Industry News

The National Association of Broadcasters sees the efforts of cable and internet company association ACA Connects in asking for a stay and reconsideration the FCC’s C-Band lump sum payments plans as strictly a ploy to garner more money for its members. It is urging the FCC to reject all requests for review of the final cost catalog levied by ACAC.

The FCC is preparing to conduct the C-Band auction, which will open up the lower 280 MHz of the C-Band spectrum for wireless and 5G development, while moving the current occupants of that spectrum to the upper 200 MHz of the band. Those being relocated have different options for reimbursement, including a lump sum payment determined on average cost of all estimates.

[Read: Takeaways From the NAB’s C-Band Webinar]

ACAC, whose members include cable operators that would be impacted by the C-Band auction, has been fighting the FCC’s final cost catalog and lump sum payment amount because it did not include IRDs (integrated receivers/decoders) into the calculation, which it says would help with a transition to the more efficient fiber delivery. ACAC has been petitioning the FCC to review the cost catalog calculations again and recently made a court filing to stay the current lump sum deadline of Sept. 14.

NAB opposes these actions by ACAC, claiming the group is “seeking handouts” and that the association’s primary focus is to increase its memberships’ wealth at the expense of other parties and the overall goal of repurposing the spectrum.

According to NAB, the public notice determining the lump sum payment does include IRDs, but for satellite operators not the individual MVPDs that ACAC is petitioning for; NAB says this is the right determination. NAB also denies the ACAC accusation that the process of calculating the lump sum was flawed. NAB does not believe any of ACAC’s arguments hold water.

Rather, NAB views these actions by ACAC as “the latest step in ACA’s  ongoing quest to transform a spectrum reallocation process into a cash cow that will funnel funds from winning flexible use license bidders to ACA’s members.”

“Broadcasters, programmers, satellite operators and other stakeholders are about to undertake a complex transition that must be concluded in an ambitious timeframe,” the NAB wrote. “The commission’s focus should remain on ensuring that this process unfolds in an orderly and efficient manner that preserves content distribution and protects American viewers and listeners — not on maximizing payments to ACA’s members. We urge the commission to reject the Application for Review.”

The FCC is currently planning to conduct the C-Band auction on Dec. 8.

The post NAB: ACAC Seeking “Handouts” With C-Band Lump Sum Demands appeared first on Radio World.

The FCC is openly giving radio broadcasters a chance to reboot their online political file efforts and address timeliness issues for candidate and issue advertising rate uploads. The commission for now appears to be ending investigations into those online public files and holding off fining broadcasters that need to catch up.

The most recent developments stem from an investigation the commission launched in early 2019 following a complaint against Entercom and its Buffalo, N.Y., cluster from a political candidate and whether she was charged the lowest unit rate possible during the 2018 election cycle.

[Read: Yet More Settlements in Political File “Derelictions”]

During that investigation several other major radio groups self-reported political file issues to the FCC with hopes of reaching an agreement on compliance. The National Association of Broadcasters helped broker an agreement earlier this summer that resulted in signed consent decrees with a half-dozen major radio groups that close FCC investigations and ensures compliance, but do not levy fines, said Robert Baker, an FCC attorney who appeared on a recent webcast hosted by the New York State Broadcasters Association.

“These consent decrees will require the broadcasters to submit compliance plans for the remainder of this year and through the end of 2021,” Baker said. Along with Entercom the group of six includes Alpha Media, Beasley Media, Cumulus Media, iHeartMedia and Salem Media Group. The broadcasters admit they were tardy in updating their online political files with relevant materials, according to the FCC. In all, the six groups own nearly 1,900 radio stations.

“It is crucial that stations maintain political files that are complete and up to date because the information in them directly affects, among other things, the statutory rights of opposing candidates to request equal opportunities,” according the consent decrees.

The FCC has recently been more focused in online political file compliance, observers say, most likely because of the current election cycle and the resulting political advertising being placed.

[Read: Big Radio Companies Settle With FCC on Online Political Files]

The FCC’s consent decree with Entercom is blunt in its wording: “Entercom has now formally agreed to enter into the attached consent decree, pursuant to which Entercom admits that it repeatedly violated its political file obligations by not uploading required records in a timely manner. Entercom further agrees to implement a comprehensive compliance plan to ensure future compliance with its political file obligations and to submit periodic compliance reports to the bureau.”

“The goal of our efforts is to gain compliance. Simple as that,” Baker said during the webinar.

Similarly, the FCC has resolved online political files compliance issues with another 107 smaller radio licensees, again through consent decrees, that are meant to ensure future compliance. None of the smaller radio broadcasters will face monetary fines.

For instance, the FCC recently released a consent decree with radio licensee Carter Broadcasting, which owns WSBZ(FM) in Miramar, Fla. The FCC found the licensee failed to comply with political file requirements and suspended processing its license renewal application as a result. The consent decree stated: “Carter Broadcasting, Inc. agrees, among other things, to implement a comprehensive compliance plan to ensure future compliance with its political file obligations and to submit periodic compliance reports to the Media Bureau.”

Baker, the FCC attorney, encourages radio licensees that have been derelict in maintaining their online political file to reach out to the FCC for assistance if it is needed.

The commission says it first adopted rules requiring broadcast stations to maintain public files documenting requests for political advertising time more than 80 years ago. The FCC transitioned the public file from in-station to online for all radio licensees in 2018.

See more stories on Political Files here.

The post FCC Cuts Deal With Broadcasters Over Political Files appeared first on Radio World.

Nautel and Telos Alliance are collaborating on what they describe as a new approach to HD Radio time alignment.

They say the solution, demonstrated this week in a webinar, eliminates alignment issues “completely” by locking the FM and HD1 outputs from the audio processor through the rest of the HD Radio air chain into the transmitter.

Omnia Product Manager Geoff Steadman at Telos Alliance is quoted in the announcement saying that many vendors have engineered “complex solutions with add-on or built-in receivers that generate correction signals to attempt to minimize blending issues.” But he said such solutions can affect the signal by covering up delay drifts.

Nautel CTO Philipp Schmid said, “Our solution locks the FM and HD1 outputs at the audio processor, and keeps them locked as they pass through the remainder of the HD Radio air-chain right into the transmitter. No extra boxes, additional audio codecs, radio receivers or correction methods are needed, and the Nautel/Telos Alliance solution utilizes proven ‘Made for Radio’ standards including MPX, µMPX, and E2X.”

The solution, he said, allows a station’s HD Radio equipment to be “location-agnostic,” located either at the transmitter or the studio, without needing external time synch.

In the webinar, the companies showed Telos Alliance Omnia Enterprise 9s high-density audio processing software, Gen4 Importer/Exporter and Nautel technology running on a Nautel HD MultiCast+.

Nautel Head of Marketing John Whyte pointed out the open environment of the latter product and said the company plans to develop products based on these technologies. Nautel also announced support on HD MultiCast+ for the Telos Alliance Omnia Enterprise 9, which centralizes audio processing and virtualizes operation. It’s a tool for high-density server-based systems for customers with a large volume of signals to process.

The post Nautel, Telos Tout “New Approach” to Time Alignment appeared first on Radio World.

Two broadcast towers in Lake Charles, La., have been damaged as a result of Hurricane Laura, which made landfall in the early hours of Aug. 27.

There have been multiple reports of damages to the broadcast tower of KPLC-TV, the area’s NBC affiliate, with pictures showing portions of the tower having collapsed. Some reports are indicating there was damage to the STL (studio to transmitter link) and ENG, but that the main tower was OK.

In addition, a representative from the Louisiana Association of Broadcasters confirmed that the LPTV station KSWL-TV, a CBS affiliate, has reported that its tower fell on top of its building.

TV Technology reached out to both KPLC and KSWL to confirm details, but has not received word from either station at the time of publication.

LAB said that it is still gathering information on any other damages.

Reports indicate that wind speeds hit a high of 150 miles per hour when it first made landfall.

This is a developing story. Radio World’s sister publication TV Technology will update as events warrant.

The post Hurricane Laura Downs Two Towers in Louisiana appeared first on Radio World.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — I am the chief engineer for Interlochen Public Radio and the co-owner of Nemosity Enterprises LLC with my wife Tina Marie. At Nemosity Enterprises we focus on broadcast engineering contracting and consulting and I am responsible for 14 FM transmitter sites, studios and facilities across Northern Lower Michigan.

I began my career as a ground radio repairman in the United States Marine Corps and worked nearly 20 years in television news stations. Four years ago, I made the switch to radio and nothing has felt more like “coming home” than that career move.

New Installation

My latest project involved Blarney Stone Broadcasting, dramatically expanding the reach of rock and roll station WQON(FM) 100.3 MHz. Q100 is now a combination of WQON, WWMN(FM) 106.3 MHz and WYPV(FM) 94.5 MHz, with live studios in Traverse City and Grayling, Mich. The three FM transmitter sites cover most of the northwestern and central Lower Peninsula (LP) of Michigan.

I’ve worked with Tieline products since 2016 and they are some of the most intuitive, flexible and reliable products I’ve had the pleasure of using. The uptime, ease of operation, flexibility and reliability have been second to none. So when I heard about this new project, I knew Tieline codecs would be ideal as the backbone of this new radio group.

Jerry and Sheryl Coyne own Blarney Stone Broadcasting, and the audience ebbs and flows between 300,000 and 450,000 people, with numbers highest June through September. I presented two options to the director of programming and all-round station guru JJ Rowell. JJ has worked there for years and knows the day-to-day operations better than most. His input and direction was invaluable and he agreed that Tieline codecs would provide flexibility for years to come.

At that time I had three Genie Distribution codecs running two stereo pairs to two sites codecs we use for Interlochen Public Radio, and one Genie and three Bridge-IT XTRAs for Baraga Catholic Radio, which was subsequently sold to Relevant Radio out of Green Bay, Wis. The Blarney Stone Broadcasting project involved installation of a Genie Distribution and three Bridge-IT Pro codecs. The Genie connects using a 3x stereo program configuration.

The Genie at Interlochen has been so reliable in sending two stereo audio streams to the transmitter sites, the budget for putting in a redundant system could be spent on other equipment.

For the new Blarney Stone Broadcasting project, Tieline’s Report-IT mobile app is also important. With smartphone or tablet we can use this codec app to make it possible to broadcast high-quality audio for local sporting events anywhere we have a cellular internet connection with very minimal gear to haul around. The days of packing a carload of equipment to get live local sports on the air are over.

Reliable IP Streaming

Without IP technology joining the Blarney Stone stations would be all but impossible. If you want an IP-based codec system that is reliable and easy to set up and install, Tieline is that system. Installing a reliable, high-quality STL path over IP makes my job easier and less expensive than microwave path studies, licensing, installation and equipment costs. The quality is so good that we use the microwave STL as a Tieline backup at Interlochen Public Radio’s main broadcast site in Traverse City, Mich.

Opus Stereo at 256 kb is my preference for quality and sound; however bandwidth can be a challenge in some areas. Sometimes we dial Opus back to 96 kb if need be or select one of the many other codecs available to tailor each site’s connection. We prefer adaptive jitter buffer settings, which allow packet movement to ebb and flow depending on network load, and use fixed settings if required.

Verizon, AT&T, fiber, local wireless ISPs and Charter Spectrum Cable all play a part in data delivery. Cradlepoint broadband routers with dual SIMs for Verizon and AT&T are also used at some sites. Some have a fiber WAN connection for redundancy and reliability. The biggest challenge in our area is broadband connectivity at some remote transmitter locations. While the terrain makes a tower site attractive because of its height and location, it tends to make fiber installs very expensive, unless one of the main players, Verizon or AT&T are on that site already.

The Tieline codecs are rock-solid, one of the determining factors in choosing Tieline. It takes a major network failure to lose connectivity, and as soon as that network is restored, it comes right back and reconnects automagically.

The Toolbox web-GUI is ideal for configuring multiple peer-to-peer connections and provides the ability to adjust audio matrix routing. This makes adjustments and codec management simple and effective.

I believe the future of broadcasting is in streaming. Streaming content from an IP-based system can be more reliable than satellite distribution. This facilitates having multiple paths, providers and avenues to pull your content. With a satellite system it either works or it doesn’t. And when the Michigan winter rolls in and a foot or two of fresh snow covers your satellite dish, it doesn’t.

Remote control, remote operation and streaming delivery of content are the future. I believe everyone should plan for streaming taking over most content delivery to the station and listeners. I have a feeling Tieline will play a major role in that future, at least for me and my clients.

Radio World User Reports are testimonial articles intended to help readers understand why a colleague chose a particular product to solve a technical situation.

For information, contact Dawn Shewmaker at Tieline in Indiana at 1-317-845-8000. For international contact Charlie Gawley at Tieline in Western Australia at 61-8-9413-2000 or visit www.tieline.com.

The post User Report: Genie Is Magic for Blarney Stone Broadcasting appeared first on Radio World.

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.