Industry News

KAISERSLAUTERN, GERMANY — Munich-based TV and radio distribution and media technologies company Rohde & Schwarz has appointed a VP of Broadcast, Amplifier and Media Solutions.

Taking the role is Joerg Fries, a 25-year company veteran who has led technology innovation in several high-tech markets, most recently in the Wireless Multimedia market.

His appointment to head Rohde & Schwarz’s Broadcast and Media Division supports the strategic shift in its approach toward its core markets and reinforces the company’s intention of becoming more disruptive in production, delivery and distribution workflow management and software-centric products and systems.

— Amy Knall

In what is being hailed as a “market influencing move” in the Media & Entertainment (M&E) content storage & management sector, Genstar Capital-controlled Telestream has purchased Masstech for an undisclosed price.

Telestream is a vertical market software business focused on the video space and is known for media workflow orchestration, media streaming and delivery technologies.

The acquisition follows Telestream’s recent purchase of EcoDigital – also in the content management system space.

Masstech creates intelligent, hybrid cloud-based storage and asset lifecycle management solutions for the M&E industry.

“Masstech combines the experience of many decades of broadcast and video content storage management with cloud and other vanguard technology development processes, to identify and address the challenges of the industry’s constantly evolving technical and business landscapes,” Telestream said. “Today, organizations representing every facet of M&E, around the world and across every platform, use Masstech solutions to keep their assets secure, and to deliver them to the right location in the correct format.”

All the resources of Masstech will be transferred to Telestream.

The company’s engineering and product management functions will be integrated within Telestream’s Content Management Business Unit, led by Geoff Tognetti. He joined the company with the EcoDigital acquisition. The priority for this team will be to combine the best intellectual property from Masstech and EcoDigital DIVA in one product.

Masstech’s support team, sales and pre-sales teams will join Telestream’s global customer sales and support network.

“Following the EcoDigital acquisition, this investment decision made natural sense and it is strategic in its very nature,” said Dan Castles, CEO and Co-Founder of Telestream. “The knowledge base gained through the Masstech acquisition is complementary to what we have been doing and want to do in this area. This transaction brings together nearly two Exabytes of M&E content under the management of Telestream products in over 1,000 operational systems. With this market leadership comes a critical responsibility to work with our customers as they navigate a hybrid operating environment with assets on premise and in the cloud.”

Toldright, a “first-of-its-kind” on-demand video production resource for the sports, media and technology industries, has formally appointed ESPN veteran Patrick McManus as Executive Director.

Also coming on board at Toldright: Jason Bernstein, as Senior Vice President of Content; Amanda Short, as “Head of the Neighborhood”; and Daniel Shoy, as “Diversity Executive in Residence.”

The senior leadership team joins a founding team of CEO Max Heineman and President Adam Hertzog.

“As we continue to expand and cultivate our company, we couldn’t be more excited to have award winners and industry leaders like Patrick, Jason, Amanda, and Danny on our team,” Heineman said. “Their decades of collective expertise across production, multimedia, sports, technology, and inclusion, in addition to their understanding of compelling video content and exciting storytelling, will continue to inspire the iconic brands we work with.”

Over the past 30 years, McManus has become one of the leading Emmy Award-winning sports directors in the industry. Prior to his time at toldright, McManus serviced as Director at American Ninja Warrior and during his career has worked for ESPN, FOX Sports and NBC Sports.

Bernstein is a 20-year media veteran who prior to joining toldright was Intersport’s Vice President of Content Strategy & Distribution. Before Intersport, he led multi-platform acquisitions and content strategy and acquisitions for ESPN’s digital platform, including landmark content agreements Wimbledon and U.S. Open.

Short joins toldright from NEP Group Inc., where she served as Operations Coordinator.  Previously, Short held positions at Golf Channel, Live Nation and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Shoy, who will be responsible for diversity and inclusion efforts at toldright, possesses extensive experience in the nonprofit sector with organizations focused on youth and community advancement. Additionally, he serves as President/CEO of the East Lake Foundation community initiative, and during his decade at The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation was responsible for awarding $28 million in grants for youth development and education.

Failing to file a license renewal application on time can be a costly endeavor as four broadcasters found out after receiving apparent liability notices from the Federal Communications Commission.

A school district in Michigan and three houses of worship — in Ohio, Arkansas and Illinois — were issued forfeiture notices that ranged from $1,500 to $3,500.

The costliest forfeiture was handed out to Lighthouse Ministries of Northwest Ohio for $3,500. As licensee of WKJH(LP) in Bryan, Ohio, the FCC said that Lighthouse failed to file a timely license renewal application for the station. The commission said Lighthouse also willfully and repeatedly violated the Communications Act by continuing to operate the station even after its authorization expired.

[Read: These Stations Need to Turn in License Renewals ASAP]

FCC rules require that applications for a broadcast station license renewal must be filed by the first day of the fourth month prior to the expiration date of the license. In the case of Lighthouse, the renewal application should have been filed by June 1, 2020, which would have been four months prior to the license expiration date of Oct. 1 2020. But the commission said Lighthouse did not file any renewal. In early September, FCC staff let WKJH know that its license was to expire by midnight on Oct. 1. But no application was filed.

Then on Oct. 27, the licensee filed both an application and a petition for reconsideration requesting reinstatement of its license. In the petition, program director James Hollin explained that he mistakenly believed that the license renewal application wasn’t due until 2021. Hollin also said that family issues occurred at the time that the renewal application was due. Yet at no time did the licensee request special temporary authority (STA) to operate the station after its license officially expired.

But a line had been crossed. The FCC rules on failure to file are straightforward. The rules establish a base forfeiture of $3,000 for failing to file to required form. They also specify a separate base forfeiture of $10,000 for construction and/or operation without authorization.

Of course, the FCC has the leeway to adjust that amount upward or downward based on the nature and gravity of the violation.

While the FCC said it is sympathetic to Hollin’s family issues, it said it found that issuing a notice of apparent liability is still appropriate. “The licensee itself was ultimately responsible for ensuring it complied with the rules by filing a timely renewal application,” the commission said in its notice. “It did not do so.”

The commission initially found that a $7,000 forfeiture was appropriate. This decision was made because not only did the station allegedly fail to file its renewal application on time, it  continued operating the station after the license expired and never filed an STA to request the right to operate the station after its license expired.

Since the station is an LPFM station — and is providing a secondary service — the commission decided to reduce the forfeiture from the base amount to $1,500 for the failure to file a timely license renewal application and to $2,000 for unauthorized operations, for a total of $3,500.

The situation was a similar one for WCHW(FM), a station licensed to Bay City School District, Bay City, Mich. It also failed to file a license renewal application on time. The FCC laid a base forfeiture of $3,000 at Bay City’s door but did not find the action to be a serious violation.

Two additional houses of worship — Amazing Grace Church in Paron, Ark., and Family Worship Center Church in Effingham, Ill. — were also each issued notices of apparent liability for $1,500 each. In the case of Family Worship Center, the FCC said the licensee allegedly failed to file a license renewal for FM translator station W204BG. The application, which was due on Aug. 3, 2020, wasn’t filed until mid-November 2020.

In its application, Family Worship Center Church said that it inadvertently failed to file a renewal application for the translator when it went about filing applications for its other translators and full-service stations in Illinois. In this case the FCC lowered the forfeiture from the base amount of $3,000 to $1,500 because the FCC said the station — as a translator — is providing a secondary service.

In Amazing Grace’s situation, the renewal application for KILB(LP) was filed about a month late. The application was due on Feb. 3, 2020, but was not filed until March 11, 2020. Amazing Grace provided no explanation for the untimely filing of the application. Just as in the case of Family Worship, the base forfeiture was reduced from $3,000 to $1,500 because, as an LPFM station, the station is providing a secondary service, the FCC said.

In all four cases, the commission has given each applicant 30 days to pay the full amount or file a written statement seeking reduction or cancellation of the proposed forfeiture.

The post Four Stations Receive Forfeitures for Same Alleged Violation: Late Filings appeared first on Radio World.

New consumer research commissioned by technology provider Frontier Smart Technologies shows how the coronavirus shifted broadcast radio listening across the United Kingdom and how those developments could influence that country’s move toward DAB [Digital Audio Broadcasting], DAB+ and IP streaming and multimedia technologies.

The newly released survey examined the audio listening habits of the British public — from March 24 to May 11, 2020 — during the first U.K. COVID-19 lockdown. A total of 1,096 people participated in the survey. The majority of the survey panel was between the ages of 36 to 65 years old, according to Frontier Smart Technologies.

[Read: DAB Advocates Celebrated Growth in 2020]

The survey shows that just over a quarter of respondents (27%) listened to more radio in lockdown than before, while a quarter (25%) and a fifth (20%) respectively reported listening to podcasts and physical mediums less frequently. In addition, 81% of respondents listened to radio, compared to music streaming (52%), physical formats (33%) and podcasts (24%) during the survey period.

The U.K. survey findings also reinforce the importance of the radio receiver as a dedicated device, with a significant number of people (40%) reporting that a standalone radio was their main source of audio entertainment, compared to their mobile phone (19%), smart speaker (18%), laptop/PC (8%), tablet (5%), CD/record player (4%) or other (6%).

A review provided by Frontier Smart Technologies concludes: “The continuing popularity of radio listening and devices dedicated to this purpose, as well as these shifts in listening habits, are likely to extend beyond COVID-19 in some form, as workers — who wish to continue splitting business hours between the home and the office, to enjoy more flexible arrangements — push for the new-normal to inform the post-COVID workplace.”

The tech company, an OEM that provides radio chips and modules to numerous electronics brands worldwide, hopes the data will bring more focus on DAB+ and how “digitization” is influencing the radio listening experience.

Consumer trends, the company said, show a shift to digital yet a surprisingly high number of consumer radio devices sold in Europe (64%) are analog-only, according to Frontier, which is slowing the adoption of DAB+. The company says DAB+ provides a gateway to a SmartRadio future across Europe. SmartRadio is a hybrid product combines terrestrial broadcasts with internet protocol services and content. It is promoted by the SmartRadio coalition, of which Frontier is a member and equipment manufacturer.

Frontier Smart Technologies said: “DAB+ adds to the benefits of DAB by providing advanced data services and improving on the simple text-based electronic program guides of DAB with the addition of built-in color displays. They may include details about the station, track or album being listened to — including cover art and other images — as well as information on traffic reports, and images from the news, sports and even advertisers.”

The technology provider continues: “SmartRadio adds on-demand audio, including podcast support, a key feature for mass consumer appeal, with listener figures increasing rapidly over recent years. Listeners can enjoy thousands of internet radio stations from across the globe, in addition to local and national broadcast services.”

The post UK Survey Shows Shift in Radio Listening During Pandemic appeared first on Radio World.

The Telos Alliance is taking its well-known VX VoIP hardware and software talk show phone system and creating a “virtualized” version to adapt changing broadcast workflows and operations of late.

Broadcasters can deploy VXs on their servers in the rack room, on shared servers in the centralized data center, or into cloud. These deployment options deliver the benefits of virtualization, such as easier facility-wide upgrades, cost-efficiency, remote operation and teamwork along with automated deployment without site visits.

Broadcasters can scale VXs in size from a single studio to a facility-wide talk show system to a multilocation system.

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

VXs uses fifth-generation audio processing for improved call quality. Other features includes Smart AGC coupled with Telos’ three-band adaptive Digital Dynamic EQ, a three-band adaptive spectral processor, noise gating, and Acoustic Echo Cancellation. HD voice calls benefit from VXs’ native support of the G.722 codec, instantly improving caller speech quality.

Installing a VXs VoIP system in facilities already powered by Livewire+ AES67 networks is straight forward. The new VXs system will plug right in, using automatic mix-minus from an Axia console and existing phone module for control.

Support for AES67 gives broadcasters the capability of integrating VX into any AES67 or compatible SMPTE 2110-30 environments. Support for SAP advertisement means VXs integrates alongside AES67-enabled Dante devices, as well. With plug-and-play connectivity, users can network multiple channels of audio with any manufacturer’s AES67-compliant hardware.

Info: www.telosalliance.com

The post Telos Alliance Virtualizes VX VoIP System appeared first on Radio World.

U.S. financial markets started the week off with up-and-down movement among broadcast media companies publicly trading stock on Wall Street.

Nexstar Media Group shares continue to roar upward, while Sinclair Broadcast Group‘s momentum was stopped on Monday.

Moving downward: radio industry leaders Entercom and Beasley Media Group.

In recent months, its become clear that Dish Network Corp. seeks to be a significant player in the rollout of 5G wireless technology, building on its prowess as a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) TV service provider that’s found itself in just a few retransmission consent battles with free-to-air TV station owners.

To further its 5G business aspirations, Dish has just locked in a long-term deal with the tower company founded by the late Steve Dodge.

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Gray Television on Friday reached a deal with a media company that until early 2019 was an active buyer of low-power TV stations.

With a CEO change less than a year ago and questions regarding its financing shrouding its operations in the months prior to that, this company is now looking to sell some of its assets.

Thus explains the deal with Gray that awaits FCC approval.

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GeoBroadcast Solutions is defending its proposed geo-targeting system for the FM band and says its additional planned tests will only add to a technical record that supports the idea.

As we’ve reported, the company wants the Federal Communications Commission to modify FM booster rules to allow stations to transmit very localized content for three minutes per hour independent of signals of the booster’s primary station.

Filing reply comments in the FCC’s proceeding, GBS lamented “exaggerated speculations” made by the National Association of Broadcasters and some large radio groups about the potential for increased interference and damage to FM’s business model from its ZoneCasting system.

GBS made four main arguments in its filing: that the technical data doesn’t support the claims of opponents about interference and performance in transition areas; that ZoneCasting won’t affect the EAS system; that its system will not cause a “race to the bottom” or “redlining”; and that its demonstrations in San Jose and San Francisco will further support its claims.

“Our efforts to improve radio technology and provide an economic lifeline to broadcasters competing on a daily basis against less regulated mediums, met surprising opposition from those we had hoped would embrace the opportunity to work with us and build new economic models that would help the industry remain competitive,” said Robert Udowitz, a spokesperson for GeoBroadcast Solutions.

The company said it continues to work with groups, stations, advertisers and industry organizations in the rule process; and it indicated that it would welcome having engineering representatives from large radio groups visit to view the testing process.

It told the FCC that it had expected its proposal to be “just a small adjustment of a technical rule.” However, “What we have seen over the last 10 months is that, while the rule change may be minor, the implications of radio stations having just the option to geo-target content is somehow troubling to parts of the radio industry that apparently do not want other radio stations to have even the option to innovate and compete in new ways,” GBS wrote in its reply to the FCC.

Beasley Media Group, Cumulus Media, Entercom Communications and iHeartMedia are among the radio groups that have questioned the technical soundness of geo-targeting, saying a rule change would be “premature” without further vetting.

[Related: “Minority Groups Call for a Geo-Targeting Pilot”]

GBS said it believes the role of the FCC is “not to manage an industry’s current business plan not shield it to certain broadcasters that do not want to innovate from competitors willing to deploy new technologies” based on their anticipation of changes in market and consumer demand.

“Instead, the job of the FCC is to listen to the many strong voices on all sides of this issue and assess whether the rule change is in the public’s interest and whether the rule change enhances localism and deepens the ability of broadcasters to meet the needs of their community.”

In addition: “The FCC should focus on the regulatory questions that are properly before it and not be sidetracked by issues that either fall outside the FCC’s purview or are based on nothing but unsubstantiated speculation.”

GBS issued assurances of a seamless transition between the main and FM booster zones, and that “plain, inarguable facts establish that in 99.9 percent of the geographic footprint of a radio station, the same content will be heard 95 percent of the time.”

The primary technical issue raised in the comments to the NPRM is the nature and duration of transition areas, the borders between zones. A “transition zone” will comprise a tiny percentage (typically less than one tenth of one percent) of a broadcaster’s service area, GBS wrote.

GBS also believes FM broadcasters will engineer their systems to avoid self-interference. “The FCC’s current rules require radio broadcasters to manage their spectrum, including their use of FM boosters, so as not to disrupt the listening experience and those rules will remain in place if the NPRM is adopted.”

EAS compliance will not be affected by geo-broadcasting, GBS wrote, “We state unequivocally that ZoneCasting will have no impact on EAS alerts. In the event an EAS alert is aired while a station is geo-targeting content to one zone, all zoned operation will immediately drop into simulcast synchronized SFN mode.”

The company promises to launch two demonstrations at FM stations in California. The FCC has approved an application for experimental authorization for a field test at KSJO(FM) and its booster KSJO(FM1) in San Jose, Calif. In addition, the company has proposed a demonstration test with a full-power FM station in San Francisco.

Roberson and Associates LLC, a technology and management consulting firm based in Schaumburg, Ill., will oversee the demonstrations. That firm “has met with senior engineering contacts at each of Beasley, Entercom, iHeart and Cumulus to discuss the parameters of the San Francisco demonstration and directly solicit their feedback regarding what variables the demonstration should test. Xperi, the developer of HD radio technology, will also advise,” GBS said in its filing.

GBS performed field tests in 2010 in Randolph, Utah, and 2011 in Avon Park, Fla. The most current ZoneCasting Design was tested in 2016 in Union Grove, Wis.

The post GBS Defends Its Geo-Targeting Proposal appeared first on Radio World.