Industry News

GatesAir is coming out with two new Intraplex IP Links that it says “move the brand into new designs and applications.”

The two AoIP products were announced by Ted Lantz, vice president and general manager, radio and Intraplex products.

The IP Link 100e is an Intraplex plug-in card that receives FM and digital radio content within GatesAir Flexiva transmitters.

Lantz said the module also establishes a foundation to integrate audio processing and additional air chain applications later.

“The module is added to Flexiva FAX exciters to reliably receive and feed AES-67 and other audio over IP formats direct to the exciter,” the company said.

“The smaller, integrated form factor reduces the cost of using Intraplex audio over IP transport at the transmitter site since no separate hardware codec is required, and frees a 1RU equipment rack slot for auxiliary equipment,” it said.

The module includes Dynamic Stream Splicing software. It sends multiple identical streams over the same network or two separate paths; each stream borrows data from companion streams to avoid service interruptions from packet loss.

“The IP Link 100e also supports the SRT (secure reliable transport) protocol and provides failover service to Icecast or locally stored audio for optimal reliability. The module also provides storage for program content and full duplex capability, allowing engineers to monitor signals off-air.”

Also new is the IP Link 100c, a hardware codec for remote contribution and standard STL IP connections that is notable for its small half-rack package.

Applications include remotes, studio-to-studio links, STL service backup and delivery to Icecast streaming servers. It comes with a DC power supply.

The company will introduce them as part of the IBC Showcase virtual conference coming in September.

[Related: “SBS FM Stations See Efficiency With GatesAir”]

The post New Intraplex IP Links Include a Flexiva Plug-In appeared first on Radio World.

Nacho Sacchi is an bilingual announcer and voice talent in Argentina.

Four years ago I was pushed to become a freelance voice talent after almost 18 years on the same radio station. Things didn’t look good. With my wife and two kids, ages 6 and 8, we decided that it could never get worse (though we never saw 2020 coming).

What to do? The radio environment of the city in which we lived was terrible.

I started Googling … online resources for voice talents … voice agents … voice banks. All articles with information in some cases old and in other cases biased, speaking badly of the competition and good of their own products.

After evaluating the situation, I decided to invest money and time in online voice banks with paid services. I improved my home studio, updated my microphone and invested in hardware like a nice preamp and good noise isolation.

Voices.com, Voice123, Bodalgo and a few others were on my radar. I decided on Voices.com after reading negative and some positive comments. What influenced my decision was that at first glance they seemed the largest, the most serious and the one with the big clients.

It is true what they say: You have to invest time and effort. And so I did. I participated for several months in all searches that included what my voice had to offer: Latin American Neutral Spanish, Latin Accented English and much more.

It was four months without a result. But more than 70 auditions later, I had my first paying job in the international world of freelance voices. And a few months later, I had recovered the investment of joining the bank and was preparing to continue growing.

The Opportunity

Why do I tell you this? How can my story help others?

The COVID-19 crisis has led many to rethink their careers or consider how to generate a new income. And that’s where we have to take advantage of the crisis and open ourselves to new work horizons.

The human voice will never be replaced by a machine. Although our assistant Google or Alexa will surprise us, they will never speak like a human being. What’s more, behind those attempts there are human voices.

So where is the opportunity?

The internet democratizes, puts us on equal footing — the voice talent who lives in Los Angeles, the one who lives in San Pedro Sula in Honduras or in Mar del Plata Argentina or in London!

In a digital audition, the internet eliminates factors that a voice talent can’t easily control, and thus allows them  to compete on their talent alone.

If the audio quality is good, all the different voices are on more of an equal footing.

So how do we distinguish ourselves?

We have to be the fastest and understand exactly what the customer is looking for. Understand the markets and listen to what is heard in each country.

How? Maybe spying on successful voice talent demos, listening to international radio stations, seeing patterns on big TV ads and trying to duplicate that … and also making the effort to read that “matrix” and seeing what the market might be lacking and empowering your uniqueness! Perhaps the next trend is your quirky sound?

So to fellow voice talents who might be discouraged, I say: Prepare your home studios, invest in your careers and move on. Inside your house, but always moving forward.

The author’s website is nachosacchi.com.ar.

The post Voice Talent: Invest in Your Career appeared first on Radio World.

Adobe will stop distributing and updating Flash Player at the end of this year. That plan was announced in 2017, and now the end of support is coming up.

This will have an impact on developers, businesses and consumers.

Bob Tarsio is president of Broadcast Devices Inc. He has been raising awareness of this change with his clients and answering questions about how it affects BDI products.

Radio World: Bring us up to date, what should radio stations know about Flash right now?

Bob Tarsio: Not only BDI-provided equipment but all Flash-enabled hardware and software will be impacted more or less by the end of Flash support. So I urge everyone to check with their respective providers for update information.

For BDI customers, all Flash-dependent products will continue to operate for their intended functions even after the Flash sunset. We want to stress this because some might think that everything stops working on 1-1-21 sort of a Y2K thing all over!

What will be impacted is the ability to use commonly available browsers to access your equipment.

This does not mean however that the equipment cannot be interrogated or controlled. That is because all BDI Flash-dependent products use SNMP, or Simple Network Management Protocol, for communication between SNMP-based software such as the BDI Stack Graphical User Interface, which is available for free download from our support page.

What customers will have difficulty with is accessing the web servers that are present in our Flash-based products for such things as initial setup including IP configuration information such as IP addresses, subnets, etc. In addition, the ability to change passwords or usernames.

All other communication is unaffected as SNMP is used to communicate with not only our BDI Stack program but third-party software and hardware such as the popular remote controls that support SNMP communications.

RW: Which of your products are affected? 

Tarsio: There are basically three product classes of BDI products that may be impacted: all of our popular DPS-100D series True RMS Power meters; some SWP series controllers and remote controls; and some SWP series antenna products.

In addition our ATB/GPM/DAB model base number digital/analog audio switchers can be affected. We made some as SWP base model number units and ATBGPM/DAB base model number units that had web access that did depend on Adobe Flash player for operation.

All new shipping equipment is already Flash-free.

To tell if your equipment is Flash-dependent, access your unit via a web browser, and if it asks to run Adobe Flash player, you have an impacted unit. If not you can either continue to use your product as usual or for older units these can be upgraded if the customer so desires.

By the way, the older units not relying on Flash only used the web browser interface for initial setup as well, but these will continue to function.

RW: What should users of your affected products do now? 

Tarsio: First, make sure all of your units can be accessed by a web browser to determine if that equipment is Flash-dependent as I described. Record your information now including username, passwords and IP setup information. Visit BDI’s website support page, where we have information about what customers can do to upgrade their equipment in and out of warranty. There is a document for each product class, and these discuss what customer options are.

What we can tell you is that no BDI equipment will be made obsolete by the Adobe Flash sunset. All impacted equipment will either continue to operate or is eligible for upgrade.

In the case of the DPS-100D series it’s like getting a new meter because the upgrade described on our web page is the new Generation II operating system, which makes some real improvements to even existing DPS-100D series power meters.

RW: What else should readers know? 

Tarsio: BDI provides what we believe to be good support for products in and out of warranty, sometimes for a lot longer than many have come to expect for electronics in general. This is ever more important to the broadcast community, which faces challenging economic times along with the rest of the country.

All BDI products are today Adobe Flash-free. Our offerings that have web servers utilize HTML5 browser interfaces, and we provide applications software for our current product lines, which include our new DPS-100D Generation II true RMS power meter, SWP-200 series motorized switch controllers, SWP-300 remote controls and SWP-206 Antenna monitor products. On the audio side the ATB/GPM/DAB digital/analog audio switchers and our AES-400 series audio switchers have an optional web interface that has always been Flash-free.

Contact us at BDI if you have questions or need guidance on next steps.

The post Broadcast Devices Preps for End of Flash Support appeared first on Radio World.

BW Broadcast’s DSPXmini Encore processor is the followup to the original DSPXmini.

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

It is a four-band AM/FM processor available with standard stereo generator, peak limiting, presets and RMS leveling. Machine communications include HTML, FTP, SNMP, Telnet and RS232.

Added features include RDS encoding, remote control monitoring and the company’s Plan B backup audio scheme.

Info: www.bwbroadcast.com

The post BW Broadcast Re-Energizes DSPXmini appeared first on Radio World.

Broadcast plants are known to be large amounts of energy usage so prospective efficiency savings are important for financial performance. While there is no doubt that recent design innovations such as LDMOS and planar construction technology have made modern transmitters more efficient than their predecessors, the broadcast transmitter section still uses large amounts of energy.

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

WorldCast feels it has a prospective solution or its Ecreso FM transmitters, SmartFM technology. It describes its patented SmartFM technology as a sophisticated AI-based algorithm that can enable broadcasters to reduce their energy costs by up to 40% without any compromise on the audio quality and coverage.

Developed after three years of research SmartFM optimizes power consumption leading to less energy used in transmission, cooler running temperatures for lower cooling bills, less wear and tear on the transmitters leading to lower maintenance bills and a longer lifespan.

Owners of recently purchased Ecreso transmitters already have the technology installed. It merely requires activation.

Info: www.worldcastsystems.com

The post WorldCast Pushes Transmitter Energy Efficiency appeared first on Radio World.

As we’ve been reporting, operators of registered C-Band earth stations in the United States are being asked by the FCC to decide how they want to be reimbursed for the expense of moving antenna facilities impacted by the spectrum repack.

The National Association of Broadcasters produced a webinar this week that provided more insights from several experts.

Earth station operators on the qualified list of antennas can choose from a more traditional a la carte menu of potential expenses and have their actual costs of a relocation covered, or select a possible lump-sum payment determined by the FCC that takes into consideration the average expected costs associated with the repack of the upper 200 MHz of the C-Band. The deadline for earth station operators to accept the lump-sum payment per registered and qualified antenna is Sept. 14.

Lump-Sum Discussion

The webinar focused much of its discussion on the lump-sum option and the consequences if owners of satellite receivers elect that form of reimbursement.

Matthew Pearl, assistant bureau chief, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission, said incumbents need to examine their individual circumstances to determine the best path forward when purchasing new antennas and other equipment.

“The lump-sum election option is a new option. Earth station owners are taking the transition into their own hands with that option. The lump-sum amount is based on the average relocation cost based on the type of earth stations they have,” Pearl said during the webinar.

The FCC said it determined the lump sum value based on what the average transition cost of an antenna type or class of earth station. The FCC recently updated cost estimates to increase the range of costs for certain categories of earth station equipment at the behest of NAB, which included bumping up the cost estimate for certain site and project costs for fixed services, including power utility coordination and soil boring.

Pearl said radio broadcasters that operate multiple stations in clusters are reminded that the lump-sum base payments are calculated per antenna rather than per earth station registration or site. Therefore a cluster of radio stations with more than one antenna registered per site could be eligible for reimbursement for multiple lump-sum payouts.

“It’s also important to note that operators will not be able to choose which of their earth stations will receive the lump-sum. It’s an all or nothing.  Meaning it would apply to all of their earth stations or they would have to select the reimbursement option,” Pearl said during the webinar.

If a radio broadcaster selects the lump-sum option they could use the money to transition “to fiber and disconnect from C-Band services and therefore be responsible for any new or additional equipment needed to do that,” Pearl said.

And while there is no specific FCC form earth station owners need to file to accept the lump-sum payment option, operators are encouraged to file at least one document in a “machine readable format” such as an Excel spreadsheet format. Owners of multiple earth stations can file them individually or in aggregate.

“Irrevocable”

“It’s important that all of the information described in the FCC’s Public Notice, including the information that the operator needs to provide and certifications, need to be done by Sept. 14. We strongly encourage operators provide accurate and complete technical information. It is possible incomplete filings could be dismissed with no amendments allowed. It’s not clear right now whether there will be any relief,” Pearl said.

“It’s also important to remember that the decision to elect the lump-sum is irrevocable,” Pearl said. “Anything that is unexpected that comes up later would not be reimbursed by the commission.”

Lump-sum payments to earth station owners would come after the auction for the lower 280 megahertz of the 500-megahertz segment of spectrum from 3.7 to 4.2 GHz, Pearl said. The FCC hopes to hold the auction for the C-Band spectrum being cleared in the repack beginning Dec. 8. C-Band spectrum will be made available for new services and could be redeployed as soon as September 2023, according to the FCC.

Mark Johnson, president of LinkUp Communications, said radio stations that receive programming via C-Band earth stations have a lot to consider in a short amount of time when deciding between the lump-sum option or participating in the coordinated transition process.

“Start with the financial. Obviously revenue is important for radio and TV at this time, but it isn’t as simple as putting a new filter on an antenna normally. It’s much more complex than that. Everyone should take time to examine their specific applications. The satellite companies have spent the past few years studying this situation and making evaluations,” Johnson said.

“Those satellite companies came up with these average costs for what needs to be done and your individual earth station reconfiguration costs could be less or could be more.”

And Johnson said there could be some additional risks involved for those who go with the lump-sum election.

“Keep in mind radio and TV are very different. Operators really need to take the next three weeks evaluating their risk tolerance and researching what their needs are. You can’t paint everyone with one brush. We have seen installing systems all over this country the variation is beyond most people’s imagination.

“For instance, if an earth station operator can’t just replace the filter or re-point their antenna, there could be a need for a new antenna. A new antenna installed … at the new location could be from $10k to $20k. The lump sum wouldn’t begin to touch that,” Johnson said during Monday’s webinar.

The C-Band webinar’s panel of experts also included representatives from satellite fleet operators SES and Intelsat, who outlined the level of detail that will be required for a successful spectrum repack. The webinar, hosted by Patrick McFadden, SVP and deputy counsel for NAB, is free online at the NAB’s website.

[Link: More coverage of the C-Band reimbursement story]

[Link: The FCC’s Cost Catalog]

The post Takeaways From the NAB’s C-Band Webinar appeared first on Radio World.

Public radio stations in the Golden State plan to unite for a one-day fundraising initiative. Organizers call it a first.

Thursday, Aug. 27,  the inaugural California Public Radio Day will try to build awareness of the service offered by nonprofits and to encourage listeners around the big state to support their local public stations.

The initiative is led by Southern California Public Radio and its flagship KPCC in Pasadena; participating stations will include KQED in San Francisco, KCRW in Santa Monica, KPBS in San Diego, KAZU in Monterey Bay, KZYX in Mendocino, KRCB in Santa Rosa, KCBX in San Luis Obispo, KVPR in Fresno, KCLU in Thousand Oaks and KCSN in Northridge.

[Read: Schmidt Grant Helps Fund Public Radio Regional Newsrooms]

“At a time when our country is divided over so many issues, working with our fellow stations for California Public Radio Day is an opportunity for public media to lead by example and demonstrate the power that unity can bring to our communities,” the stations said in a group statement, adding that the cohesive efforts of public radio stations “can go so much further than those divided.”

The broadcasters emphasized the role of California public stations as a source for “fact-based news and information” and for helping listeners discover their next favorite artists.

“Public radio is not beholden to stockholders or corporate interests; it is accountable to the people,” the stations wrote. “But without the support of our listeners, we could be at great risk. We hope Californians will join together with us to help boost this critical service and share their love for public radio.”

Listeners can follow on social media with the hashtags #IlovePublicMedia and #CaliforniaPublicRadioDay.

The post California Public Radio Day Aims at Public Awareness appeared first on Radio World.

Eric Wiler is senior vice president, technology and operations at Westwood One. This interview is part of Radio World’s current series about the C-Band migration process including radio station reimbursement.

Westwood One provides syndicated content to 250 million monthly listeners via an audio network of 8,000 affiliated radio stations and media partners. The company, owned by Cumulus Media, describes itself as the largest audio network in America.

Radio World: In the typical relationship between Westwood One and a radio station affiliate, who owns the dish and feedhorn?

Eric Wiler: Since satellite has been employed by the major networks, it has been the typical standard that the network provides the downlink receivers and the station installs the dish, feedhorn, LNB, cables and splitters.

RW: We’ve reported on the process set up by the FCC for reimbursing qualified radio stations for modifying C-Band satellite dishes as part of the midband repack. As a radio syndicator with many affiliates, how does Westwood One fit into this process; what role are you playing?

Wiler: We’ve provided recommendations to our affiliates, acting as a conduit for our satellite provider SES, to disseminate information to radio stations. These recommendations included regular communication asking the stations register their C-Band downlink antennas with the commission.

RW: What role are the satellite companies playing? I understand SES and Intelsat are the major players.

Wiler: SES and Intelsat have dedicated extensive resources to their programming providers such as Westwood One to ensure we maintain our ability to continue distribution with the same high level of reliability stations have come to expect with C-Band. They have played an extremely active role in the engineering of a “shared universe” between satellite and terrestrial utilization of the 3700-4200 MHz band.

RW: A key question confronting many radio stations is whether to take the “lump sum” that’s been established by the FCC process, which we’re told is about $9,000 or $17,000 for a typical radio station. How are you advising radio stations on this decision?

Wiler: Westwood One is a programming provider. While we provided the recommendation to follow the FCC guidelines to register all downlinks, the review and acceptance of the terms placed on the downlinks by the “lump sum” is something that should be carefully considered for each situation. As we cannot be clear on the individual dynamics of every business, the lump sum decision must be made by each owner individually.

[Related: “How the C-Band Repack Affects Public Radio”]

RW: If stations take the lump sum, what is their responsibility?

Wiler: My understanding of the public notice is that by accepting the cash distribution, you are agreeing to mitigate the impact of terrestrial utilization of the C-Band to your downlink, while certain video feeds are transitioning to fiber or terrestrial circuits. By electing to receive the lump sum you’re accepting the responsibility for undertaking the necessary transition actions in accordance with the satellite operators timelines. This could be as simple as adding a filter between the LNB and the feedhorn, but this is not a certainty. C-Band is extremely reliable thus the preference over internet or other public terrestrial backup systems.

RW: If stations do NOT take the lump sum, what is their responsibility?

Wiler: Westwood One’s satellite provider is SES. It will be responsible for the transition of your downlink. Their plan is to conduct pre-installation visual site surveys to assess the individual needs. This means when their installer shows up (provided by SES) they will have the additional equipment should something unexpected happened. This option may be best for stations with extremely limited technical resources.

RW: Hardware provider DAWNco told us they’ve been getting a lot of questions, and that one radio station reported being advised by a Westwood One representative “to do nothing” and that this station thus would be entitled to two free filters but would be leaving available money on the table. Is that an accurate summary of Westwood One’s advice?

Wiler: As I noted earlier, as a program provider Westwood One is not really the appropriate authority to provide the ultimate guidance in every situation. SES has indicated to us as their customer if the station doesn’t elect to receive the lump sum, they will provide filters and assistance in maintaining the downlink’s ability to receive programming. If the stations agree to take on the responsibility for technical mitigation, they may receive compensation. Obviously the “lump sum” is much greater than the cost of two filters, but may be less than the total mitigation expense.

RW: Are you hearing from many stations that missed the earlier registration process and thus are apparently locked out of reimbursement?

Wiler: Overall, we’ve heard from a few stations who didn’t register, but the overwhelming majority of stations complied with the initial request.

RW: What other questions have you been asked by affiliates, and how are you answering?

Wiler: The biggest question has been timing. Filters must be installed by December 2021 for the largest 46 PEAs (markets). The rest of the nation has until December 2023 to mitigate C-Band terrestrial signals.

RW: Anything else we should know?

Wiler: This is a highly complex issue with legal, technical and financial implications. There is a lot of information coming at stations as well as the networks and we’re all on the same side, to maintain the continuity of our programming. By using all available resources the answer for your individual station’s situation should be clear.

[Read more of Radio World’s coverage of this issue.]

The post How Westwood One Views the C-Band Migration appeared first on Radio World.

The Weather Channel and Skyview Networks announced an agreement intended to help the weather content provider expand its radio network sales and distribution.

Skyview is a technology, syndication and national network sales company. The announcement was made by Weather Channel President Tom O’Brien, Skyview Networks President/COO Steve Jones and Skyview EVP/GM Jeanne-Marie Condo.

O’Brien was quoted in the announcement saying that The Weather Channel radio network wants to expand its reach and brand awareness. The network is heard in approximately 100 U.S. markets.

Condo highlighted The Weather Channel’s “impressive reach and wide portfolio of formats, including A18-49 and strong female-skewing audiences” in radio.

Send business news and Who’s Buying What announcements to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Skyview Signs Weather Channel to Sales Agreement appeared first on Radio World.

Leading U.S. radio networks are urging buyers and sellers of network and national radio commercials to use the fall 2019 ratings as their reference, essentially asking them to ignore the upcoming spring 2020 nationwide data.

“The Network Radio Research Council (NRRC) is recommending that all network/national buying and selling be based on the Fall 2019 Nationwide survey, which is the latest data available prior to the COVID-19 pandemic,” it stated.

“The NRRC’s recommendation follows a statement from Nielsen that future buying and planning decisions should not be made using COVID-19 impacted audience estimates, which includes the upcoming Spring 2020 Nationwide survey.”

The NRRC is a group of syndicators and other companies with an interest in accurate national radio audience measurement. Its members include AdLarge Media, American Urban Radio Networks, Crystal Media Networks, Premiere Radio Networks, Sun Broadcast Group, United Stations Radio Networks and Westwood One.

“The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented divergence of traditional patterns of media consumption, including, AM/FM listening and the streaming of audio,” the group stated.

“Listening behaviors were significantly altered starting in mid-March 2020, as the public adjusted to remote work environments and shelter-at-home mandates across the United States. The broadcast month of April represents the first month of Nielsen’s Spring 2020 [April-May-June] Nationwide survey. Each month subsequent to April has demonstrated consistent increases in listening, and there is confidence listenership will continue to stabilize and approach pre-Covid-19 levels.”

The group says the Fall 2019 Nationwide book “represents the best solution for the upcoming 2021 network radio upfront and Q4 scatter buys.”

The group quoted this statement from Nielsen: “Given the anomalous nature of audience behavior during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, it is Nielsen’s position that future buying and planning decisions for periods that fall outside the COVID-19 crisis should not be made using COVID-19 impacted audience estimates.”

The post Networks Say Ad Buyers Should Discard Spring Survey appeared first on Radio World.