Aggregator

.

.

As he gratefully accepted an award from New York State Broadcasters Association, Federal Communications Commissioner Michael O’Rielly noted — wryly — the irony of the moment.

The award, for New Yorker of the Year, was being bestowed, he said, on a government bureaucrat “who never spent one day working at a broadcast station; who has never been closer to the news industry than when he had a paper route.” Those were some of the remarks made by O’Rielly — undoubtedly to laughs from the room full of broadcasters — during a luncheon with the NYSBA during its Broadcast Leadership and Hall Of Fame Luncheon on Oct. 17 in New York City.

[Read: O’Rielly: First Amendment Rights Worthy of Strongest Defenses]

“You should know that, when David [Donovan, president of NYSBA] called to congratulate me for being selected as New York Broadcasters New Yorker of the Year, I suggested he was way off base,” O’Rielly told the crowd. “In my mind, I stand before you as someone completely unworthy of this honor. Let’s face it: you are looking at a short, overweight, government bureaucrat … whose claim to FCC fame includes successfully allowing broadcast stations to close up shop,” (albeit, he said, as part of the much-lauded elimination of the FCC’s long-standing Main Studio Rule).

“[While] there are far more deserving individuals from this amazing state,” he said. “But…not being on the selection committee myself, I happily accept this award.”

O’Rielly, a native New Yorker from the western part of the state, said broadcasting provided a “wonderful foundation of fulsome life experiences” that have been enormously valuable throughout his professional career. He was born and raised in a small city on the Erie Canal just outside Buffalo, N.Y., which is home to hearty, hardworking individuals that — as he said in his confirmation hearing back in 2013 — “accept the hard winter weather and lack of sun as a badge of honor.” All across the State of New York, O’Rielly said, people are smart, gritty realists who tend to tell it as it is. “Throw into that mix some challenging weather from time to time, and you have the formula for some really unique individuals that tend to do well in our fairly complex society,” he said.

Local broadcasting was a key part of his early education, he said, as local news, sports coverage and children’s programming fed some of his earliest interests. During his six-year-long tenure at the commission, O’Rielly said he has attempted to distinguish himself as someone who listens attentively to the problems and issues facing broadcasters and tries to find workable solutions, from local ones pirate radio to broader ones like the seismic shift in the video marketplace.

“Part of my focus has been to reduce the overall regulatory burden on broadcasters, as is demanded by the FCC,” he said. “This means eliminating any and all unnecessary requirements that impinge on broadcasters’ ability to serve their local communities. Your government should not mandate obligations that impose undue costs and require inordinate time to comply when a regulation has far outlived its usefulness in the modern marketplace.”

O’Rielly told the organization that the good news for the broadcast industry is that there are important and vibrant opportunities ahead. “While the competitive marketplace may change around you and technology may continue to present challenges, you provide real value to the American public,” he said.

For local radio in particular, “your role in the community has never been more important, especially with the demise of so many newspapers.”

He touched on personal tragedy during the event by saying that a recent death in his family of his brother-in-law put a somber note on his appearance at the event.

But he closed by saying that this award would only serve to make him “work harder, smarter and longer to ensure that the American people are getting their money’s worth from the FCC.”

As president of the NYSBA, Donovan said that O’Rielly stands apart as one of the outstanding commissioners in the history of the FCC.  “He studies an issue in depth and then makes a principled decision,” Donovan said, saying O’Rielly has been a leader on a number of issues affecting New York broadcasters, including his championing of increased enforcement against illegal pirate radio operations.

Prior to being nominated by Pres. Barack Obama in 2013, O’Rielly served in key positions in the U.S. Senate, including as policy advisor in the Office of the Senate Republican Whip and as a professional staff member on the Committee on Energy and Commerce for the House.

 

The post NYSBA Honors Native Son O’Rielly as New Yorker of the Year appeared first on Radio World.

On Oct. 17 Pakistan Broadcasting Corp. began DRM for FM test transmissions on a consumer receiver.

According to the DRM consortium, the public broadcaster is sending the DRM signal from its headquarters in Islamabad using a low power of 75 W. The signal reportedly reaches an area of between 5–10 kilometers around the city.

Pictured from left to right are Ghulam Mujaddid (PBC), Roman Afroz (HEDRA), Peter Timmons (GatesAir), Kamran Saeed and Nauman Jarral (PBC).

Broadcasting on 101.6 MHz and pushing from a single FM transmitter, the receiver auto tunes into three services — FM101 (entertainment), Dhanak (music) and Saut-ul-quran (religious). Additional text information including Journaline is also available.

For the trial, the PBC is using a GatesAir 1 kW Flexiva transmitter and Exgine card; an RF Mondial DRM Content Server and DRM+ professional receiver; a Label Italy Bay antenna system; and a Gospell consumer DRM receiver.

“The Gospell receiver, which originally worked on AM is now working on FM too,” noted DRM Chair Ruxandra Obreja. “This is a great step forward as it shows there can also be a commercial solution for DRM in FM. A similar test, which started this summer and continues in St. Petersburg, Russia, is also using a Gospell receiver.”

[Read: Solving the Medium-Wave Problem]

Hedra Technology, Fraunhofer IIS and the DRM international Consortium are collaborating on the project, which is managed by PBC specialists Kamran Saeed, director engineering; Ali Zia Abbasi, controller engineering and chairman DRM steering committee; Ghulam Mujaddid, engineering manager and DRM steering committee member; and Yasir Mustafa, engineering manager and DRM steering committee member.

DRM adds that in addition to Russia, Pakistan joins Indonesia and South Africa. Both of these countries have recently demonstrated DRM in the FM band as well.

 

The post PBC Tests DRM for FM on a Consumer Receiver appeared first on Radio World.

Technical broadcast operator BCAST has debuted a new platform that is meant to help small and medium broadcasters implement the DAB+ standard, named DABCAST.

DABCAST supports the range of functionalities needed for digital radio creation from studio to broadcasting. This is done through its Virtual Studio web app, where multimedia content can be created and managed.

The cloud application MUX processes the radio streams and converts them into the appropriate format for DAB+; while the TX transmitter, a physical device that receives signal from the cloud, modulates it for final broadcast. The signal from the air is then analyzed by the DAB+ monitoring probe.

More information about DABCAST can be found here.

 

 

The post 
DABCAST Designed to Simplify DAB+ Implementation appeared first on Radio World.

.

.

.

.

Denial of Motion for Extension of Comment Deadlines

.

.

Software developer and digital audio hardware maker Steinberg is expanding its line of portable and rackmountable digital audio interfaces with the UR-C line of USB C interfaces.

The UR-C family will initially offer two- (UR22C) and four-preamp (UR44C) models with a rackmountable eight-preamp (UR816C) model following. There’s also a “Recording Pack” bundle featuring the UR22C.

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

All models offer 32-bit/192 kHz conversion, 48V phantom power, Neutrik analog combo connectors, Hi-Z switch, MIDI I/O, and software including REV-X Reverb, Channel Strip, Guitar Amp Classics, dspMixFx, Cubase AI and Cubasis LE. All are Windows-, Mac- and iOS-compatible.

The UR816C also offers word clock ADAT I/O for those with legacy equipment.

There is also a UR22C Recording Pack bundle version featuring all of the previously listed plus the ST-M01 condenser microphone (with cable) and ST-H01 headphones along with WaveLab LE software.

UR22C: $239; UR44C: $439; UR816C: $789; and UR22C Recording Pack: $439.

The post USB C Audio Interfaces Come to Steinberg appeared first on Radio World.

“Best of Show Up Close” is a series about participants in Radio World’s annual Best of Show at NAB Awards program.

Broadcast Partners nominated Smart Processing, a module of the company’s Smart Radio. SmartRadio is a cloud-based radio automation platform. We asked Rene van de Kolk, manager, R&D, Broadcast Partners, to explain.

Radio World: Smart Processing was a feature of your booth at NAB. For those who couldn’t attend, what is the product and what are its targeted uses?

Rene van de Kolk: Smart Processing provides three different cloud-based modulation-processing solutions: Basic, Medium and High-End. Smart Processing uses Orban back-end software solutions for this.

Smart Processing is a part of Broadcast Partners’ SmartRadio platform, and can be used in this full cloud- and web-based platform by integrating with the Smart Playout possibilities by using AoIP protocols. Smart Processing is hybrid, and thus also standalone, available outside the SmartRadio platform and can easily be connected with other existing playout services.

[Read: Best of Show Up Close: MaxxKonnect Wireless]

Smart Processing delivers excellent Orban modulation presets and a unique sound, with all of the presets that Orban has been offering the market or years.

Smart Processing is for the increasing online and digital radio market. Media companies all over the world are launching multiple subchannels as additions to their main brand. These can be for shorter periods or select certain seasonal theme such as summer, Christmas or Valentine’s Day or used for longer periods. Branded radio channels can be launched easily without investing in hardware units or upgrading server farms. So targeted users are media companies, radio stations and publishers who launch multiple online or digital (DAB+) radio stations.

RW: You describe SmartRadio as “radio as a service.” How does it differ from other offerings in this product class?

Van de Kolk: SmartRadio is 100% cloud- and web-based. All functionality can be used in a Chrome browser. Creating and producing content can be done easily, anywhere, anytime or any place. The only requirement is connectivity. SmartRadio is a beginning-to-end solution: using Smart Database with multiple metadata options that can be used for playout, cloud-based voice tracking, cloud-based multitrack editing without delay and pushed through Smart Processing to be published on multiple platforms online or digital radio, for example.

For online, the best CDN network from the Netherlands is fully integrated. In addition, the specially developed headend for DAB+ services, aXemble, is as-a-service available in SmartRadio. With these services our goal is to help existing and new media-organisations to innovate without the need of heavy investment. All services are available as-a-service with specific pricing per module. For the past two years, we developed this platform with eight developers at Broadcast Partners.

At NAB, IBC, Salon de Radio and Radiodays Europe we retrieved feedback from the market to develop customized solutions. This is possible because all services (also a full Smart Scheduler, or Smart Commercial Scheduler) are developed by thinking in micro-services terms. This means hybrid and flexible development in the most modern program code-language. Connections with other innovative parties is possible by using our API. In SmartRadio, connections with VMix, Beats Newsportal and Radio Manager are already made.

RW: What does SmartRadio cost? Is it available now?

Van de Kolk: SmartRadio is fully hybrid and can be used in all preferred setups. Licenses can be used as-a-service per month/radio channel and are customizable for one channel for one month in an existing cloud environment. This includes the Smart Database (including cloud-and web-based metadata-editor), Smart-Format Scheduler and Smart Non Stop Player (including four-channel cloud- and web-based editor). SmartRadio is available in public cloud-based environments but can also be installed in private cloud-based environments. All preferred connections and add-ons for services will increase the monthly fee.

Smart Processing, is also available. Licensing/pricing is based on an as-a-service model. For one radio station you pay the required service fee per month based on your preferences.

RW: More generally, what do you see as the most important trends or changes happening these days in how broadcasters are using the cloud?

Van de Kolk: Using AoIP solutions from companies such as Lawo, Ravenna, Telos Alliance and Dante [Audinate] but also virtualized complete productions environments. That’s also why our software-defined solutions are integrated in the different mixing console platforms, to provide a full screen-based user-experience in the future. By publishing multichannel, on different platforms, hybrid software solutions are important and are more flexible in terms of updates than ever before in the past. Relevant data from listeners is key if you want to stay relevant in the future, so collecting data and receiving clear insights is also a main trend, in my opinion.

 RW: What else should we know about this product or your company’s recent offerings?

Van de Kolk: Different modules are available. Innovation can therefore be done in different projects or trajectories. Our Smart Scheduler, is a full option format planner and can be connected to all big existing solutions when they are able to connect on API. A very impressive web-based user-experience in defining your format is possible.

The Future Best of Show Awards program honors and helps promote outstanding new products exhibited at industry conventions like the spring NAB Show. Exhibitors pay a fee to enter; not all entries win. Watch for more coverage of participating products soon. To learn about all of the nominees and winners, read the 2019 Best of Show Program Guide.

 

The post Best of Show Up Close: Broadcast Partners Smart Processing appeared first on Radio World.

In this document, the Commission adopted a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, in which it sought comment on proposals to change the rules governing local public notice given by broadcast station applicants. These specific rule changes were proposed based on responses to the Notice of Proposed Rule Making in this proceeding.

.

.

.

.

.