRM and DAB+, which should be adopted in North America to make receivers cheap for all, just like AM/FM. This will enable a rapid rollout of an interference-free system.

I have no commercial interest in the outcome of your decision.

The author is a broadcast technical author from Australia and has spent a lifetime in training technicians. Radio World welcomes opinion and points of view on important radio broadcast industry issues.

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Nominations will close April 17 for the Special Edition Best of Show Awards program, an initiative of our parent company Future plc to showcase new, innovative products introduced this spring for specialized technology users.

Companies can nominate products for awards presented by the following publications and sites: TV Technology, TVBEurope, Digital Video, Government Video, Video Edge, Radio World, Pro Sound News, Sound & Video Contractor, B+C and Next TV.

Companies seeking guidance about which brand to enter for can find guidance here.

Winners will be selected by panels of professional users, technical experts and editors based on descriptions provided by companies via the official nomination form.

Companies pay a fee to enter; not all products are selected as winners. All nominees and winners will be featured in a Program Guide sent to readers this spring.

For more information about the Special Edition of the Best of Show Awards visit the official Best of Show website.

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Could geo-targeted programming for over-the-air radio broadcasters be on the horizon?

The Federal Communications Commission is exploring that idea by requesting comments on a requested rule change that would permit radio broadcasters to air geo-targeted programming — such as emergency alerts, news and advertising — on a voluntary basis.

The request was formally made in March by GeoBroadcast Solutions, a Chicago-based technology company whose ZoneCasting technology uses FM boosters to distribute locally targeted content. According to the company, the rule change would be similar to the 2017 FCC decision that allowed TV broadcasters to use the next gen ATSC 3.0 standard to distribute geo-targeted programming.

[Read: Tech Company Asks FCC to Allow Geo-Targeted Radio Programming]

According to GeoBroadcast in its petition, “The commission could bring some of these same benefits to the radio industry by permitting radio broadcasters to use single-frequency network technology to provide one of the main consumer and broadcaster benefits inherent in ATSC 3.0: hyperlocal programming, emergency alerting and advertising.”

Specifically, the ZoneCasting model uses a single-frequency network to originate programming separately from the booster’s primary FM station. (This technology uses lower-power and lower-height FM transmitters operating on the same frequency and within the service contour as the primary FM station transmitter.) To achieve this, however, the FCC would need to amend part of the FM booster rule that currently requires an FM broadcast booster station to retransmit only the signals of its primary station.

According to GeoBroadcasting, this type of zoned broadcast coverage technology would allow radio broadcasters to provide hyperlocalized content, such as geo-targeted weather, targeted emergency alerts and hyperlocal news, the company said. Zoned broadcast coverage also would enable radio broadcasters to air geo-targeted traffic information, second language programming and local advertisements.

Zoned broadcast coverage could make the medium attractive to new kinds of advertisers, the company said, as it allows radio to reach their target audience much more efficiently. The company pointed to February 2020 BIA Advisory Services study that found that more than 90% of local retailers indicated that they would spend more on broadcast radio advertising if zoned advertising were available.

Comments on the issue can be left in the ECFS database using proceeding number RM-11854.

 

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