Industry News

We are currently seeing a return of premium audio equipment to the home. People are now buying high-end audio/video receivers and surround systems, and they are appreciating high quality audio.

This is a call to action for broadcasters and streaming groups to up their game.

Concept art from Sony for the HT-A9 Home theater system with 360° sound mapping

At the SVG Summit in New York in December 2021, I had the pleasure of listening to Tom Sahara speak. He made several very good points about changing consumer expectations when it comes to audio quality.

The pandemic has encouraged people to choose high fidelity playback for the streams they listen to. No longer are they listening on poor quality speakers via their computers.

During the pandemic, many people invested in improved audio and video systems to reduce the fatigue caused by poor audio. As companies implemented work from home policies, people spent many hours on conference and video calls with poor audio and video quality.

Many will argue that audio quality is more important than visual, however, radio broadcasters have long argued that a listener will continue listening even through static if the content is compelling.

[Read More by David Bialik]

Consumer surveys conducted since the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020, help us better understand how consumer demands and expectations are changing.

• Sound quality is the top priority for end-users, with 52 percent of the respondents saying that they are seeking high-resolution or lossless quality audio. (NPD Group)
• A key growth driver is increased spending on audio content, including streaming and satellite subscription services, as well as podcasting, which grew 12.4 percent. (PQMedia)
• Voice integration became a sought-after feature as “smart home” purchases increased during the pandemic. (FutureSource)

The audience will continue to expect premium quality audio even when the pandemic ends. People have accepted that they have to pay a premium for better products.

• After a breakout year in 2019, Apple AirPods and Samsung Galaxy Buds accounted for more than 67 million units sold, a 35 percent increase. (ReportLinker)
• Apple’s introduction of the high-end AirPod Max demonstrates a belief that consumers are willing to pay for high-quality sound. (FutureSource)
• Immersive sound is a key feature of the AirPod Max. (Apple)

The ease of installation and the presence of disposable income has encouraged consumers to have better AV systems in their homes.

• Sound bars have become popular due to their ease of installation and immersive, spatial sound. (ReportLinker)
• High-end sound bar systems are Dolby Atmos and DTS:X enabled. (ReportLinker)
• Sales of home theater systems costing more than $1,000 grew by 32 percent in 2020. (ReportLinker)

The advent of smart speakers has introduced many to streaming audio, and listeners have discovered that it can sound good. Smart speakers are the fastest growing home appliance.

• Smart speakers sales grew by 31 percent in 2020. (ReportLinker)
• Smart speakers are emerging as common appliances in the American home; 27 percent of all households own at least one. (Edison Research)

The r revolution has happened. 2020 was the year that 50 percent of home televisions were connected to the internet. Online advertising is exceeding 50 percent growth annually! Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast, and Apple TV are common in U.S. households. Over-the-top television is here!

• Digital video overtakes broadcast TV. In close to half of all countries surveyed, 75 percent of internet users had viewed streaming video-on-demand within the past month. (GlobeNewsWire)
• Uptake of VOD reached 92.5 percent, further reinforcing the fact that digital video is far more popular among internet users than live TV. (GlobeNewsWire)

The consumer is expecting superior audio.

• With immersive audio formats, such as Dolby Atmos, video service providers are empowered to deliver a next-gen listening experience for live sports. (TVB Europe)

Audio quality is not confined to the home. Many will discover that streaming will be the crown jewel of the 5G revolution. With low latency, sports streaming will be common.

• Three apps that saw the most gains in listenership during this pandemic: (Comscore)
• Pandora ↑ 42 percent
• iHeartRadio ↑ 11 percent
• Spotify ↑ 1 percent

The pandemic has pushed the public to want the best quality of audio, and the importance of quality audio is clear. Now the broadcasters have to provide that desired quality or the consumer will go elsewhere. And as consumers continue to invest in high-fidelity, premium audio equipment, broadcasters have to be prepared to always deliver the best.

The author is a consultant who has held technical broadcast and streaming positions for companies like Entercom and CBS Radio. He is co-chair of the AES Technical Committee for Broadcast and Online Delivery and chair of the Metadata Usage Working Group of the National Radio Systems Committee. Contact him at dkbialik@erols.com or 845-634-6595.

The post Premium Audio Entertainment Returns to Homes appeared first on Radio World.

In late July, the FCC was asked to approve the sale of seven TV stations and four radio stations across five markets by Waypoint Media and related entity Vision Communications.

The transaction, which saw Kalil & Co. serve as the broker, has now closed, making Coastal Television Broadcasting Group LLC the owner.

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Among the first radio industry transactions of 2022 to await FCC approval is the sale of a radio station from the Estate of Robert Cummings Toole and Karen Toole to a Montana corporation.

The deal involves an FM that can reach the capital, Helena, and a FM translator serving a small mountain community.

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RBR+TVBR OBSERVATION

When it comes to creativity, sometimes remembering the past can spark ideas that can fuel innovation needed for today’s overcommunicated world. For the Radio industry, a Bauer Media brand with national coverage of the United Kingdom has just the type of inspired lightbulb moment needed to ignite some excitement into a rather staid media in need of a jolt.

Who knew that Bauer’s Absolute Radio would turn the clock back by more than 45 years to do something today that U.S. operators should mimic?

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SATELLITE BEACH, FLA. — USSI Global, the Space Coast-headquartered provider of customized network, broadcast and digital signage systems and services, has selected someone from within to take the VP of Customer Relations and Business Development role.

This will see the 14-year company veteran now focus on expanding the manufacturer client base for installation and repair services within the company’s Digital Signage and Electronic Business and Consumer Solutions.

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Introducing a new offering from Nielsen designed to allow Connected TV operators and advertisers to better understand who is watching a show within the household.

Named “Streaming Signals,” the product is being heralded by the nation’s dominant audience measurement and consumer data analytics firm as a “first-of-its-kind solution” that unbundles household viewing.

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On Wednesday, a truncated three-day CES 2022 begins at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Despite the high-profile cancellation of in-person experiences from such companies as iHeartMedia, Facebook parent Meta, Microsoft and Procter & Gamble Co., the show is on — and so are Thursday events geared to radio industry professionals, including an invitation-only Radio Reception co-presented by RBR+TVBR.

Among those gathering intelligence about potential opportunities for both the industry and her company is Beasley Media Group CEO Caroline Beasley. She speaks with RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson in this fresh InFOCUS Podcast to share the reasons behind her travel to CES 2022 and why it is important.

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Caroline Beasley” on Spreaker.

By Brian Galante

Live event and broadcast production specialist CP Communications is welcoming a new Director of Production for its St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Red House Streaming unit.

He reports to the VP of Red House Streaming, Lowell Beckner, and will manage the Red House Streaming studios’ in-house broadcast and A/V productions from CP’s Pinellas County production complex and network operations center.

Taking the role: former WFTS-28 in Tampa Master Control Supervisor Karl Prentiss.

He has more than 40 years of broadcast engineering, video and photography experience and began his career as a Master Control Operator at WBAK-TV in Terre Haute, Ind., in 1979. He later handled similar duties for WPTV-5 and, in a different role, at WPEC-12 in West Palm Beach, and has been in the Tampa Bay region since 1994.

“This new position at Red House Streaming is an incredible career opportunity for me,” Prentiss said. “As the Director of Production, I am excited to work alongside a creative team of proven innovators, and I am looking forward to trailblazing the future of our industry with them.”

Prentiss’ experience at WFTS, the ABC affiliate serving Tampa, St. Petersburg and Lakeland-Winter Haven, saw him working closely with Beckner, who served as the station’s Director of Engineering. CP says Prentiss’ work ethic made a lasting impression on Beckner.

“When I thought about the kind of manager we needed at Red House Streaming, I thought of Karl,” Beckner said. “His engineering expertise and understanding of studio operations are strengthened by his creative eye and hands-on work producing high-quality content. From photography to graphic design, to video, Karl knows what it takes to create high-quality content and to push forward the boundaries of our industry.”

Prentiss in 2014 left WFTS-28 to pursue his own photography business, Prentiss Photography, where he specialized as a portrait, wedding, and commercial photographer. Then, a move back to Indiana in 2017 allowed Prentiss to broaden his creative skillset even more.

As the Creative Projects Manager for The Skinny Productions and Fatheadz Eyewear in Indianapolis, Prentiss handled all photography, art direction and production management for a variety of brands and projects. He designed and built all aspects of the in-house video studio for “The Skinny with Rico and Ken” racing podcast, fully incorporating vMix 4K Production software, which Prentiss directed, switched, edited, and delivered.

He’s now returning to Tampa Bay, as CP subsidiary Red House continues to build the line-up of productions being taped and streaming from its 5,600-square-foot St. Petersburg facility. Once settled in northeast Pinellas, Prentiss will lead the local production team in providing custom glass-to-glass IP production and streaming solutions for every type of live event or recorded programming.

The RHS production complex features two 600-square-foot studio spaces and an adjacent control room with vMix 64 4K production switchers, and a Yamaha TF1 64-channel audio console with Dante interface.

Studio A houses a professional anchor desk with several monitors for custom branding, and Studio B offers a dynamic chromakey space for virtual packages. Both studio spaces include Panasonic AW-UE100KP 4K PTZ cameras, Sennheiser wireless talent microphones, and DMX lighting with Dracast studio lights.

RBR+TVBR’s Weekly Tech Roundup is scheduled to tour the Red House facility in St. Petersburg in early March. Coverage is slated to appear in the Spring 2022 RBR+TVBR Special Report, distributed at NAB 2022 in Las Vegas.

LAS VEGAS — SK Telecom will participate in CES 2022, and from Wednesday it will be focused on showcasing green ICT in the era of Net Zero.

SKT will operate a joint exhibition booth with SK Inc., SK Innovation, SK hynix, SK E&S and SK Ecoplant under the theme of SK’s 2030 Net Zero Pledge and offer a chance for visitors to experience its innovative green technologies.

“AI and telecommunications networks stand at the core of ICT innovation. However, they are also pointed out as a cause of environmental pollution due to the large amount of power they consume,” SKT says. “Against this backdrop, SKT is accelerating an ICT revolution through the development and application of low-power high-efficiency semiconductors and energy-saving telecommunications network technologies.”

At CES 2022, SKT will be showcasing its self-developed AI chip named SAPEON. SAPEON is  designed to process artificial intelligence tasks faster, using less power by efficiently processing large amounts of data in parallel.

With the rapid spread of AI services in people’s daily lives and industries, the amount of data that needs to be processed is growing exponentially. However, the existing AI data centers that use Graphics Processing Units (GPU) for inference are receiving criticism for consuming a great amount of energy. SAPEON is an environmentally-friendly solution as it uses 20% less power than GPU, while supporting 1.5 times faster deep learning computation.

SKT will also introduce Single RAN, a technology that reduces the amount of power usage by approximately 53% through integrated operation of 3G and LTE network equipment. The company either replaced the outdated 3G and LTE equipment with new equipment applied with Single RAN or upgraded the software of its existing LTE equipment with Single RAN to operate as both 3G and LTE equipment.

By successfully applying Single RAN to all applicable base stations and repeaters installed in 78 cities in Korea including Seoul in 2020, SKT earned around 10,000 tons of carbon credits.

ICT solutions for reducing carbon generation in daily lives

At CES 2022, SKT will invite visitors to experience its metaverse service, multi-use cup project and other ICT services that can help reduce CO2 emissions such as optimal route navigation service.

The company will introduce its metaverse platform Ifland as a new promising path towards a low carbon society. Ifland allows users to take carbon generating activities such as conferences, presentations and business trips to the virtual world.

It provides a wide variety of virtual spaces including conference halls, outdoor stages and rooftops, and enables users to enjoy rich communication by sharing documents (PDF) and video files (MP4). It can accommodate up to 130 users simultaneously, which makes it an ideal place for large-scale events.

Ifland has been providing users with a new and environmentally friendly experience by migrating diverse offline events to the virtual world ranging from the D-100 event for 2021 Seoul UN Peacekeeping Ministerial and K-pop concerts.

SKT will also present the Habit Cup Project that promotes the use of multi-use cups to reduce plastic waste. Coffee shops participating in the project are serving beverages in multi-use cups named “Habit Cups” that can be later returned via smart kiosks capable of identifying and accepting only Habit Cups through the use of SKT’s vision AI technology. Returned cups are collected everyday to be cleaned and sanitized, and then delivered back to cafes.

At present, SKT is carrying out a trial project joined by around 20 cafes located in central areas of Seoul, where there is a large floating population. The company expects to eliminate the use of 1.2 million disposable cups during the three-month project period. It is also implementing a trial project in Jeju Island, and expects to reduce the use of 630,000 disposable cups per year.

Korea’s No.1 navigation service T Map will also be on display. By providing an optimal route, T Map contributes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and saving fuel. The service also helps save social costs by decreasing the risk of traffic accidents through enhanced safety features like sudden brake alert.

“At CES 2022, we will be showcasing cutting-edge technologies that can drive the green ICT revolution, along with innovative services that hold the power to reduce carbon generation in our daily lives,” SKT said. “Through multifaceted efforts, SKT will become a solid leader in the era of Net Zero.”

Terry Baun, a Hall of Fame inductee with the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association, died Saturday, January 1. He was 74 years of age.

Baun’s broadcast career started in 1967 at Milwaukee’s Classical station, WFMR-FM. After a decade there, he began a series of moves into corporate engineering while also forming his own consulting firm, Criterion Broadcast Services, in Milwaukee.

Across the years, he worked for Sudbrink Broadcasting, Multimedia Broadcasting, and Cumulus Broadcasting. He completed his broadcasting career working for the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board where he oversaw the engineering and operations of the delivery system for Wisconsin Public Radio and Television throughout the state of Wisconsin, retiring in 2017 after 10 years.

Baun’s activity in the Society of Broadcast Engineers is most notable. He began in 1976 when he first joined the Society and became involved in Chapter 28 of Milwaukee, serving in several leadership capacities. Later in his career, while living in Indiana, he served as Certification Committee Chair for Chapter 25 in Indianapolis.

Baun’s contributions to the SBE at the national level were numerous and significant. He was first elected to the national SBE Board of Directors in 1987, serving a two-year term and was elected to a three-year term in 1991. That term was interrupted after two years as he was elected national vice president in the fall of 1993. Baun served in that position for two years before being elected to two consecutive terms as national president, beginning in 1995.

During his terms as national president, the Society instituted the Leadership Development Course. Baun worked to develop stronger ties and awareness of the SBE by the state broadcaster associations nationwide. He initiated a significant upgrade of the Society’s national office data management capability. The Society successfully transitioned from the multi-association World Media Expo, which ended in 1996, to the SBE National Meeting concept that’s still in use today. The SBE self-published the EAS Primer, written by fellow Wisconsinite Leonard Charles, during his term and the Society held its first strategic planning meeting during Baun’s presidency. During his two years as president, SBE membership grew as did the SBE’s financial strength.

His dedication to the development of continuing education for broadcast engineers has been evident in his tenure as chair of the SBE National Certification Committee (from 1998 to 2001) and later as the developer and instructor of a computer networking technologist course which facilitated many broadcast engineers to bridge the gap between traditional broadcast engineering and information technology skill sets, as well as becoming SBE Certified Broadcast Networking Technologists. Much of Baun’s professional life has been spent working for and on behalf of the Society and mentoring the broadcast engineer on the lecture circuit and through promotion of the SBE Certification program.

Baun was a member of the SBE national Certification Committee for 21 years, from 1998 to 2019, serving as the committee chair for three of those years.

Baun was instrumental in the creation and subsequent tutorial of the SBE Certified Broadcast Networking Technologist (CBNT) certification. His dedication to this program resulted in one of the highest participation rates of any SBE certification level. Baun was also instrumental in the development of the SBE AM Directional Specialist (AMD) certification, providing many of the essay questions.

He also contributed much to his home state via the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association. He was one of the original members of the WBA Summer Engineering Conference Steering Committee. Baun founded the WBA Media Technology Institute in 2011.

He played a key role in developing the self-inspection program within the broadcast industry and is considered a leader in this field. Baun was one of the architects of the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association’s Alternative Broadcast Station Inspection Program, serving as the WBA’s chief inspector for more than ten years, beginning with the program’s inauguration in 1995. In addition to Wisconsin, he conducted alternative station inspections for broadcast associations in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. As an inspector himself, Baun took on the primary role of mentor with stations to help them with their compliance issues rather than the role of an enforcer. His desire was to have stations comply with the rules rather than looking for reasons to cite them for noncompliance.

In 2000, Baun initiated the 24-hour hotline for engineers in the state of Wisconsin through the WBA, which he manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Based on his program model, other state broadcast associations have adopted the 24-hour engineering hotline. For all of his efforts in Wisconsin, Baun was inducted into the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Foundation Hall of Fame in 2004.

In his position with the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board, Baun played a key role in guiding the transition of Wisconsin Public Television to full digital broadcasting. In addition to his duties associated with ECB and Wisconsin Public Television, he spent a good deal of time working with the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association in a variety of activities that not only benefited the ECB and WPT, but the entire television community. The WPT transition included the early cutover to digital for WPT’s six translators and included coordinating a triage plan with WPT programming staff for the five full-power transmitters in advance of the original Feb. 17, 2009 shut-off date.

Baun implemented the planning process with ECB staff for the next generation of the Broadcast Interconnect which delivers Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Television, EAS and Amber Alert programming throughout the state.

He served as a role model and has worked diligently on the partnership model between the ECB and the University of Wisconsin public radio and television issues.

Baun implemented a “paperless” reporting system for engineering updates from field staff. It’s a system that allows ECB engineering staff from throughout the state to have a snapshot of projects and issues at each site. Projects that Baun oversaw included the WHHI tower, the WHAA-FM – Coloma radio project the University of Wisconsin System built in 2011, and the Chilton gap filler tower, a joint project with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. Baun also watched over the HD radio installations at ECB’s FM stations.

Besides his long membership with the SBE, Baun was a member of the Audio Engineering Society, the Association of Federal Communications Consulting Engineers, and the IEEE. He also served on the Milwaukee Area Technical College Broadcast Communications Engineer Advisory Committee, which revamped the curriculum and brought the lab and studio equipment up to current broadcast standards.

“His dedication to broadcasting in general and broadcast engineering, the SBE, the WBA and his employers, are clearly evident,” the WBA said. “What differentiates Baun from other exceptional engineers is his ability to share his engineering expertise with industry peers as a great communicator teacher.”

In a WBA video tribute to Baun earning his 2004 induction into the Wisconsin Broadcasting Hall of Fame, Baun shared his thoughts on broadcast engineering and his career. He said, “Engineers are a critical part of the broadcasting enterprise. They’re technologists who bring broadcasting to life. I’ve always thought of myself as a broadcaster. Period. And within the scope of broadcasting, I feel that my contributions have been primarily in the technical side, the engineering side.”

To honor Baun, WBA is abiding by his wishes for a big party. A celebration of life with food, friends, drink, and music is scheduled for January 16 at the Madison Marriott West, commencing at 5pm Central.