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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The FCC on Tuesday confirmed that it plans to launch a
formal proceeding to examine how it can best help stop abusers from using connectivity tools in vehicles to harass and intimidate their partners.

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The FCC in March moved ahead on a party-line 3-2 vote to implement what FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel believes are new customer protections requiring all cable TV service providers and the nation’s two direct broadcast satellite companies to specify the “all-in” price “clearly and prominently” in their promotional materials and on every monthly billing statement.

Pro-cable TV advocacy group ACA Connects already expressed their disappointment in the vote. Now DirecTV has shared its thoughts, and its displeased, too.

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Metadata displayed in a Honda 2023 HR-V EX-L model. The study informs us that the car has FM, AM, HD Radio including HD logo and multicast channels, as well as SiriusXM, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The car has a dedicated radio button and supports PS Data and Radio Text as well as HD Radio Artist Experience.

I’m not often blown away by the release of a new industry report or resource. But I was wowed this morning when I got a look at something called the “2024 In-Vehicle Visuals Report,” which was just released by Quu.

Specifically I was stunned by the collection of data that the company has posted for anyone in the industry to inspect.

If you care about how your radio station appears on dashboards in the United States, you need to check this out.

This past winter, Quu’s CEO Jeff Newberry sent a talented young researcher out to car dealerships to sit in the 100 top-selling new cars in the United States for 2023.

That researcher gathered extensive information in each vehicle: What radio services does it have? Is there a dedicated radio button? Does the car support PS Data and Radio Text for FM? Does it display HD Radio artist and title, logos and album art?

And he took photos.

Quu then put together a web page that lists its findings for each new make and model of those 100 vehicles — and it provides the images. You can see how your RDS and HD Radio metadata would display on all of those dashboards, and compare them.

I’ve talked in this space for years about the importance of providing good metadata, and I told you that NAB’s David Layer has sat in some cars himself and found that many stations don’t do a good job of managing these visual components. We’ve also published photos over the years of sample dashboard displays of various technologies.

A summary of some key data from across the 100 car models studied.

But this is something different, a data set that allows the industry to make some sweeping insights. I’m aware of no such similar tool.

Out of the gate, Quu is highlighting six key findings:

• It found that AM/FM radio is “ubiquitous” in new vehicles, with 100% having FM and 98% still having AM. “The rumors of AM/FM disappearing from the dash have been highly exaggerated,” Quu concludes.
• Not surprisingly, though, it found that broadcast radio no longer has a dashboard monopoly, thanks to the presence of satellite radio, Android Auto, Apple CarPlay and …
• … a smaller but growing number of in-car streaming apps, which are most prevalent in GM and Toyota cars. Quu found that on average there are now six direct audio sources per new vehicle (and some of them can access thousands of audio sources each — so essentially, radio faces infinite audio competition).
• Two out of three new cars have HD Radio installed. That’s an important landmark for the long-term rollout of that digital radio technology. “While not universal (yet),” Quu wrote, “two out of three new vehicles have dozens of additional local market signals at their fingertips, presenting opportunities as well as challenges.”
• But General Motors is an important exception to the broader adoption of HD Radio. GM accounts for one out of five of the top new vehicles sold, but it only supports HD Radio in certain Cadillac models.
• It found that all new vehicles have in-dash text capabilities, and most can display logos and other images. “A radio station’s in-dash experience is a vital part of its brand and needs to be treated as such.”

I spoke with Steve Newberry today. He emphasized that although Quu obviously has an interest in this topic as a supplier of visual products in the dash, this report and data are being published free as an effort to raise awareness and understanding among both broadcasters and advertisers.

None of us has the time to go sit in hundreds of new cars. None of us really has an appreciation of how much variety there is in how our stations show up to our listeners. But here you can.

This initiative represents a serious attempt to help radio managers and advertisers comprehend how stations show up in new vehicles that flood our marketplace each year. Quu plans to repeat the study over time.

Newberry will hold a webinar about this tomorrow (April 10) that you can attend, with experts Fred and Paul Jacobs of Jacobs Media, Mike McVay of Media Consulting and Joe D’Angelo of Xperi (info here).

But you don’t have to wait for the webinar to review the findings and access the data directly. You can find the report here and look at the data here. I strongly encourage you to browse both.

 

The post New Report From Quu Does a Real Service for U.S. Radio appeared first on Radio World.

Paul LeFort, head of local TV sales at Nielsen, assumed Television Client Services duties at the start of 2024 with the retirement of Catherine Herkovic. As LeFort settles in to his new role, he spoke with RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson to share the latest on how Nielsen helping broadcasters in showing the continued value of UHF/VHF, so that they can continue to woo advertising clients with stories that go beyond reach.

LeFort also touched on measurement accuracy for the television industry and what he’s looking forward to at the 2024 NAB Show in this all-new InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.fm.

Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Paul LeFort” on Spreaker.

DELRAY BEACH, FLA. — Take a spin in a brand-new 2024 Subaru Crosstrek, or five other models from Subaru of America, and you may be taken aback by the enhanced audio entertainment dashboard that’s front and center in the main console.

While HD Radio is easily accessible and AC controls are now push-button below the visually enhanced audio selections, SiriusXM subscribers are also benefiting from a next-generation upgrade.

SiriusXM with 360L is now available on 2023 model year and newer Ascent, Legacy and Outback vehicles, as well as 2024 Crosstrek, Impreza and WRX models, giving drivers additional content from SiriusXM.

SiriusXM with 360L combines satellite and streaming content delivery into a singular in-vehicle entertainment experience. Specifically, more than 100 additional music channels can be accessed from the vehicle, matching what users of the SiriusXM app can access.

There are also personalized “For You” recommendations, something broadcast radio stations may wish to take note of.

SiriusXM SVP/GM of Automotive Partnerships Gail Berger commented, “SiriusXM brings listeners closer to the music, sports and talk content they love and SiriusXM with 360L delivers to drivers even more content and a truly enhanced and personalized listening experience for every driver. We are proud of our work with Subaru to make SiriusXM with 360L available in several new models and to enable our enhanced audio entertainment experience via an update to a large number of vehicles already on the road.”

Nearly 500,000 existing owners of 2023-24 model year vehicles are expected to be able to receive an over-the-air update enabling the expanded offering from SiriusXM. This update is currently available and will be rolled out to qualifying vehicles over the next few months. To receive SiriusXM with 360L features, Subaru vehicles must be equipped with SiriusXM satellite radio hardware, have an active SiriusXM trial or subscription, and include the capability of SUBARU STARLINK connected vehicle services.

SiriusXM with 360L is also anticipated to be available on future Subaru models, including the 2025 Forester.

Newly purchased or leased Subaru vehicles equipped with SiriusXM in the United States receive a four-month trial subscription to SiriusXM.

She’s described as “an experienced journalist and award-winning producer” and is coming from CNN. Introducing the new Executive Producer of CBS News Confirmed.

Melissa Mahtani will begin her new role on April 22 and reports to Claudia Milne, senior vice president and head of standards and practices for CBS News and Stations.

Mahtani will focus on developing the television, digital and social media presentation of the work of the CBS News Confirmed unit, a newly launched initiative to identify, combat and inform viewers of misinformation.

“Melissa’s depth and breadth of experience across multiple media platforms makes her the perfect person to lead the audience-facing presentation of the work of CBS News Confirmed,” Milne said. “She knows how to produce stories and shows, tell stories and package information to reach the largest audiences on whatever platforms they’re watching or reading. She will be a huge asset to our team.”

Mahtani most recently served as a senior producer and reporter for CNN since 2017.

“CBS News Confirmed is the right initiative at the right time,” Mahtani said. “We are witnessing an onslaught of misinformation that makes it harder for people to distinguish between what is real and what is not. CBS News Confirmed will empower our viewers to be able to tell fact from fiction, sharing our own process of verification every step of the way.”

During her career, Mahtani has lived and worked in Zambia, the U.K., France, Spain, Italy and the United States.

Before joining CNN, Mahtani was a news producer at France 24 and earlier at ITN. She began her career in 2007 at CNBC.

 

In 1995, “Machine Translation” was one of the great concerns among professional translators, trained and schooled to properly deliver the right syntax, phrasing and colloquial words that a computer could not.

Nearly 30 years later, translation and dubbing services may not require a human after all, thanks to artificial intelligence and its rapid ascent in the broadcast media marketplace. And, among its first users, is Sinclair Inc.

Generative AI use at the multimedia company led by Chris Ripley that has taken a key role in the rollout of ATSC 3.0 digital broadcast transitions and a shift to NEXTGEN GEN has arrived.

It is being employed at cable TV network Tennis Channel, for the series “Petko Unfiltered.”

As Baltimore-headquartered Sinclair sees it, this marks the company’s first steps into usage of generative artificial intelligence within its original content to reach more audiences globally in their native languages.  

Specifically, AI will be used for language translation across several properties, beginning with “Petko Unfiltered,” a Tennis Channel series with network analyst Andrea Petkovic, a former WTA world top 10 player that offers views a first-person perspective on trending tennis topics.  

The episodes, which are recorded and presented by Tennis Channel in English in several European countries and on the T2 digital multicast network in the United States, will be translated into Spanish to air on Tennis Channel in Spain beginning later this month. 

For this initiative, Sinclair has collaborated with generative AI video company HeyGen, which specializes in voice translation and lip-sync services.

For full transparency, the episodes will include a disclosure slate explaining the AI usage and a QR code linking to https://tennis.com/ai which will provide a comparison of episode language versions.  

“Generative AI is set to transform the world we live in; and Sinclair is enthusiastic about leveraging the technology to make our original content accessible to a bigger audience through language translation,” said Sinclair President/CEO Chris Ripley. “At the same time, we believe that upholding ethical standards in media through AI implementation is paramount. We recognize our duty to employ AI with integrity and transparency, to safeguard not only our industry’s reputation but also the trust of our audiences.  At Sinclair, we take this responsibility seriously, which is why we have chosen to voluntarily and proactively join the leading organizations dedicated to promoting responsible practices.”

Sinclair is a member of organizations working to protect content provenance and address misinformation including Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI), a leader in the global effort to address digital misinformation and content authenticity, focused on promoting and providing an open, cross-industry approach to media transparency, and the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), a formal coalition dedicated exclusively to drafting technical standards and specifications as a foundation for universal content provenance.

In addition, Sinclair has created an internal, interdepartmental AI workgroup to facilitate knowledge sharing, governance, compliance, and strategic guidance across the company: SAIF – Sinclair AI Forum.

Introducing a new study from the company bringing artwork and visual advertising and informational opportunities to radio broadcasters that provides station owners with a snapshot of AM and FM’s place in dashboard displays today.

Quu‘s 2024 In-Vehicle Visuals Report, a first-ever look that comes courtesy of the company founded by Chief Technology Officer Joe Harb and led by CEO Steve Newberry, is based on data collected by an independent contractor tasked with auditing in-dash systems in the nation’s 100 top-selling new vehicles.

To gauge radio’s in-dash standing, each vehicle audio entertainment system was carefully analyzed for listening features and visual components including radio text, artist, and song information. Photos were taken, and a detailed, standardized questionnaire was completed. Data was collected from individuals who sat in new vehicles onsite at various auto dealerships between November 2023 and January 2024.

“With so much listening happening in cars, we must identify our strengths and weaknesses,” Quu said. “This report intends to provide the broadcast industry with new research. As radio’s status evolves in future years, we will track it.

THE DASHBOARD SCORECARD

A snapshot of how common each feature is in the dashboard of the top 100 best-selling new vehicles in the U.S. is one of the key highlights of the inaugural In-Vehicle Visuals Report.

Six key findings were presented by Quu, all of which could be incorporated into a deck promoting broadcast radio’s benefits to advertisers:

• AM/FM radio is ubiquitous in new vehicles.
• AM/FM radio no longer has a dashboard monopoly.
• A growing number of vehicles offer built-in streaming apps.
• Two out of three new vehicles have HD Radio installed.
• GM vehicles are an exception to the widespread adoption of HD Radio.
• All new vehicles have in-dash text. Most can display logos and other images.

Of the above conclusions, the availability of HD Radio is perhaps a big eye-opener, as it was just a few years ago when getting digital multicast stations and/or “crystal clear HD Radio” was an add-on option for drivers who didn’t own a luxury automobile.

At the same time, General Motors’ lack of embrace of HD Radio is a matter Xperi Corp. will likely need to continue to resolve, some 20 years after HD Radio first appeared across the U.S.

Xperi SVP of Global Broadcast and Radio Joe D’Angelo is one of four industry experts working with Quu to analyze the results. “Despite sharing the dashboard with others, broadcast radio’s undeniably loyal audience will stay with them and spend more time with their programming if presented appropriately,” he said. “New connected car digital dashboards are unlocking tremendous opportunities for content curation.”

Also working with Quu as experts are Fred and Paul Jacobs and longtime radio industry programming consultant Mike McVay; independent broadcast radio researcher Doug Hyde is also involved in the project.

For Quu, the ability to have logos and images appear in-dash is a big plus.

Speaking with RBR+TVBR, Newberry notes that Quu is not selling the data detailing auto brand-by-auto brand dashboard details, and that it is designed for the industry to spark conversations with automotive companies while Quu gathers the information.

He also agrees with the contention that it is the fault of General Motors and not that of Xperi Corp. that HD Radio is virtually non-existent across GM’s automotive line.

Explaining why the report was created, Newberry recalls how some advertising clients, consumers and radio station managers were saying such things as, “I can’t see this,” or asking, “Is this working?”

“Nobody in the industry was looking at the dashboard,” Newberry says. “We wanted to ensure the industry had that yardstick and more than ‘instinctive feels.'”

For a generation of radio industry air personalities, voice tracking has been commonplace at stations both big and small. Now, AI-powered radio services company Super Hi-Fi is rolling out a new product ahead of the 2024 NAB Show that it says blends talent management, shift management, job assignment and voice track recording into one interface.

Introducing Voicetrack Fusion, which Super Hi-Fi says can reduce voice track scheduling and production time. “When we’ve asked our customers what they want most from us, more effective voice tracking has always been near the top of the list,” said Super Hi-Fi CEO Zack Zalon. “We crafted Voicetrack Fusion from the ground up to solve real problems, and to function as a powertool for unparalleled efficiency that we know radio teams will
really love.”

Voicetrack Fusion automatically produces all of the elements around voice tracks and offers Voice Track Scheduling, Powerful Syndications, Automated Alternates, Automated Production and Automatic Mastering.

Voicetrack Fusion is available through the Super Hi-Fi Program Director OS.

‘POTS’ line costs got you down? Here’s a solution that comes courtesy of Broadcast Bionics.

Introducing CallerOne, which allows stations to move to more cost-effective SIP lines.

This is made possible thanks to new support for existing call control hardware from Telos and Wheatstone.

And, the FCC is to thank — at least in part. In August 2022 the Commission removed requirements for ILECs to offer analog POTS lines at competitive rates. By October
2023, all remaining cost obligations were lifted. This spurred carriers to plan the decommissioning of outdated lines, aiming to end all PSTN lines by 2030.

As such, CallerOne now supports Telos VSet and console call controllers, whereas Wheatstone facilities can use WheatNet for IP audio and GPIO control. “These integrations enable broadcasters to continue using their existing hardware and call handling workflows while transitioning to a more cost-effective SIP talkshow solution,” the team at CallerOne notes.

Matt Collison, Brand and Marketing Lead at Broadcast Bionics, notes, “CallerOne’s integrations with Telos and Wheatstone allow broadcasters to transition to a SIP talkshow solution, while retaining their much-loved hardware and workflows. We expect this to be an extremely popular option for stations feeling the effects of POTS price hikes.”

CallerOne will be on demo at NAB 2024 on the Broadcast Bionics booth (C2030), and on the Broadcasters General Store booth (C2808) with Wheatstone.

Streaming and podcast specialist StreamGuys has brought to market a cloud service for enterprise-level audio contribution and distribution. And, it begins shipping as the 2024 NAB Show readies its April 13 opening in Las Vegas.

Introducing the Reflector EVO.

The second generation of the Reflector service, developed 14 years ago to help broadcasters move high-quality audio over the public internet, the Reflector EVO boasts uncompressed PCM signals with high bandwidth requirements. This makes for a strong alternative to satellite for syndicated program delivery, multi-studio networking and other distribution services with wide geographic dispersion, StreamGuys believes.

Developed in partnership with the Audio over IP experts at Barix, StreamGuys will lead all sales efforts and provide service hosting and 24/7 technical support for radio broadcasters, program syndicators and audio content creators that require a scalable, one-to-many cloud networking architecture for content delivery.

Barix has updated its encoding and decoding hardware for additional network resiliency, along with enabling fast switching between encoders and adding support for lossless audio compression. Barix’s new LX400 broadcast codec, also to be introduced at NAB (Booth C2348), offers OPUS audio support for customers that want the highest possible audio quality and bandwidth conservation, with support for constant and variable bitrates (6kb/s to 510kb/s). Customers can manually configure encoding quality and the audio delay level of the receiving decoder (between three and 30 seconds), with seamless communication between each device worldwide.

The LX400 devices also include standard Barix AoIP codec features such as selectable input gain, relay support and contact closures, the latter of which allows broadcast networks to provide affiliates with precisely timed triggers for local ad breaks over EVO. Speaking of affiliates, StreamGuys has improved alerting applications that allow networks to target alerts. This ensures that important notifications are prioritized for affected stations only, rather than being disseminated to all engineers in the network.

StreamGuys will demonstrate Reflector EVO at NAB Show 2024, where the company will share space at the ENCO booth (W1743).

With reporting by Brian Galante

 

 

 

Nautel has confirmed that it will incorporate audio player and playlist functionality into its
VX Series product line.

With the audio player functionality, users will be able to upload content locally or remotely via an IP connection to make a playlist; no USB, addition cards, or site visits are necessary.

The built-in audio player can use the file playlist as an audio source and is often used
as an audio loss backup. This capability is slated for availability later this year.

Nautel Head of Marketing and Product Strategy John Whyte says the addition of the audio player “has proven to be a very popular capability for our customers and is an example of how Nautel brings continuing enhancements to its products.”

— Elaine Jones, for Weekly Tech Roundup

California-based Inovonics, and its Sales and Marketing Manager, Gary Luhrman, are heading into the 2024 NAB Show with the release of an EAS Monitor Receiver in a compact half-rack package.

Introducing the 677 Triple Tuner, which boasts three built-in discrete frequency agile receivers, each one programmable for either AM, FM or NOAA reception. Each receiver has a balanced monaural XLR audio output to serve as EAS monitor, or off-air monitor throughout the broadcast facility.

Luhrman adds that the product has a web interface for remote monitoring and listening, and that SNMP is fully supported.

 

For more information, please click here: https://www.inovonicsbroadcast.com/product/677

 

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Media Bureau grants, in full, the petition to modify the satellite local markets of KGUN-TV, KVOA, KOLD-TV, and KMSB to include Pinal County, AZ.

A New Jersey radio broadcaster continues to plead for the FCC to forgo a power increase for HD Radio stations in the United States, saying the proposal would leave Class A stations “out in the cold.”

Press Communications has previously submitted technical studies that it says show interference to significant numbers of Class A FM station listeners from first-adjacent out of market Class B stations with an HD power increase. The broadcaster believes harmful interference to listening audiences will be especially destructive in densely-populated areas, such as New Jersey, with numerous short-spaced FM stations.  

“Unlike analog-induced interference, the HD interference will manifest itself to radio listeners as noise or a diminution of the co-channel station’s analog signal, something that radio listeners are ill-adept at identifying,” Press Communications tells the FCC.

The FCC is currently considering a proposal from the National Association of Broadcasters and Xperi, the developer of HD Radio, that, if adopted, would raise the maximum power level for digital FM radio stations. The proposed updated formula would allow additional radio stations to increase power without prior authorization from the commission. 

Press Communications, which owns five Class A FMs and one AM radio station in New Jersey, says lower power Class A FM stations — often at 3 kW — along with FM translators and LPFM stations are especially vulnerable to an HD Radio power increase. 

[Related: “Radio Owner Says Digital FM Power Increase Would Hurt Small Broadcasters“]

Press Communications CEO Bob McAllan says the Class A community as of now is largely shut out of viable and useful HD Radio digital participation. 

“If HD radio is to become an industry standard, it needs to work for every broadcaster, not just the high-power stations in major markets. As currently presented, many, if not most, Class As are largely left out in the cold, particularly in the crowded northeast U.S.,” McAllan told Radio World in an email. 

HD radio was “an ill-conceived attempt to digitize an already overcrowded FM band,” McAllan said, “without destroying the misguided hieratical order of high-power stations in central cities, while leaving mostly scraps (Class As) for local service in much of the highly populated New Jersey suburbs.”

For example, McAllan says he believes one of his stations, WKMK(FM), licensed to Monmouth County, N.J., will lose audience in states’ primary commuting corridors if the FCC adopts the proposed power increase. 

“Our extensive HD engineering studies show much, if not all of that valuable listenership will be lost if HD co-channel WUMR in Philadelphia is allowed to increase HD power beyond what is currently authorized (-17 dBc). An HD power upgrade will also expand existing interference areas within our 60 dbu contour in Monmouth Ocean which should come as no revelation since WUMR is 16.8 km short to WKMK,” McAllen says.

Press Communications says it believes the FCC proceeding “as a whole is mostly void of technical studies on the impact of digital power increases beyond -17 dBc in relation to Class A stations,” while Press Communications has commissioned numerous studies of the impact of HD Power increases on Class A stations.  

[Related: “Aviation Industry Requests More Time to Evaluate HD Radio Proposal“]

The broadcaster also asks that the FCC include a remedy for interference from a Class B or B1 station to any first-adjacent Class A station; if it adopts the new rules. “This right of redress means, for all practical purposes, any Class B or B1 station operating with HD power levels in excess of -17 dBc in the direction of a Class A station is a secondary service in the same way as FM translators for interference purposes until any first-adjacent channel station has the opportunity for a hearing,” it told the FCC.

In addition, the broadcaster asks the FCC to develop new procedures to protect a Class A station’s audience outside of its 60 dBu contour but within its 45 dBu contour. 

Further, Press Communications says the commission — thanks to an already-crowded FM band — should consider the issue of radio receiver technology. In the pleading it asks the FCC to develop minimum receiver standards to properly evaluate the overall relationship of transmission and receiver performance.

“The FCC continues to adhere to its transmission standards, but has failed to consider the vastly improved receiver technology in today’s radios, particularly those in automobiles where most listening takes place,” Press Communications writes.

iHeartMedia, Cox Media Group and Beasley Media Group in comments have expressed support for the digital radio power increase and say protections and processes are already in place to protect smaller analog FMs.

Press Communications includes a number of exhibits in the proceeding (MB22-405) to support its argument against the HD Radio power increase, which can be viewed in the commission’s ECFS system.

[Sign Up for Radio World’s SmartBrief Newsletter]

The post Press Communications Continues to Rally Against an HD Radio Power Boost appeared first on Radio World.

Wheatstone Corp., developer of the WheatNet IP audio network, has expanded into the cloud and server realm with its Layers Software Suite, which includes mixing, streaming and FM software hosted on a local server or running on cloud data centers. 

At the NAB Show the company is adding Reliable Internet Stream Transport protocol to its AoIP technology and running its Layers software on Amazon Web Services Global Accelerator.

As part of Radio World’s series of manufacturer interviews about technology trends, Wheatstone’s Jay Tyler, director of sales, and John Davis, southwest tech engineer, sat down to talk with us ahead of the convention.

Radio World: Jay what is the most important evolution happening in radio studio technology?

Jay Tyler

Jay Tyler: Standardization. Radio consolidation meant companies buying stations, then getting everyone into one building and choosing a common traffic billing automation system and console routing system.

Companies obviously were looking to leverage their buying power; but today there also are fewer people available to make intelligent decisions in local markets or maintain equipment. Now we’re seeing even more integration between the automation, console routing, intercom and telephone systems, bringing another level of complexity. 

We see standardization at big corporate clients like iHeartMedia. Townsquare has been rolling it out; Bonneville has completed it, Hubbard has mostly completed it. All the Entravision sites are WheatNet, the Cox media sites, a good amount of Saga. All of Beasley’s and Crawford’s stations have been completed.

RW: When you say “rolling it out,” you mean they’ve standardized on a Wheatstone AoIP infrastructure —

Tyler: And an automation system playout system.

RW: How well does this approach scale for a company that’s not one of the biggest groups?

Tyler: NRG Media has three dozen stations, for example, and it’s working for them. 

Meanwhile, because there are fewer qualified engineers, some of these groups have created “tiger” teams who maintain this standardized gear and who travel a lot. Or they have named internal specialists as a resource. Or they’ve adopted a centralized NOC approach.

John Davis: Often, even if a group doesn’t have a team that travels and manages everything centrally, they’ve set up subject matter experts, one or two engineers in each market who know WheatNet, who know their chosen automation system or transmitter — an internal resource, someone you can reach out to who’s familiar with the way your company does things.

Tyler: Some have become quite self-supportive, almost independent of the manufacturers. For instance we rarely get service calls from Bonneville. In fact these groups will ask their engineers to turn first to their company’s internal resources when they need help.

John Davis

RW: During and after COVID, we heard that buildouts would become more streamlined, with smaller footprints and more virtualization. A company might build one studio where they’d have built four in the past. Is that happening?

Tyler: Not on a grand scale. We still need multiple microphones. We have guests. We need a performance space. 

Yes, bigger companies are doing some of this, an iHeart or a Cumulus. But for mid to large markets at companies such as Hubbard, Cox or Beasley, we’re still building a dedicated studio for every air signal; then there’s a backup air studio, and an adjacent production room for each studio.

In a market like Tampa they might have five brands, and they’ll still build five studios, including one as a backup or production. Whereas for iHeart, a market with five brands needs three control rooms — and a good schedule.

Davis: In smaller markets, a company might have four stations served by a main studio and a couple of auxiliaries. Sometimes the room is live only for four hours, at other times it serves as the production room. Instead of a dedicated studio plus production plus news, you end up with only as many studios as you have concurrent live dayparts; the rest of the time you’re in automation and using the space for production or recording commercials.

RW: To what extent has virtualization moved important infrastructure off-site?

Davis: It depends on the group. Some are starting to do a lot of remote tracking, especially where you have nationalized dayparts. One person will lay down a show for all the country stations in the company, then go back to the major stations and drop in two or three liners per daypart per hour that might be localized; the rest is network content.

Tyler: But with today’s technology, a group doing a “build in place” can streamline everything. We can drop one talk studio into a facility, surround it by four adjacent air rooms, and on any day at any time, one of those rooms can take control, with sight lines between them all. 

Davis: I just worked on an installation for a public station that used a combination of Glass LXE and physical LXE panels in the same room. They had six or eight physical faders, then we put a big touchscreen in the middle for 20 or so more faders, and then another eight on the other side of the touch panel. 

The first eight faders are for mics in the talk booth. The Glass LXE controls sources they don’t use every day, and the faders off to the side are what they need for the “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered” dayparts. They streamlined that room for talk programming but can do simple production in the middle, and their tentpole dayparts are supported, all in one space. They’ll build their other rooms that way and have flexibility across the facility.

RW: To what extent do virtualization and the software-based air chain affect what you do?

Davis: It’s a lot easier to virtualize the back end of the air chain than the front, just because of latency. Our Layers Stream and Layers FM products handle processing and streaming in AWS after it’s left the studio, so I’m not worried about being able to put on a pair of headphones and hear myself with that delay. But until the latency issue gets resolved, you’ll see it more on the back end.

Tyler: It affects our design and development. Most engineers I’ve spoken with prefer the idea of virtualization with a local server — they still like being able to touch that server. 

Our Layers FM, Layers Stream and Layers Mix are based on new technology that is easily ported over from a local server to containerization virtualization in a cloud, like AWS. We’ve just received a really nice order for Rogers Communications in Canada, which is creating a national streaming center using Layers Streaming. But again, these are local — an engineer can go put his hands on that equipment. I think engineers are winning that fight on the local level. They want to distribute their losses, they want multiple, on-premise servers.

But there are customers using cloud-based air chains. That’s what we designed Layers FM for. At the NAB Show we’ll demonstrate local mixing on the exhibit floor, sending it up to AWS, being processed in the cloud and then returned via AWS to the show floor so you can listen to an air chain that’s being virtualized. 

You mentioned the endpoint. When we talk about low-latency linear streaming, we’re talking about well-connected sites, usually with multiple networks, main and backup, using big IP links. But a lot of transmitters in the field still have low-level connectivity. This is where boxes for MPX over IP come into play. Our SystemLink MPX over IP Transporter is for that endpoint. It’s an MPX over IP transporter that uses Reliable Internet Stream Transport, or RIST, so it can transport FM MPX over IP links of any capacity, whether as uncompressed or compressed. 

Davis: With RIST you’ve got serial numbers on every packet. So we know if a packet is missing and can ask for a new transmission. You’re not just spitting out a bunch of UDP and hope that it gets to the end. With RIST, you know it got there. And it’s encrypted, so it’s secure. We also use RIST in our Blade-4 because it is such a robust transport protocol. 

[Related: “What’s RIST and Why Do You Need It?”]

Tyler: Transmitter sites are getting smarter. There is a big movement for people to get off satellites and find different ways to deliver content over IP. If you can take syndicated shows along with programming from one station and programming from another station and consolidate it all in the cloud to distribute to transmitter sites over IP, then that becomes much more useful. This is the concept behind our Layers FM software, which puts the AGC, limiting and FM subcarriers in the cloud.

To complete the air chain in the cloud, you need one more critical piece: an MPX transporter like SystemLink for moving all that from the cloud directly to the transmitter site over any variety of IP links available to you. What’s really neat about SystemLink is that we align the FM and HD at the beginning, in the packets, so there’s no way for it ever to become unaligned. 

RW: Where do you see it all going?

Tyler:  As connectivity gets better, all of these transmitter sites are going to get more intelligent. Every Blade 4, our AoIP I/O unit, has the ability to stream; we have audio codecs in the Blade 4 so we can get audio from any site over the public internet directly to a transmitter site. That’s what our customers are asking for because they realize that they can bypass the studios in some cases, and they are fortifying these sites. 

RW: Is this still a good time to be an audio equipment manufacturer?

Tyler: Yes. The convergence of IT and audio will continue. But you’ll still need to take a microphone and wire it to something; there still needs to be mixing and acquisition and distribution. It’s like any other business, with ups and downs. But radio isn’t going to go away. 

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NEW YORK — Workflow automation and audio industry ad management specialist Frequency is welcoming a Technical Account Manager, reporting to CEO Pete Jimison.

Taking the role is an individual whose resume includes roles at Gannett, Triad Retail Media and Placements.io — Charlie Smith.

Smith’s chief role is to offer technical support to clients, leading the charge on platform onboarding and training, customer support, and new feature releases.

“With over a decade of experience, Charlie has a track record of helping clients
implement media workflow and ad monetization tools,” Frequency says.

Smith comments, “Frequency has been built around the mission of making day-to-day tasks easier and more efficient for audio teams.I view my role as a direct extension of that
mission. As I collaborate with clients, my goal is to identify opportunities to
enhance their experience and ensure users are taking full advantage of all the
amazing toolsets and features at their fingertips.”

With the recent launch of Production Automation, Frequency says it has completed
its suite of podcast workflow products.