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A new ebook from Radio World explores one of the most pressing topics in radio technology: What will the future air chain look like?

The concepts of virtualization and putting parts of the air chain in the cloud were already on the minds of forward-looking managers; and the 2020 health crisis has accelerated the trend even over the past few months. New products, new software and new partnerships are helping bring the future closer.

We sat down with five leading industry technologists for a roundtable discussion.

Find out what Roz Clark, Alan Jurison, Shane Toven, Philipp Schmid and Greg Shay had to say when we asked about the implications of virtual; the shift from a cap-ex to an op-ex model; what parts of the air chain are or will be virtualized; and what will virtualization bring to the “back end” of the airchain.

Read it here.

 

The post Virtualizing the Air Chain: Next-Gen Radio Architecture appeared first on Radio World.

In radio project news: Kintronic Labs said it completed the installation and commissioning of a two-tower, 100 kW medium-wave directional antenna system for Far East Broadcasting Co. on an offshore island in South Korea.

[See Our Who’s Buying What Page]

“The transmission system involving Nautel NX100 main and standby transmitters, and the Kintronic Labs antenna system is designed to broadcast in wideband analog, single-channel DRM or DRM simulcast modes via two separate directional patterns,” the company stated.

It provided the photo below. Send news of radio technical projects to radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

The post FEBC Has New 100 kW DA System appeared first on Radio World.

The Federal Communications Commission has decided to adopt a consent decree and grant a translator construction permit application despite a series of objections filed by two separate entities.

Back in February 2016, the FCC issued a construction permit license to Rocket Radio Corp. (RRC) for translator K246CH in Tuba City, Ariz., a town of 8,600 within Arizona’s picturesque Painted Desert. The new translator was to serve as a fill-in translator for KIKO(AM), a country music station serving Apache Junction, Ariz.

After the license was granted, an informal objection was raised by Linda C. Corso, owner of KRDE(FM), a country music station in nearby San Carlos, Ariz.

[Read: Licensee Agrees to $8,000 Consent Agreement on Unauthorized License Transfer]

In the midst of all this, RRC filed an application to make minor changes to the translator’s licensed facilities, a move that prompted another entity — this time Mountain Community Translators (MCT) — to file an informal objection.

The FCC agreed with some of the assertions filed by these two licensees. But it dismissed other claims and said the Media Bureau would enter into a consent decree with RRC to resolve issues that were raised during the FCC’s review of the applications.

But there’s a hefty penalty that comes with this consent decree in the form of a $15,000 civil penalty. The FCC also said that not only must RRC pay the civil penalty in a timely manner but must also submit to probationary oversight if it applied to build any other facilities over the next three years.

All this began when the FCC approved RRC’s request to change its translator’s channel to Channel 275 during a 2016 filing window for FM translator modification applications. In April of that year RRC filed a license application and submitted a program test letter saying that it had begun program tests with the translator at the station.

Soon after an objection was filed by Corso who said that RRC broke several rules: It did not construct the facilities authorized in the permit, it violated the commission’s rules governing station identification, and it made false certifications and statements in its license application and the program test letter.

In response, RRC revised its certifications in an amended license application in July 2017 to reflect that the facilities constructed did vary from those authorized in the permit. RRC said it was unaware that the translator’s facilities had not been constructed as authorized and it assured the FCC that the translator has been operating with authorized parameters since October 2016.

Corso fired back again. In another objection she accused RRC and several of its employees of witness intimidation and harassment, and said RRC deliberately concealed facts from the commission. She also asked several questions: why was the translator not constructed as authorized? And how could RCC be unaware of this?

In June 2018, RRC filed a minor change application asking to increase the translator’s power and change its channel. Soon after, another objection arose from MCT which alleged that RRC made a false certification in its application. In July of that year, RRC filed an application to modify the permit to specify the same power increase and channel change proposed in the minor change application. MCT objected to that application too.

Upon review of the objections, the FCC rejected several of Corso’s allegations. The commission did not find that the translator was operating with a different antenna and at a different power than specified in its permit. The commission also found no merit to Corso’s allegation that the translator violated the commission’s rules governing station identification or her allegations that RRC made misrepresentations to the commission.

The commission did find, though, that the facilities constructed were not those authorized in the permit and that RRC violated sections of the commission’s rules.

Specifically, the commission found that for six months in 2016, the translator’s antenna was mounted at the wrong height and oriented in the wrong direction. By starting program tests with nonconforming facilities, RRC also violated the Communications Act and FCC Rules. Plus, the commission found that that RRC further violated the rules by failing to amend its license application in a timely manner and failed to correct the program test letter to reflect that the facilities constructed were not those specified in the permit.

The FCC also rejected MCT’s assessment that RRC made a false claim that it did not have an authorization for an FM translator station that served the same area and was rebroadcasting the same signal as the translator. While MCT correctly noted that RRC is the licensee of another FM translator — K247CF in Payson, Ariz. — that serves substantially the same area as the facilities authorized in the permit, the two translators have not rebroadcast the signal of the same primary station at the same time. K247CF only began rebroadcasting the translator’s primary station when the translator went off the air in May 2018. The FCC also concluded that RCC did not make misrepresentations or false statements to the commission.

As a result of its findings, the Media Bureau entered into a consent decree with RRC based on its unauthorized construction of the translator and its violations of FCC rules. RRC agreed to pay a civil penalty of $15,000. The consent decree also stipulates that RRC will have an outside broadcast engineer come and examine any facilities that RRC constructs or operates and that this engineer will review technical parameters of any future facilities that RRC constructs over the next three years.

 

The post Arizona Licensee Gets Green Light on License After Agreeing to $15K Consent Decree appeared first on Radio World.

When The Infinite Dial’s P1 survey respondents aren’t listening to radio or online media, they’re listening to podcasts. But how often do they listen, and what types of podcasts do they listen to? The researchers searched for answers, and here’s what they found.

As with most of the other conclusions in the data, research suggests considerable differences in level of interest in podcasts among P1 listeners as a function of their preferred format. Listeners of alternative rock appear to be in the lead, with 81% claiming they listen to podcasts. At the midpoint are the 61% of classic rock listeners. The trailing edge is represented by classic hits with  a listenership of 38%.

[Read: Report Says Stations Struggle to Build Online Listenership]

The data for weekly listenership among P1 respondents does not track with those who claim to listen. While alternative rock’s P1 listeners continue to lead with 51%, the middle ground is held by R&B with 32%. Those who listen least on a weekly basis, according to the survey, are the contemporary Christian demographic, at just 17%.

Perhaps more interesting than how often the different P1 groups listen to podcasts, is what the survey suggests are their favorite topics. Not surprisingly, music is named by the survey among many respondents. Beyond that, responses vary considerably. Classic rock listeners name history, news/info and food as their top picks. Country’s P1 listeners picked true crime, wellness/self-improvement and music as their top three. Music, entertainment/celebrity gossip and food were favorites for hip-hop/rap listeners.

One of the biggest surprises in podcast data might be the results for P1 listeners in the sports and contemporary Christian groups. While they are on opposite ends of the spectrum in The Infinite Dial’s sex/age positioning nomograph, both groups have named sports, technology and history as the top topics for podcasts they listen to.

 

The post Infinite Dial Research Suggests a Variety of Topics Attract Podcast Listeners appeared first on Radio World.

New videos hosted by the DRM Consortium showcase new receiver models like this version from RF2Digital.

The DRM Consortium is inviting industry stakeholders to view a series of new video productions to get more information on the basic principles of DRM and benefits of to implementing this all-band digital radio system.

On the heels of its participation at the Virtual IBC event held earlier in September, the DRM Consortium created a series of videos that offer everything from basic information on DRM to more complex technical details. The videos offer details on addressing transmission issues over large disparate geographic areas, how to provide adequate disaster warning transmissions with DRM and how to improve local radio services to geographically disparate communities with less power — including how to provide three different radio broadcasts from a signal transmitter.

[Read: DRM Advanced Radio for All]

“Content can be richer, more varied and in the regional languages or dialects [of those areas],” according to the introductory video. “More content in more languages on flexible DRM for all.”

Additional benefits for DRM — or Digital Radio Mondiale — include the delivery of data along with the audio broadcasts. In the video “From Broadcaster to the Listener,” the narrator gives viewers a look at what opportunities DRM can provide to an imaginary country, one with large cities with millions of people, smaller township areas as well as vast forest region that divides a country in two and causes significant geographical broadcast challenges to traditional radio broadcasts.

 

 

Using DRM gives this fictional nation the opportunity to reach more of its citizens with clear, crisp audio as well as connect with them via video/data images. DRM radios have a screen and can provide consumers with text, pictures, maps, math lessons, live sports results, emergency warnings and other educational information, creating an “opportunity for digital radio station managers to use this data channel to create a new revenue stream,” the video says. “Visible adverts can be broadcast alongside traditional audio advertising. DRM is flexible, green and delivers universal access to information so the whole country can be connected.”

Philipp Schmid, CTO of Nautel, a maker of DRM transmitters, explains in another video how six independent DRM signals can be emitted from a single Nautel GV family transmitter, in effect combining signals to be broadcast from a single amplifier, a single antenna and a single location.

“In this way we can of course get a lot more data capacity for our transmitter but we can also use white space that was unable to be allocated in analog FM,” he said. An analog FM channel would have prevented the other adjacent channels to be utilized, he said. But in digital transmission we can make sure that all of these modulated signals are emitted at the same time. “By doing so, we can eliminate interchannel interference and in this way a receiver can pick up its own independent sideband and all the audio services on it.”

The technology may revolution digital radio broadcasting, Schmid said. “It allows us to pack more signals into a smaller frequency spectrum, enabling more broadcast transmission, more radio stations, more services [and] better utilize our spectrum that is available for radio broadcasting,” he said.

Another video demonstrates how DRM is able to deliver distance learning material over large, remote geographic areas where IP is not available.

New DRM receiver options — including standalone models, DRM-capable smartphone receivers and automotive models — have been released from companies like Avion Electronics, Gospell, Inntot, Starwaves and RF2Digital.

 

The post DRM Consortium Updates Industry with New Video Productions appeared first on Radio World.

Lawo released a statement on the death of Michael Mueller. He passed away surrounded by loved ones on Sept. 26 after a brief, but severe illness.

The company said, “We mourn the premature passing of our colleague, team member and friend Michael Mueller, 66; a truly unique colleague, with whom we at Lawo had the pleasure to work together for more than a decade. … Known for his witty sense of humor and kind-hearted personality, we will remember Michael as a key member of the global sales organization, skilled bass player in the Lawo band, a renowned face of the audio industry as a whole and a true gentleman and friend. He will be missed. Our deepest condolences go out to his wife, family and friends at this difficult time.

[Read: Brazil’s Rádio Itatiaia Has New Lawo System]

Mueller brought a wealth of experience to his positions as U.S. sales and marketing manager in 2008, and later as vice president of sales, with Lawo North America. He was responsible for the further development of the Lawo brand identity throughout the United States and was also charged with increasing sales of the company’s numerous products.

Prior to joining Lawo North America, Mueller was vice-president, sales and marketing for MediaGear Inc. He also held positions with Audio Techniques, Scharff Weisberg Associates, Siemens Audio Inc./AMS-Neve Inc., Solid State Logic and Fairlight USA.

 

The post Lawo’s Michael Mueller Passes Away at 66 appeared first on Radio World.

A technical session in the upcoming virtual Radio Show will focus on a topic of growing importance to U.S. broadcasters: hybrid radio.

As Radio World readers know, the term refers to in-car radio radios that can receive analog AM/FM or HD Radio over the air but also connect to the wireless internet to download station graphics, song information and station identifications.

Hybrid radios also support interactivity between the listener and the station. And they can switch seamlessly from a station’s broadcast signal to its audio stream whenever the vehicle drives out of the station’s broadcast coverage area.

RadioDNS has updated its standard to add geo-fencing to prevent access to specific platforms based on physical location. Among other benefits, this would allow a station to define its FM coverage area and “deny” access to streaming within that area in favor of the OTA signal.

For radio broadcasters concerned about losing in-car listeners to non-radio streaming services, advocates say hybrid radio is a timely solution that marries broadcast radio’s strengths — free service, localism and wide coverage — with the power of streaming audio including global reach, rich multimedia content and interactivity.

The technology has been talked about at spring and fall broadcast conventions for years but is taking on more urgency as hybrid radio-equipped vehicles start appearing in the United States, and as AM and FM broadcasters watch SiriusXM roll out its own enhanced 360L platform, which includes personalization and on-demand features.

Benefits

The session “How Radio Broadcasters Can Support RadioDNS” will be presented on Monday Oct. 5 by Nick Piggott, project director of RadioDNS. It’s a not-for-profit membership organization that is promoting the adoption and deployment of hybrid radio globally using open standards.

David Layer, NAB’s vice president of advanced engineering, will moderate.

On one level, the presentation will bring session participants up to speed on hybrid radio’s progress.

“We’ll be talking about hybrid radio’s capabilities and what it can do for radio stations as we’re starting to see more hybrid radio-capable devices proliferate, particularly in cars,” said Skip Pizzi, NAB’s vice president of technology education and outreach.

Piggott also will explain how radio managers can move into this medium through their own efforts or by hiring a third-party contractor.

This Audi receiver shows the availability of a streamed version at right; note the small box “Web.”

“We’ll provide a simple step-by-step guide under the headline, ‘So you’ve decided you’d like to do hybrid radio,’” said Piggott.

“It will be reasonably but not impenetrably technical, so that somebody who has a basic understanding of technology within their radio station or radio group can walk away thinking, ‘I know how we’re going to do hybrid radio. I can see how we’re going to do this.’”

The session will include a discussion of the issue of restricting in-car streaming within a station’s main coverage area, so that broadcasters do not find themselves paying higher streaming music royalties for content that can be heard easily over the air. This is a software-configurable restriction based on constantly comparing the vehicle’s GPS location to the station’s core coverage area.

Tools for Broadcasters

As an open-standards advocacy group, RadioDNS exists to help stations understand and implement hybrid radio solutions.

The Technical Section of its website (https://radiodns.org/technical/) offers a range of downloadable “How To” documents detailing each stage of implementing RadioDNS hybrid radio, from creating station logos and other metadata to station registration, implementing high-definition visuals and setting program listening restrictions by time of day or to a specific program.

The website’s technical section includes a number of presentations on managing RadioDNS hybrid radio applications and support for stations doing this on their own.

By digging into the nuts-and-bolts of hybrid radio in a plainspoken manner, Piggott hopes to make the concept accessible to radio engineers and non-engineers alike. This is why he, NAB and RAB are putting this discussion forward.

“My goal is to demystify the technology and encourage broadcasters not to be apprehensive about trying it,” Piggott said. “That’s the headline: Taking the Fear Out of Hybrid Radio Through RadioDNS, So That Broadcasters Can Do It Themselves.”

For a deeper discussion, see the recent Radio World story “Hybrid Radio Picks Up Momentum” at https://tinyurl.com/rw-hybrid-2.

The post Taking the Fear Out of Hybrid Radio appeared first on Radio World.

Sarah Foss has joined Entercom as chief information officer.

Foss will “provide strategic direction and oversight for the design, development, acquisition, operation and support of the company’s enterprise technology systems and programs.”

Veteran Radio World readers may recall Foss from her tenures at Harris Corp. and Imagine Communications. More recently she was senior VP of strategic initiatives for FreeWheel Advertisers. She has also held management or executive positions at Yangaroo, Encompass Digital Media and VCI Solutions.

[Read: Codecs Offer Redundancy, Backup and Failover]

She is a co-founder of Tech Bae, a tech-focused organization for women in the media and advertising ecosystem.

Richard Schmaeling, EVP/CFO of Entercom, praised Foss for “her strong business acumen and enriched media technology intellect.” At Entercom her job also will include helping apply digital, data and analytic tools.

Send People News to radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

The post Sarah Foss Is New Entercom CIO appeared first on Radio World.

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MB enters into consent decree with Rocket Radio Corporation

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The author is chairman of Digital Radio Mondiale. Her commentaries appear regularly in Radio World.

The recent DRM virtual showcase proved to be a real box of delights and new announcements demonstrating that the digital radio industry remains resilient and innovative even in pandemic times. “The best DRM IBC show with the lowest carbon footprint and best attendance” was one of the many feedbacks received. And there were lots of things to excite the over 100 participants from literally all over the world.

The highlights were grouped around some big themes like DRM in practice, extensively proven and used in the FM band; DRM and its possible major role in delivering educational content to large and remote areas in times when many students cannot attend face-to-face lessons; use of DRM in public signage which can be applied for both education, health and emergency announcements; a new and “live” way of monitoring on-air transmissions, which can be beneficial to both the engineers and the editorial staff of broadcasters.

[Read: Can Digital Radio Standards Coexist?]

While the all-band, open DRM standard is stable and well-established, technical improvements can always be implemented like the recent updating of the DRM system specification ETSI ES 201 980. Three improvements were announced by the DRM Technical Chair (BBC) and are to do with removal of some obsolete or unused modulation features and enhanced signaling when using emergency warnings. The changes, which are backwards-compatible, will make DRM’s implementation in chipsets and receivers more reliable, and add additional support for receiver text displays to be able to also support different scripts from around the world. We now know that the publication of the new ETSI version is expected early in 2021.

Around that time a DRM medium-wave pilot to be run by the BBC for the Middle East is also expected to start, as out of the 468 million people tuning to the BBC worldwide, we were told by the BBC representative that a quarter are still doing so on AM. And shortwave, a bit of a blast from the past for some, is not forgotten in places like Russia, China, and many other countries, as the demand for SW digital transmitters is quite healthy. As mentioned by the Ampegon representative the demand is mainly now for bigger capacity transmitters, above 25 kW going to 50 kW, able to cover wide areas with good analog and digital sound and delivering big energy savings. In its new factory Ampegon is working on satisfying these demands.

Improvements were also announced at the level of professional monitoring all these transmissions. So RFmondial announced the upgraded HTML5 GUI in its DRM/AM Monitoring and Measurement Receiver Family RF-SE and the possible software update of older versions. A new exciter version was also unveiled by the German company. Their German colleagues at Fraunhofer IIS also completed the picture with end-to-end implementations offering solutions (content server and multimedia player, data services like Journaline and Emergency Warning Functionality), services for supporting DRM field trials and rollout, as well as  unique expertise.

But the DRM Showcase was not all about better hardware. It was also about technical innovation. And the one that elicited most of the questions was the extended DRM multiplex for FM, an idea that benefited from the input of Nautel and RFmondial engineers. This solution allows one analog FM transmission (200 kHz) and four DRM channels (two in each of the 200 kHz guard spaces as a DRM channel only occupies 100 kHz). Or if the whole 600 kHz are used in pure DRM then up to six DRM channels (each service with up to three audio and one data services) can be offered from the same transmitter, same antenna with possible sharing of costs among several broadcasters. The individual broadcasters remain in control of their transmissions without the involvement of third-parties.

As usual, participants were also interested in what is happening in the various countries about implementing DRM. While India remains the top DRM country (alongside China), the adoption of DRM in all bands by Pakistan and its public broadcaster (PBC) was one of the big surprises of the showcase. The comprehensive three-phase costed plan to introduce DRM in FM, and medium-wave, first, in all the key areas of the country has been endorsed and praised since the “DRM—Advanced Radio for All” by top Pakistani officials.

Indonesia and its public radio (RRI) representative also presented its five FM transmitters which went on air over the last few months and the excellent results of the Emergency Warning Functionality demonstrated on a DRM FM transmitter in Jakarta in August. The recent tender for digital DRM transmitters in SW, MW and FM in Brazil was welcome news and the expectation is now that a locally produced SW DRM transmitter will be soon transmitting from the key public broadcaster central site.

Africa always gets a mention though South Africa has really scored a first with its policy announced two months ago that it recommends both DRM and DAB as a way to digitize radio in the country; a true torch-bearer for other African countries so reliant on AM and FM radio.

Over 2.5 million of cars with DRM receivers are placing India in a class of its own. Receivers are fitted at no cost in cars from the top brands. Work is continuing to increase pure DRM hours for five All India Radio (AIR) transmitters to full day and diversify content. Possibilities are being explored to have an educational channel and invite also some private broadcasters to use the extra channels available through DRM on AIR transmitters. Six more medium-wave transmitters are to be added to the existing 35 MW DRM transmitters. One of these new batch of DRM transmitters using all the extra DRM features will be launched officially in Hyderabad very soon. The increase of the DRM presence and the general technical effort being made will stimulate the receiver production and availability.

And a good part of the DRM event was devoted to the development of receiver and receiver solutions. One trend we noticed was the extension of DRM reception to FM so that it can cover analog and AM as well as FM broadcasts. Most of the receiver manufacturers proudly announced the availability of attractive features like support for xHE-AAC codec, Journaline, Emergency Warnings. The receivers introduced in excellent videos like that of Avion (India) came in all shapes and forms; from the rich variety of Gospell (China) and its GR series and DRM car stereo, to the Indian multifunctional receivers and SDR-based solutions of Inntot (India). RF2 digital (Korea/Germany) also came up with an SDR receiver solution for analog and all DRM bands, being also a multistandard device. Cambridge Consultants (U.K.) is working on a very low-energy and low-cost solution. The same idea was embraced by Starwaves (Germany/Switzerland) which presented a “tuk-tuk” radio (stripped down but very functional). It also announced the world premiere of Starwaves W293BT receiver, available now upon orders.

So, DRM is making great strides technically, geographically and in coming up with ingenious receiver solutions. To encourage as many digital radio practitioners, stakeholders and decisionmakers to embrace and implement digital radio, DRM, the consortium launched on Sept. 9 its own new video, “DRM — From Broadcaster to Listener.”

 

The post DRM Advanced Radio for All appeared first on Radio World.

APT IP codec promo image

WorldCast Systems has a new offering that it says will give FM broadcasters access to high-quality signal compression for FM MPX/Composite transmission.

“APTmpX is the world’s first and only MPX/composite algorithm to save network bandwidth without deconstructing the original composite signal,” it states in a release.

WorldCast described it as “a new compression format to transmit your high-quality composed signal at even lower bit rates, under 1 Mbps.”

It is available in MPX/composite-compatible APT IP codecs.

The manufacturer said advancements in recent years have eliminated much of the equipment once required to generate an MPX/composite signal. More recently, a single central processor assures consistent audio signature across a transmitter network.

WorldCast Systems graphic

“However, before APTmpX, there remained one challenge: how to manage the relatively high IP data rate of a composite signal without affecting the MPX/composite transmission,” the company wrote.

“APTmpX not only enhances our portfolio for MPX solutions, but also marks a milestone in the transition to an MPX/composite environment,” said APT Product Manager Hartmut Foerster in the announcement.

He said users benefit from lower hardware and distribution costs.

 

The post WorldCast Introduces APTmpX appeared first on Radio World.