Industry News

“Best of Show Up Close” is a series about participants in Radio World’s annual Best of Show at NAB Awards program.

Davicom nominated the Cortex 320 remote control. The Cortex is the second member of the Cortex line, introduced last year. It is smaller than the established Cortex 360 and is aimed at facilities with simpler needs and lower budgets.

We asked Davicom President John Ahearn for more information.

 Radio World: The Cortex 320 was a feature of your booth at NAB. For those who couldn’t attend, what is the product and what are its targeted uses?

John Ahearn: The Cortex 320 is Davicom’s new baby in the Cortex intelligent remote-control family. Although it is built on the same platform as the Cortex 360, the 320 has been optimized for small-budget requirements. So small market and noncommercial stations can take advantage of the core benefits provided by larger, and more costly, remote controls.

RW: The system is described as “versatile and intelligent.” What sets the 320 apart from similar offerings in this product class.

Ahearn: One example would be the unit’s 12 versatile inputs that can be used as either metering or status inputs. Coupled with the 320’s four dedicated status inputs, it can be configured for just the right mix of GPIO.

Another example is the unit’s 128 virtual logic gates that can be used to program smart actions, depending on input conditions. Davicom units have always included advanced broadcast-related functions such as an automatic sunrise-sunset flag, direct VSWR indications, hysteresis to reduce false alarms, and advanced math for logarithm and decibel calculations.

One design aspect that sets us apart is our use of standard protocols and interfaces such as MODBUS and SNMP. Users can buy their own, low-cost/less intelligent devices and use the 320 to make everything work together smartly. They can also interface directly with gensets and transmitters without needing to buy extra hardware.

Another aspect of the Cortex that sets it apart is its design for electromagnetic compatibility. I think that we may be the only manufacturer that operates its own EMC lab with a full-sized TEM cell and 3 m emissions test range. All our products meet and even surpass the requirements of FCC and CE emissions and immunity standards.

And finally, even though the 320 is totally at home in an IP and networking environment, it can still operate on dial-up lines and even over narrow-band serial communications links down to 2400 baud. This ensures the Cortex can be used and accessed at those many sites where IP is not available or reliable.

RW: What does it cost? Is it available now?

Ahearn: MSRP for the basic 12 VDC unit with IP connectivity is $2,436. Note that you can consult your favorite dealer to enquire about alternative pricing. Production quantities will be available in September.

[Read: Best of Show Up Close: Wheatstone AirAura X5]

RW: More generally, what do you see as the most important trends or changes happening these days in how broadcasters design and build their remote control and monitoring infrastructure?

Ahearn: We’ve been seeing this trend since 2007, when we first introduced an integrated SNMP manager into our Davicom units, but site management by IP is finally here. Even if a remote site doesn’t have outside network access, an on-site LAN can greatly facilitate system setup and operation. Monitoring and control wiring are reduced by orders of magnitude and reconfigurability is greatly increased.

This new paradigm does come with its lot of new challenges however. System monitoring and troubleshooting have changed and now require different tools and methods. Broadcasters aren’t only measuring voltages, RF powers and contacts anymore, they now need to do things like ping transmitters, read IP addresses, automatically restart flaky routers and monitor digital audio data streams.

RW: What else should we know about this product or your company’s offerings these days?

Ahearn: These days we are putting lots of effort into adding new, customer-requested functions into the Cortex products. We’re also making sure everything works correctly with the different versions of MODBUS and SNMP used by various manufacturers.

Davicom’s products have evolved from the simple RF monitoring, alarm and control systems they were in the 1990’s to the intelligent site management systems they are today. With advanced networking capabilities, such as the built-in SNMP manager, while still retaining GPIO and RF functionalities, Davicom’s products keep striving to make the broadcaster’s job easier in this rapidly changing world.

The Future Best of Show Awards program honors and helps promote outstanding new products exhibited at industry conventions like the spring NAB Show. Exhibitors pay a fee to enter; not all entries win. Watch for more coverage of participating products soon. To learn about all of the nominees and winners, read the 2019 Best of Show Program Guide.

 

The post Best of Show Up Close: Davicom Cortex 320 appeared first on Radio World.

Relatively few Americans are aware of it, but the United States is home to many commercial/religious international broadcasters that transmit programming worldwide using analog shortwave radio transmitters. They are supported by an industry group called the National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters.

Unfortunately, analog shortwave radio transmissions are notorious for interference and signal dropouts. For listeners in other countries, the sound coming out of their shortwave radios lacks the superior audio range of domestic U.S. AM (yes, we said AM) and is often wracked with static and signal fading.

Members of the National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters are shown at their annual meeting in North Carolina, hosted by Trans World Radio.

For years, NASB members have wanted to replace (or at least augment) the poor audio quality of analog SW with the crystal-clear sound of digital SW radio, specifically the Digital Radio Mondiale standard developed in Europe that is now being used in China and India.

“DRM sounds very much like FM, with a wide audio range and no static,” said Charles Caudill, president emeritus of World Christian Broadcasting, owner/operator of U.S. SW station KNLS. “It is also consistent: Either the DRM signal is received on your SW radio in full, or it isn’t. There’s no in-between.”

There are some DRM radios in use now, which is why some NASB members are offering limited DRM broadcasts alongside their regular analog SW transmissions.

“But the current generation of DRM SW receivers cost about $100 each, whereas you can buy a cheap analog SW radio for as little as $10,” said Dr. Jerry Plummer, a professor at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn., and frequency coordinator for U.S. SW station WWCR. “Given that the audiences being targeted by NASB members are largely in the third world, the lack of inexpensive DRM receivers keeps them listening to analog shortwave.”

Mindful that other digital audio sources are gaining ground even in less-developed countries, the NASB has decided to take action. At its recent annual meeting in North Carolina, at the facilities of U.S. SW broadcaster Trans World Radio, the NASB formed a DRM Receiver Working Group. Headed up by TWR engineer George Ross, this group has been “tasked to evaluate what it will take to get affordable, distributable DRM receivers,” Ross told Radio World. “What is holding DRM up is the lack of affordable receivers.”

CHICKEN-AND-EGG

DRM radio prototype from StarWaves.

Given the NASB’s interest in low-cost DRM receivers, it was no coincidence that Johannes Von Weyssenhoff was invited to speak at the annual meeting. Von Weyssenhoff said his StarWaves manufacturing firm (www.starwaves.de) has the technology, capability and existing prototypes to build DRM radios for $29 each, but only if the sale order is large enough to deliver economies of scale. (He also estimated $18 DRM modules could be built for installation in other radio models.)

“Twenty-nine dollars is doable at volumes staring at 30,000 receivers,” Von Weyssenhoff told Radio World. “Even smaller quantities would be possible at this price for very simple radios — for example, without graphics displays — but these would be special projects that had to be discussed individually. But even more advanced radios with Bluetooth or premium designs will be possible to offer at a reasonable price,” he said — as long as the sales orders was in the tens of thousands or more.

Given that India and China have committed to the DRM standard, there appears to be a mass-market for these receivers. But the problem for StarWaves is finding the money to build enough of them to drive per-unit costs down.

“In recent years I have tried to convince quite a number of potential investors but either I have not yet found the correct audience, or I was not yet able to communicate this great opportunity convincingly,” said Von Weyssenhoff. “You just have to imagine that alone in India, according to All India Radio, there is a demand of up to 150 million receivers within the next few years. This market could have been served with tons of receivers by now and big profits could have been made, but instead I had to grow the development in very small steps.”

Plug-in DRM module.

The money StarWaves needs is not huge: “An amount of $150,000 or even $100,000 would certainly do wonders and enable us to start production within a few within a few weeks,” he said. “A commercial order of 10,000 receivers or more would have a similar effect.”

NASB’s members don’t have this kind of money available. Saddled with huge antenna farms and multiple power-devouring 50 kW to 500 kW transmitters, the commercial/religious shortwave broadcasting sector is tight for cash.

“Broadcasting DRM requires either a new transmitter or the modification of an existing transmitter,” said Kim Andrew Elliott, a retired Voice of America broadcaster and host of “Communications World” who has organized many demonstrations of DRM reception at the annual Winter Shortwave Listeners Fest going back to 2003.

“These days, many shortwave broadcasters are thinking about whether they should keep their existing shortwave transmitters on the air, rather than thinking about buying or modifying a transmitter.”

Their situation isn’t helped by the lack of audience measurements detailing SW’s far-flung listener base. Not only does a lack of SW ratings make it difficult to sell spots to advertisers, “but the squeaky, staticky sound of shortwave makes it hard for us to talk to the people at Coca-Cola, who fear that listeners will associate their product with inferior quality,” said Caudill.

The resulting conundrum is a classic chicken-and-egg dilemma. StarWaves and other DRM radio manufacturers don’t have the money to produce DRM radios in volumes that would make them cheap to buy.

“To determine when we can consider broadcasting in DRM, there needs to be a ‘completed broadcast network,’ i.e. broadcasts and receivers,” said Ross. “Without receivers, broadcasts are futile. So broadcasters are still waiting for manufacturing of receivers.”

Jeff White, general manager of U.S. SW broadcaster Radio Miami International (WRMI), said, “We know it’s a chicken-and-egg situation, but no one is willing to invest a lot of time and money into transmitting DRM programs unless they know that there are at least some listeners out there who are able to hear the programs. The other factor is that there are probably billions of analog shortwave receivers out there, and more being manufactured every day in China. So there will still be a large audience out there listening to analog shortwave for a long time to come.”

INEVITABLE?

Despite the hurdles being encountered by StarWaves and the NASB, there seems to be momentum growing for DRM. India’s move to DRM will create a mass-market for low-cost DRM receivers as soon as they become available. Meanwhile, China’s recent DRM deployments has made it “the world’s largest DRM shortwave broadcaster,” wrote Hans Johnson in Radio World earlier this year. “China operates the most DRM transmitters in this band and has the most extensive schedule.”

It is this context that U.S. SW broadcasters are making their DRM push.

“From my knowledge of the situation, many of these broadcasters have been interested in DRM since its inception,” said Christopher Rumbaugh, administrator for the blog DRMNA.info that covers DRM developments in North America. “The reason they are pulling together now is that the time is right for affordable receivers.”

His site posted a recap of NASB 2019 including Von Weyssenhoff’s NASB StarWaves presentation, at drmnainfo.blogspot.com/2019/05/nasb-2019-after-action-report.html.

WRNJ: AM Stations Should Consider DRM+
U.S. international radio broadcasters aren’t the only ones interested in the DRM digital radio transmission standard. WRNJ Radio co-owner Larry Tighe would like stations on the AM band in the United States to have the option of broadcasting using the DRM+ standard if they choose. Licensed to Hackettstown, N.J., “Oldies 1510 WRNJ” broadcasts on 1510 kHz and simulcasts on FM frequencies 92.7 and 104.7 MHz.

Mindful that the current AM band doesn’t have space to add DRM+ stations, he has filed a petition for rulemaking with the FCC, asking that the 45 to 50 MHz section of the VHF spectrum be reallocated for this purpose.

“The 45–50 MHz band was allocated to two-way radio users in business and government, who have since migrated to higher bandwidths where they can use handsets with smaller antennas,” said Tighe. “As a result, this spectrum is extremely quiet right now. WRNJ monitored this bandwidth for an extended period of time, and heard very few distant signals.”

According to Tighe, allowing AM broadcasters to broadcast in DRM+ on 45–50 MHz would vastly reduce their operating costs due to the  more efficient broadcast coverage of DRM+, with 1 kW effective radiated power over DRM+ being equal in coverage to 5 kW ERP with AM. His FCC petition argues that allowing AM broadcasters to use DRM on 45–50 MHz would also free the FM band from the thousands of AM-operated FM translators now in use, thus reducing congestion for actual FM broadcasters.

Tighe’s FCC petition acknowledges that DRM+ radio receivers are not widely available to consumers but says that “just like any new spectrum usage, receiver manufacturers will respond to the demand for new receivers.”

It remains to be seen what the FCC’s response to Tighe’s petition will be. Meanwhile, this New Jersey broadcaster also has his eye on the lower half of the once-busy VHF band for AM stations on DRM+.

“There were 660 TV stations between Channels 2 and 7 before the transition to UHF for HDTV,” said Tighe. “There are now only approximately 60 TV stations in the USA on those old VHF channels. There is plenty of spectrum to share with a new service, i.e., DRM+ or any modulation, if the FCC really wanted to move AMs.”

The post U.S.-Based Shortwave Broadcasters Eye Digital appeared first on Radio World.

According to codec maker Comrex, the new Access NX Rack, which is now shipping, features completely new hardware, allowing for AES67, AES3 or analog audio I/O. It can connect to Wi-Fi and 4G modems, and supports a wide range of connection protocols and audio encoders.

For remote control there’s a new HTML5-based web user interface. Access NX Rack is compatible with all Comrex IP audio codecs as well as the Comrex FieldTap smartphone app.

Access NX Rack also includes Comrex CrossLock technology, a proprietary suite of tools for redundant connections over IP networks. By sending two identical streams through two separate networks, CrossLock provides a fail-safe in the event that the primary network falters, the company says.

Access NX Rack also includes HotSwap, a new function included with the latest version of Access firmware. Comrex says that HotSwap allows users to designate one network as a backup that will only engage when the primary network has failed. Fall-over to backup happens in a matter of seconds, and fallback is seamless.

IBC Stand: F.P45

Info: www.comrex.com

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The post IBC Sneak Peek: Comrex Puts NX into Rack appeared first on Radio World.

Designed to be installed in MFN or SFN networks, WorldCast Systems’ Audemat DAB Probe performs advanced signal analysis, on-site and of the broadcast coverage area.

The company says the device is feature-packed with a user-friendly web interface, alarm notification by email or SNMP traps, and is equipped with telemetry board (via ScriptEasy) and audio output connectors.

The recently enhanced Audemat DAB Probe includes deep signal and content analysis with impulse response representation; TII, audio, or video recording; QoE elements: visual slideshows, DLS; decoding of FIG tables; display of real audio and PAD bit rates; optional card for ETI output; and management of telemetry inputs/outputs.

IBC Stand 8.C58.

Info: www.worldcastsystems.com

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The post IBC Sneak Peek: WorldCast Audemat Enhances DAB Probe appeared first on Radio World.

At IBC2019 Calrec is showing its Type R modular, expandable, IP-based radio system.

Type R makes use of standard networking technology and combines it with configurable soft panels that can be tailored to operator needs. Type R’s physical control system consists of three slimline panels: a fader panel, a large soft panel and a small soft panel. Each is compatible with COTS hardware and powered over Ethernet to keep cabling to a minimum.

At the heart of Type R is a simple 2U core with integrated I/O resources to get customers up and running immediately. A single core can power up to three independent mixing environments, with no sharing of DSP resources.

“Whether used as independent studio consoles, microphone processors or utility mixing, the ability to use multiple mixing engines combined with the versatility of an AES67 compatible network, allows users to keep pace with radio’s changing requirements,” explains the company.

IBC Stand: 8.C61

Info: www.calrec.com

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The post IBC Sneak Peek: Calrec Spotlights Type R appeared first on Radio World.

The author is membership program director of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. NFCB commentaries are featured regularly at www.radioworld.com.

Commercial and noncommercial stations alike recently celebrated National Radio Day. Where we in radio sometimes get sectioned off into our own little silos — community radio, commercial radio, sports radio, college radio, religious broadcasting and music stations, among them — National Radio Day is our annual day to unite, and to tell a great story.

This year, National Radio Day was Tuesday, Aug. 20. The annual recognition is not really a holiday in the Labor Day or Fourth of July tradition. Rather, National Radio Day is among those days that gives us all a chance to pause and appreciate the art form of radio and its impact on our communities.

[Read: Community Broadcaster: Joining Forces]

Just as people played the funeral dirge for broadcast television when VHS came along, so have naysayers been predicting radio’s passing for decades. Nevertheless, radio still enjoys massive listenership, and trust from audiences. Radio today sees tremendous reach, with some 200 million Americans listening anytime any given week. Its penetration into U.S homes is why it is the go-to for emergency preparedness and a host of other services. As the Federal Emergency Management Administration tweeted, “Radios are a great resource during disasters. When cell towers and internet are down, radios will continue to receive emergency alerts and weather alerts.”

Beyond the urgent moments, National Radio Day is a yearly chance to highlight our medium’s other value propositions. For instance, there are the journalistic, musical and cultural services that radio provides. For some, radio is the first place where they discovered any number of musical genres or heard music in another language. For other Americans, radio informs them on their commutes about the matters of the day. For still other people, radio provides a little bit of home, no matter where that home may be anywhere around the planet. These explorations provide our intellects and imaginations fertile grounds upon which to grow ideas and engagement. Because the voices we hear allow us to conjure up our own visuals, radio taps into a mental space no other medium can.

Radio has been a launchpad for many famous names. A few of them took a moment to appreciate the influence of the medium, in cities and towns everywhere as well as in their own lives. Sportscaster and media personality Joy Taylor tweeted, “Radio was my first love in media, I always wanted to host a radio show, ‘theater of the mind.’” Television host Janice Dean added, “I started out in radio, and so … I look back fondly on the place where my broadcasting career began. I never thought I would end up in television, but I wouldn’t be where I am today without the experience I had behind just a microphone.” British radio host Sean Goldsmith called radio “a wonderful medium that’s given me 27 years of doing something I never thought I’d actually do. I used to sit there in a factory in Leicester putting stickers on beer trays listening to the radio wanting to be [U.K. radio legend] Simon Mayo.”

Radio has also been a message-based medium, giving people with ideas a place to share them with many people. Franklin Graham tweeted, “My father, Billy Graham, used radio as a way to share the Gospel w/millions worldwide.”

If your station did not take advantage of National Radio Day this year to talk up all your station brings to your city or town, check out the National Radio Day hashtag across social media for ideas to use next year. Or, better yet, make National Radio Day every day and testify to your local voices and community service right now.

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The post Community Broadcaster: Turning It Up appeared first on Radio World.

An FCC order that took effect in August provides for non-adjacent channel changes for FM translators that are experiencing interference issues caused or received.

Charles M. Anderson

This will be very helpful in smaller markets to resolve interference complaints and where excessive incoming interference seriously limits coverage. Unfortunately, there are no available frequencies in most medium and large markets.

On the other hand, the final rules provide protection from translator interference to existing facilities out to their 45 dBµ contour, an increase beyond their defined maximum class protected contours from 17.6 miles to 35.2 miles for a Class A, 40.4 miles to 53.6 miles for a Class B and 57.1 to 83.5 miles for a Class C.

When combined with the procedures whereby complaints may not be challenged, as few as six determined complainants at the edge of those contours (and only three for an LPFM) can cripple or kill a translator — a powerful weapon in the hands of overzealous stations seeking to protect the “owner’s contour” or eliminate competition.

BIG RADIO SPOKE UP

In its original Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the commission presented a very well reasoned and balanced proposal to limit interference complaints to the 54 dBµ contour, which appeared to recognize the changed role of FM translators in the modern broadcast radio landscape, where some 8,000 FM translators are operating or authorized, many serving to sustain local service of AM stations.

The commission stated in that proposal that its goal was to “provide translator licensees [with] additional investment clarity.” The commission asserted that it was (emphasis added):

[c]larifying the process and balancing the interests of the various services involved … we must not only balance the needs of translator, low-power FM and full-service licensees, but also [the technical integrity of the FM band]. We believe that the measures adopted herein strike a balance between managing FM band spectrum, providing greater certainty for translator operators, and preserving existing protections for full-service stations … .

However, like the cattle barons of the Old West defending grazing rights to the open range and opposing homesteads, Big Radio once again came forward in full turf protection mode, opposing the commission’s proposal (just as they have opposed and stalled the FCC’s very reasonable and rational proposed modification of AM daytime allocations, which were supported by some of the industry’s most respected engineers).

“Big Radio once again came forward in full turf protection mode,” the author writes, “opposing the commission’s proposal.”

They advocated an incredible 39 dBµ contour limit, citing interference concerns for audiences well beyond their protected contours with purported radio listening data. It is noteworthy that their audience data was based on “cume” (five minutes listening per week) and ZIP code centroids for “panelists home addresses” (see Beasley Media Corp., et al, comments at footnote 13).

Such data is at best exaggerated and misleading given the size of ZIP code areas, many extending across a 6 dB contour span, and the presumption that the home address represented the location of a significant portion of their listening. Since these data are from the larger PPM markets, it seems reasonable to expect that much of the five-minute “cume” listening is spent in transit to those markets at contours far greater than 45 dBµ.

The commission relied heavily on this data, and in doing so failed to achieve its stated goal of balancing the interests of translator audiences.

GAMING THE SYSTEM

To actually effectuate the balancing that the NPRM proclaimed was taking place between the interests of FM translator listeners and other station listeners, it would have been necessary for the commission to do a comprehensive engineering study of all authorized FM translators determining the impact of limiting their interference contours (25 dBµ co-channel and 39 dBµ first-adjacent channel) to the new 45 dBµ protected contours for FM stations.

That data could have informed a fair and balanced evaluation of the alternatives weighing the relative impacts on translators and FM stations, something the current FCC decision failed to do.

I studied the potential impact of the new rules on the Louisville, Ky., market. The 45 dBµ limit would put into jeopardy the continued, viable service from nine of the 10 currently authorized Louisville market FM translator stations.

If interference complaints were pursued under the FCC’s strict, no-recourse procedures, six would be ordered to discontinue operations. Three would be forced to power levels ranging from 5 to 21 watts ERP. Only one would not be in jeopardy from a full-service station interference complaint (see my ex parte comments in docket 18-119). I have since evaluated a number of small- and medium-market translators with similar results.

Under the combined effects of the extreme 45 dBµ contour limit and the new non-recourse complaint procedures, some full-service stations will “game” the system to obtain complaints that once established are not subject to challenge.

Now, a full-service station or existing translator or LPFM wishing to eliminate an FM translator for any reason will be able to work backwards by first identifying the area in which there will be, as an engineering matter, predicted interference. Then the full-service station simply identifies listeners who, at least twice a month, drive or travel through that predicted interference area, and obtains from such listeners the required signed form.

If, after signing the form the listeners are instructed to say nothing more and accept no interference remediation, then under the FCC’s new strict procedures, the only interference remediation possible where alternate frequencies are not available is a substantial facility impairment or cessation in operations for the besieged FM translator.

Allocated service areas have been clearly differentiated in the longstanding processes developing the FM allocations system. The dramatic extension of those service areas out to 45 dBµ is clearly inconsistent with the dictates of §307(b) of the Communications Act, which requires that the FCC “provide a fair, efficient and equitable distribution of radio service” to each of the states and communities. It could be argued that translators also represent an efficient use of the spectrum for communities using the unallocated, open grazing areas of the FM band.

The 45 dBµ contour is neither fair nor balanced. After all, authorized LPFMs only have to protect stations’ 70 dBµ or in some cases the 60 dBµ contour, and are effectively immune from interference complaints. LPFMs may defend their 45 dBµ contour from translator interference but are themselves de jure exempt from the reverse.

The 45 dBµ limit is also at odds with the Local Community Radio Act, which requires equal treatment of translators and LPFMs. Since translators are clearly not intended to be “secondary” to LPFMs, it does not seem defensible to extend 45 dBµ protection to them or currently operating translators for that matter.

It all comes down to what is best overall for today’s radio listeners. The FCC only considered a discrete, small number of radio listeners well outside the allocated coverage contours of existing stations in its decision. It wholly ignored FM translator radio listeners. Perhaps there was a compromise contour that was fair and balanced; 45 dBµ is neither, nor supportable as such as the commission lacked the data with which to make a reasoned decision. As shown with the Louisville example above, the new interference rules have the potential for dramatic and unintended consequences.

Charles M. “Chuck” Anderson is a broadcast engineering consultant with more than 35 years experience. He owns FM stations and FM translators.

Comment on this or any story. Email radioworld@futurenet.com with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject field.

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