Learn how to find wahoo and kingfish using SiriusXM.
Meet SBE’s next president Andrea Cummis, the society’s first female president.
Find out why Xperi is interested in the Internet of Things.
And read about recent automation and traffic products from companies like Arrakis, ENCO, Smarts, BE, AEQ, Music1, NewsBoss, NextKast, WideOrbit and others.
The post Inside the Sept. 29, 2021 Issue of Radio World appeared first on Radio World.
The Texas Association of Broadcasters is supporting a lawsuit that challenges a prohibition against using drones in newsgathering in that state.
The lawsuit, filed last November, is by a Texas news photographer. It challenges the constitutionality of Chapter 423 of the Texas Government Code, which “broadly prohibits the use of drones by journalists in public airspace, yet arbitrarily exempts other members of the public from those proscriptions,” the brief argues.
TAB said the law is a “speaker-based regulation” that discriminates against the press and violates the U.S. Constitution by harming the free flow of newsworthy information to the public.
TAB said it was joined in filing the amicus brief by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 44 additional entities, including multiple station groups, the National Association of Broadcasters and other industry advocates.
“The brief outlines the public benefit of the technology when used for newsgathering, its similarity to other technologies such as news helicopters, and how the restrictions in state law constrain the devices’ use in newsgathering while permitting other, non-journalist speakers to deploy the devices at will.”
TAB said action in the case is expected this fall or winter.
The post Texas Broadcasters Speak Up Against Drone Restriction appeared first on Radio World.
A number of organizations that support EEO in broadcasting would like the FCC to consider nine proposals to help improve compliance and enforcement.
Their proposals are in a filing that was coordinated by the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council.
The FCC has open a further notice of proposed rulemaking in which it is taking comments about the collection of data to understand broadcast EEO trends by race and gender.
It wants fresh comments about the required collection of data on FCC Form 395-B, the broadcast station Annual Employment Report.
That form is intended to gather workforce composition data from broadcasters every year; but it has not been collected for two decades. The process was suspended in 2001 because of a legal ruling, and resumption was delayed in 2004 over issues involving confidentiality of the employment data. Those issues remain unresolved.
The EEO supporters told the FCC that resumption of data collection “would serve invaluable public purposes” but that this is not the only element that needs to be considered.
They asked the FCC to consider:
The 38 organizations participating in the filing include the NAACP, Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the National Action Network, the Hispanic Federation and the National Bar Association.
The groups made particular note of a proposal to have the Enforcement Bureau examine whether a licensee, having been found to have violated the broad outreach elements of the EEO rule, may also have violated its core nondiscrimination obligation.
“It is hornbook law that EEO statistics should be considered as part of a tribunal’s consideration of whether a respondent company engaged in discrimination,” they wrote.
“As the commission has long held, excessive use of word-of-mouth recruitment by members of a station’s homogeneous staff is inherently discriminatory and could be disqualifying. If such a case arises, one piece of evidence that should be available to the Enforcement Bureau staff is data on the racial and gender composition of those whose ‘mouths’ are doing the ‘word of mouth’ recruitment.
“Broadcasting must not become the only industry in the country that is immune from the obligation to produce data that is useful to a finder of fact in determining whether an employer may have engaged in a discriminatory scheme.”
The post EEO Supporters Lay Out Their Wish List appeared first on Radio World.
Broadcast engineer Dan Slentz writes that when he was a teen working at WJER(AM/FM), the chief engineer had a speaker in each room wired with multiple 70-volt audio lines to a rotating switch and volume control. “You could listen to the AM station, FM station or any of the three production rooms,” he said.
Being 70 V, the audio quality wasn’t especially great, but when you were working after hours and you went into a room, you could monitor Air or what was going on. Dan says every station he has ever worked at had audio monitoring in the bathrooms. Even at CBS station WLVQ, “QFM” in Columbus, where the bathroom was in a public area down the hall, all occupants of the ninth floor of Nationwide Tower 2 could listen to QFM or Z-rock FM.
Dan recently visited the Monoprice website, www.monoprice.com. He loves it for its really good cables with lifetime warranty, and he says you can find other cool items on the site, like the old MCM Electronics used to have.
One such item was this 40-watt, wall-mount amplifier with a touchscreen, Bluetooth, auxiliary inputs and USB and microSD slots. The amp even has an infrared remote control. And it provides an FM receiver and stereo output.
Touchscreen controlsDan notes that of course, this is made offshore. But all this comes in a compact footprint and costs only $120.
The top image shows the USB and microSD slots on the underside of the module, and the wiring connections are shown below.
Connectors on the Monoprice unit.If it’s time to retire your old 70-volt speaker wiring or you’re thinking of adding a speaker monitor system, this module might be the solution. Consider mounting it in the breakroom, reception area or in your bathrooms. Use Monoprice product #36375. (As of mid-September the unit was listed as out of stock at the Monoprice website, with a November ETA.)
Sound ScrewIf you’re planning new studio construction next year, you may want to discuss with your architect or acoustic consultant the newly released acoustic Sound Screw, developed in Sweden.
Imagine a screw, the “head” of which is separated from the threaded body with a coiled spring. It’s an inexpensive method of reducing vibration from joists into the drywall, as the spring dampens the vibration transfer.
Although it is only available in Sweden at the moment, Akoustos AB is approaching companies outside Sweden to license its technology.The company says that in lab tests, a 9 dB reduction of sound transfer was measured. This calculates to about half the perceived sound transferred using traditional drywall screws to hold sheet rock panels.
Check out www.akoustos.se.
Keep fans quietIn an age when nearly everything seems to be in short supply, you may be tempted to substitute a fan in a piece of equipment. All fine and good, but contract engineer Stephanie Donnell has a caution if you’re installing a DC “brushless” fan in this situation. It could result in an EMC noise issue due to the current pulses generated by the driver circuit that operates the field coils of the fan motor.
EMC, electromagnetic compatibility, refers to the interaction of equipment with its electromagnetic environment and other devices. These electromagnetic fields could result in something that sounds like spark plug noise. You can correct this by adding a simple R/C filter on the fan’s “+” voltage lead.
Another tip involving muffin fans is to use models rated for 220 VAC but run them at 110. This is helpful in a situation where you need to improve ambient cooling around any equipment but where you don’t want a fan that produces a miniature hurricane or the noise associated with high-speed operation. Stephanie has used 220 V fans over the years to help cool everything from a very old computer to a Larcan-TTC TV translator.
Stephanie also saw Steve Tuzeneu’s recent tip about discouraging bees from nesting in satellite feed-horns. She adds that WD-40 brand spray lubricant works great for dealing with bees. We may not always have a can of flying insect spray, but who doesn’t have a can of WD-40 handy?
John Bisset, CPBE, has spent over 50 years in the broadcasting industry, and is in his 31st year writing Workbench. He handles western U.S. radio sales for the Telos Alliance and is a past recipient of the SBE’s Educator of the Year Award. Workbench submissions are encouraged and qualify for SBE recertification credit. Email johnpbisset@gmail.com.
The post Workbench: Amp Up Your Bathroom Visits appeared first on Radio World.
This is one in a series of occasional articles about how to get the most out of popular radio broadcast products.
David Bialik consults to StreamGuys.
How the content might look on a mobile device.When I was working for radio.com, producers for the news and sport stations all wanted a rewind feature on the mobile app.
These producers were hearing from listeners who enjoy the rewind functionality of live video platforms like TiVo and video on-demand platforms like Netflix, and they wanted similar functionality for their radio stations.
With rewind controls, a user can play the content they missed or replay content for clarity. Dr. Who would be perplexed with this timey-whimey issue.
StreamGuys kept this user experience in mind when they developed SGrewind. This service allows the listeners to use a “scrubbing feature” within the audio app.
The scrubbing can be configured to go back to the previous segment or to go back in timed increments.
If you are streaming a sport, you are giving the audience their own “instant replay.” Listeners of a talk show may want to re-listen to the last person who spoke. How many times have you listened to the news and want to hear a story again for clarification?
My favorite use is to “rewind” and hear the weather or traffic again.
Not to worry, you do not have to get Mr. Peabody and the Wayback machine. SGrewind is relatively easy to set up.
You do not need to be using StreamGuys as your live streaming CDN (though I am sure they would not mind if you already a customer). You can send them the same encoded source as your live stream.
StreamGuys will provide you a graphical user interface to configure how SGrewind will work and what your audience will be able to do.
They will then do their SGrewind magic, encoding the stream and sending it out.
The SGRewind Management Module is web-based.They will work with your development team (if you have one) to enable the rewind feature on your player or they can provide a turnkey, rewind-capable player for your website.
Yes, I have simplified the process here, but SGrewind can add a nice feature for your streaming audience to use and make your streams look unique to potential advertisers. And isn’t that what it is all about?
Suggest a product to be featured in our “How to Get the Most Out of” series. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.
Related:
“Five Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do in Zetta”
“How to Get the Most Out of Your Remote Control”
The post How to Get the Most Out of SGrewind appeared first on Radio World.
Kenya’s Radio Africa Group has taken a liking to Lawo equipment, recently choosing it for Kiss100 FM broadcast station and its Classic105 streaming station.
The Nairobi-based radio and TV broadcaster installed a Rɘlay PC-based virtual mixer at Kiss100 FM. After that proved successful, the company says, it turned back to Lawo to upgrade Classic105.
[See Our Who’s Buying What Page]
That led to the selection of a Lawo’s crystalClear “glass” touchscreen mixer. Included in that package are the VisTool virtual radio studio builder software and a Compact Engine, a 1RU mixing engine with AoIP audio interfaces and DSP audio processing. According to a release it was the first installation in East Africa of such equipment.
Lawo distributor and systems integrator BYCE Broadcast provided the equipment and services.
Radio Africa Group Technical Manager Philip Keter said, “We are happy with Lawo virtual consoles … We have had Kiss100 FM using Lawo Rɘlay mixing for more than one year now, and we have not experienced any downtime.”
Send news for Who’s Buying What to radioworld@futurenet.com.
He added, “We are even more excited about crystalClear; the presenters love its robustness, flexibility, and agility. It is not only easy to operate but actually helps enhance creativity!”
The post CrystalClear in Kenya appeared first on Radio World.
A broadcaster in Texas is facing a fine for not filing license renewal applications for two FM translators on time.
Carlos Lopez is licensee of the translators in Conroe and South Padre Island. License renewal forms were due by April 1 but were not received at the FCC until late May.
[Read: Expired Licenses Lead to $7,000 Forfeiture for FM Translator]
The commission says Lopez didn’t provide an explanation, so it has issued a notice of apparent liability for $3,000, which he has 30 days to pay or challenge.
Because he did file before the licenses actually expired, and because the FCC isn’t aware of any other problems, it said it plans to grant the renewal applications once the forfeiture proceeding is completed.
The post Two Texas Translators Face an FCC Penalty appeared first on Radio World.
Ryan Seacrest, one of the brightest stars in iHeartMedia’s talent constellation, has signed on for a new contract.
Describing him as an “unmatched creative talent,” the company said: “The three-year contract extends through Dec.31, 2025, during which time Seacrest will celebrate 30 years as one of the most recognized and respected names not just within iHeartMedia, but throughout the entire media and entertainment industry.”
In the announcement, Seacrest called the decision a “no-brainer.”
The agreement was negotiated by Jeff Refold, COO/CFO of Ryan Seacrest Enterprises, and Jonathan West of Latham & Watkins. Its value was not announced.
iHeart noted that Seacrest started in radio as a teenager at WSTR(FM) in Atlanta before he went to Los Angeles. “Since then, Seacrest has built a reputation as one of media’s most trusted voices, cultivating a genuine connection — and powerful relationships — with consumers, advertisers, and America’s biggest stars, and is a true brand ambassador for iHeartMedia.”
He will continue to host and produce his morning drive show for iHeartMedia’s 102.7 KIIS-FM, the syndicated “On Air with Ryan Seacrest” and “American Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest.”
iHeart says Seacrest is an important voice to its top management in planning major initiatives and tentpole events, and he will continue that advisory capacity.
In radio circles Seacrest also is known as a benefactor for children’s hospitals. His foundation builds broadcast media centers named Seacrest Studios in pediatric hospitals for patients to explore radio, TV and new media.
The post Seacrest Re-ups With iHeart, Calls It a “No Brainer” appeared first on Radio World.
This article originally appeared in the Feb. 8, 2017, edition of Radio World Engineering Extra and was posted on this website Feb. 9, 2017. If you like this content you should subscribe to Radio World Engineering Extra.
In two articles thus far (RW Engineering Extra, Aug. 10 and Oct. 19, 2016), we’ve traced the origins of electret condenser microphones to their externally-polarized ancestor, patented in 1916.
One hundred years later, modern materials and manufacturing have made electret condenser mikes cheap and plentiful — and with careful design electret audio performance can rival the best of their powered cousins. In this chapter, we’ll examine the anatomy of the circuitry following electrets and how they affect the sound output.
For our study, I picked a Neewer model NW-700 “Professional Studio Broadcasting & Recording Condenser Microphone,” which at the time of writing is listed at only $14.70 by the manufacturer, including a web shock mount and cable, shown in Fig. 1. Neewer was kind to let us share some of the NW-700 schematic, which we examine below.
Fig. 2: Inside the Neewer NW-700.As discussed previously, all condenser microphones generate a small voltage as their diaphragm changes capacitance in an electric field, when moved by sound pressure waves.
Externally-polarized mikes charge the diaphragm/backplate condenser through a resistor from a source of 40 to 200 volts, as shown on the left in Fig. 3.
Because the capacitance is very low (around 50 picofarad, ±30 pF), the resistor forms an R/C network that rolls off the low frequencies. The resistor must have a value of hundreds of megaohms to avoid a cutoff in the bass range.
One advantage an electret has is its intrinsic charge, which eliminates the charging resistor, as shown on in Fig. 3. Either way, a fixed charge is maintained across the capacitor.
For a charge Q, the expression is: = 0 x 0
0 is the capsule capacitance, and 0 is the capsule capacitance.
The output voltage change of a condenser microphone is expressed as the fixed voltage times the relative change in capacity:
where Ct is the variation in capacity due to sound pressure.
It is not unusual for electret microphones to have a rated output of –40 dB relative to 1 volt measured at sound pressure of 1 Pascal (Pa), which is 94 dB SPL. The signal level produced by an electret element under these conditions is calculated to be:
An orchestra may produce an SPL of more than 105 dB, but loud musical instruments such as horns and drums could easily produce a local SPL of 115 dB when closely miked. That is 21 dB above the reference 1 Pascal, which multiplies the output to:
This voltage is an average of the signal envelope — but the peaks of the waveform are greater. Assuming the ratio between the signal peaks and the average is 10 dB, the peak signal level could reach:
That is arguably a big signal for the transimpedance amplifier!
Fig. 3: The basic parts of a condenser microphone. Left, using an external power supply, and right, a self-charged electret with the impedance converter. (Click here to enlarge.)Let’s look at what may happen, beginning at the electret microphone as shown in the right diagram of Fig. 3. Nearly all electret microphone capsules have a junction-type field effect transistor (JFET) inside the case, to convert the extremely high impedance of the electret element to a useful value for the following circuitry.
Electric charges in JFETs flow through a semiconducting channel between source and drain terminals that is exclusively voltage-controlled. Unlike bipolar transistors, JFETs do not require a biasing current (although, as we will see they benefit from optimum terminal voltages). The JFET also has a potentially higher gain (transconductance) than the MOSFET, as well as lower flicker noise, making them well-suited to the microphone element’s weak signal.
CIRCUIT SIMULATION
To evaluate the microphone’s transimpedance amplifier and the following stages, I used circuit simulator software. It may be a little unconventional to do this study in software rather than with test instrumentation, but this came about because I was hand-drawing the internal circuits of several microphones and the simulator allowed me to check configuration of some unlabeled parts. (In one case, it helped me determine that a transistor’s emitter and collector had to be reversed and changed from NPN to PNP.)
The simulator I chose is Qucs, the “Quite Universal Circuit Simulator,” an open-source electronics circuit simulator software available on the Internet at http://qucs.sourceforge.net under GPL. Qucs supports a large list of analog and digital components with parameter values that can be applied to circuits to study DC voltages, AC performance, including noise and transient analysis, and more.
Fig. 4: Qucs circuit simulation of the impedance converter. (Click here to enlarge.)Starting with the transimpedance converter, Qucs demonstrates some powerful analysis. Fig. 4 shows the circuit with an AC voltage source in substitution for the electret condenser. Note that a 100 picofarad capacitor is placed in series to represent the element’s real capacitance. The AC has been set to a 1 kHz sine wave at 0.25 volts peak. The meter icon shows a series current of 1.6 milliamps through the 2.2 kohm resistor tied to the 2N3685 JFET drain when supplied with 5 volts.
Two test points: “in” and “D_out” are shown in the Qucs chart to the right. (This is a transient measurement with DC voltages, so the AC simulation is deactivated.) The input signal is shown in red, producing a 0.25 volt sinusoid. The output at the JFET drain is shown in blue, with some gain but also with a large distortion to the waveform. The waveform is inverted, and the negative half is distorted because the signal input voltage drove the JFET’s gate positive, and an N-channel JFET is linear only for a range signal voltages that are negative, relative to the source terminal.
Fig. 5: Added components to operate the JFET gate at a more suitable voltage; the calculated waveform shows reduced distortion. (Click here to enlarge.)One of the simplest ways to correct the signal voltage issue is by self-biasing, that is, raising the source voltage through as series resistor to ground, as shown in Fig. 5. R5 raises the voltage at the source terminal to 0.86V in this example, while a very large 1 gigohm resistor holds the gate voltage to 8.4mV. A bypass capacitor, C3, holds the voltage on R5 steady across the audio range. (These component values are for illustration and are not optimized.)
Self-biasing lowers the JFET’s distortion, and approximately doubles the gain in this example — but at the cost of a larger component count. Considering that electret microphone capsules often must be as small as possible, as well as low in cost, designers often forego these components. This illustrates a compromise for designers, but fortunately, high acoustic levels are probably not an issue in consumer applications, such as telephones, and they may be avoided to some extent in studio recordings by microphone placement.
Fig. 6: The audio path section of the NW-700 with a simulated electret microphone signal applied to the impedance converter and a phantom power supply. (Click here to enlarge.)Fig. 6 shows part of the Neewer NW-700 microphone (as I traced it, less the voltage regulator section). Similar circuit designs are used in the many low-priced “studio” microphones on the market. In this case, the electret capsule’s JFET, J1, is pulled up to a regulated DC line (approximately 8.5 volts) and connected through an R/C high-pass network to a transistor stage T1, with a biphase output. This furnishes a balanced differential output for external studio preamps.
On the right, the NW-700 provides the balanced output through an XLR connector at the base of the mike. To “power” our example, a 48 volt DC battery is assumed, which is connected through resistors to Pins 2 and 3 of the XLR connector. A resistor value of 6.8k ohms is a standard value for 48 volt “phantom” systems, although many preamps supply lower voltages and may use lower resistor values.
The phantom power is connected through an R/C bypass network to a pair of emitter-follower transistors, T3 and T4, which provide approximately unity gain and have a low source impedance to the lines. The common point of the two transistors is tied to the voltage regulator, which provides the regulated and filtered DC for the input stages.
Fig. 7: Output at XLR Pins 2 and 3 as determined by Qucs with a 100mV input at 1 kHz. (Click here to enlarge.)Qucs can provide a variety of AC systems analysis. In Fig. 7, a 0.1V (100mV) signal is applied through a 50 pF capacitor (simulating the assumed capacitance of a small-diaphragm electret element) to the JFET impedance converter. The output from Pins 2 and 3 of the XLR are charted as red and blue waveforms. The vertical scale is in volts, and the voltage offset, because of phantom power, runs at approximately 24.6V. In this simulation, there is slightly less output from Pin 2 than from Pin 3. However, this is unlikely to affect the noise rejection as that depends primarily on the common-mode rejection of the external preamplifier and not the normal-mode difference in signal between the lines.
IMPRESSIVE PERFORMANCE
Fig. 8: End-to-end frequency response from Pins 2 and 3; x-axis from 10 Hz to 20 kHz and y-axis in volts AC. (Click here to enlarge.)Qucs supports predicted frequency response of the system, as shown in Fig. 8. As shown by the “ac simulation” data on Fig. 6, the simulator was configured for a logarithmic sweep from 1 Hz to 20 kHz in 2001 steps. Fig. 8 shows the sweep displayed from 10 Hz to 20 kHz. The frequency response is shown on linear vertical scale in volts, so a difference between 0.25V to 0.5V is ±3 dB.
It is apparent that the response is effectively flat from 100 Hz to the top of the range, and is down approximately 3 dB at 30 Hz. Of course, this excludes the frequency response of the electret microphone, and we know from the previous part of this series [Oct. 18, 2017, issue] that directional small diaphragm capsules have an intrinsic frequency tilt that is generally uncorrectable below 100 Hz due to limitations in acoustic filter techniques. However, this rolloff is offset by proximity effect at closer distances, so pickup of voices and instruments at a foot or so is reasonably well-balanced, tonally.
Recordings made with the NW-700 are generally quite good. On symphonic recordings made on high stands, there is noticeable low-frequency rolloff, but this was easily compensated with equalization during post-recording edit. The noise level of the NW-700 is not as good as expensive microphones (those costing 10 to 100X more) but it is acceptable, even for orchestral recording.
If you are interested in a sample recording with this microphone, visit this link on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/john-kean-314785812/20160213-rachmaninov-3m26s
This 3.5-minute recording was made with the Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic Orchestra at the George Washington Masonic Temple auditorium in February 2016. It was recorded with a crossed-cardioid configuration in 24-bit/48 kHz sampling and transcoded to 16-bit/44.1 kHz in Audacity, with only LF equalization. The acoustics are not ideal, as the mics had to be placed on a low stand at the front of the seating area, but the recording gives you an idea of what the NW-700 can deliver.
[Subscribe to Radio World Engineering Extra]
John Kean joined National Public Radio in 1980 after being chief engineer for a San Diego commercial FM station. In 1986 he joined Jules Cohen and Associates, and then Moffet, Larson and Johnson. He returned to NPR in 2004 to help establish NPR Labs and retired in 2015. Today he works with Cavell Mertz and Associates and performs audio consulting in private practice as Kean Consultants LLC.
The post Digging Deeper Into Electret Microphone Circuitry appeared first on Radio World.
This year’s hurricanes and wildfires are prompting the FCC to closely examine the protocols it uses to gather communications infrastructure information from broadcasters and others following a natural disaster or unpredictable disaster.
The FCC this week will consider an item that could make it mandatory for broadcasters to report outages following natural disasters, according to a draft of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. That would be a change from the current Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS), which makes such submissions voluntary.
The draft notice seeks comment on ways to improve DIRS and the overall reliability and resiliency of communications networks during emergencies.
[Read: Rosenworcel Gives CSRIC Its New Charge]
The FCC established the web-based DIRS in 2007 following Hurricane Katrina. During times of emergency, DIRS enables broadcasters to report service degradations and request assistance if necessary. Typically the FCC compiles the data and provides network status information to federal emergency management officials as well as publishes reports of restoration information without company-identifying information.
The commission uses the information gathered through DIRS and the Network Outage Reporting System (NORS) to develop situational awareness during communications outages and analyze outage trends, such as an increasing trend in network disruptions caused by power outages.
Some of the questions the draft rulemaking proceeding asks are whether DIRS reporting should be made mandatory, what kind of burden that mandatory reporting would place on broadcast stations and whether the burden of mandatory reporting would impede a station’s coverage of the emergency.
Other questions posed in the draft proposal ask if the FCC has the legal authority to mandate such reporting and consideration of what penalties could be imposed for failing to report.
The draft notice, which specifically mentions Hurricane Ida and the damage it did to the Gulf Coast region in late August, also seeks comment on ways to mitigate the effects of power outages on communications network operations in the aftermath of disasters.
The loss of power following Hurricane Ida in is specifically addressed in the draft proposal. The FCC says especially hard hit were cell tower sites that lacked backup power infrastructure.
“NORS and DIRS data collected by the commission in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida and other recent disaster events reveal that a lack of commercial power at key equipment and facilities is the single biggest reason why communications networks transmitting 911 service and related emergency information fail in the aftermath of disaster events,” the draft proposal say. “For example, the commission’s DIRS data show that the majority of cell site outages in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Ida’s central disaster region were due to a lack of commercial power availability.”
[Read: Big Louisiana Radio Tower Comes Down in Ida]
In fact, the FCC is considering backup power requirements for DIRS and NORS participants, according to the proposal. “To the extent that the commission were to adopt backup power requirements, providers subject to them, potentially including cable providers, direct broadcast satellite providers, satellite digital audio radio service, TV and radio broadcasters, Commercial Mobile Radio Service and other wireless service providers,” according to the FCC release.
The commission says it is mindful that providers subject to any new rules will incur costs should the proposals be adopted,” according to the draft notice.
The FCC believes the increasing frequency of natural disasters is reason enough to examine the resiliency of the communications grid across the country, according to the draft proposal.
“If the current trend continues without corrective action, the frequency of outages will worsen in coming years as the nation experiences disaster events of increasing severity, duration, and impact, including hurricanes, flooding, and wildfires,” the draft NPRM says.
FCC Acting Chairman Jessica Rosenworcel is visiting Baton Rouge, La., on Wednesday to survey firsthand Hurricane Ida recovery efforts.
Supporting resilient infrastructure has never been more important. The FCC is committed to supporting recovery efforts and doing all we can to help restore communications networks as quickly as possible,” Rosenworcel said in a press release. “I look forward to traveling to Louisiana to learn firsthand what worked, what didn’t, and where the FCC can do better.”
The FCC will consider the draft NPRM at its Sept. 30 open meeting. A comment period will commence following publication of the NPRM in the Federal Register.
The post FCC Suggests Revisions to Disaster Information Reporting System appeared first on Radio World.
Broadcaster Fred Weinberg has died at age 69.
The CEO of USA Radio Networks passed away on Thursday, according to his obituary, which described him as one of the industry’s “more colorful” owners.
He or his company owned or operated stations in Oklahoma, Nevada, Texas, Arizona and Minnesota. He purchased USA Radio Networks in 2018; the company produces and syndicates radio programming.
Born in New Mexico, Weinberg grew up in Illinois, where he flew with the Civil Air Patrol and worked as a stringer for the Peoria Journal Star. According to the obituary he got involved with WCBU, the campus radio station at Bradley University, and became station manager.
His friend Janet Bro, COO of USA, wrote in an email that Weinberg’s father was dean of engineering at Bradley University and fired his son from the position of station manager, saying he should go buy his own station. “So he did and never looked back.”
According to his obituary, “He took a detour from broadcasting in 1975 for careers at the Penny Press Peoria Newspaper, EF Hutton and ownership of Three Worlds Disco. He tried his hand in the oil business and did a stint with ABC TV before deciding to get back into the business he loved: radio. Fred also published the Penny Press Nevada, a conservative weekly online newspaper, and worked with the Nevada Republican Party in his spare time.”
The obituary recalls that Weinberg “stood up for the rights of small station owners. One of his proudest moments was successfully defending a lawsuit from Arbitron.”
The post Fred Weinberg Dies, Was CEO of USA Radio appeared first on Radio World.
At the FCC, Sanford Williams will take a senior leadership position in the Office of Managing Director as its deputy managing director.
He most recently was director of the commission’s Office of Communications Business Opportunities.
Succeeding him in the latter role is Joy Ragsdale, who currently is field counsel in the Enforcement Bureau.
The announcement was made by FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. She said both have put in years of service at the commission.
Joy RagsdaleAs head of OCBO, Williams “spearheaded work to promote digital empowerment, inclusion, equity and diversity in the tech sector.”
At the Enforcement Bureau, Joy Ragsdale worked with field agents on various investigations including broadcast station operations, EAS regulation and pirate radio.
Williams will also continue as a special advisor to Rosenworcel.
The post Williams, Ragsdale Promoted at FCC appeared first on Radio World.
Marketron says service has been restored to all of its traffic customers, following the ransomware attack that took its platforms down the weekend before last.
Those customers now have access to all of the data that was in the platform as of Saturday morning Sept. 18.
“Some business services, such as electronic invoicing and payments remain impacted; however, customers should be able to build to conduct their traffic operations. Our teams remain focused on fully restoring all services,” Vice President of Growth Marketing Bo Bandy wrote in an email on Sept. 25.
The image above shows the Marketron service status board as of Monday morning Sept. 25.
The company has posted a series of recommendations for clients whose service has been restored.
Bandy also said Marketron has hired forensic investigators and cybersecurity firms “to stand up an entirely new network environment, a gold standard in recovery from a security perspective. With the assistance of our third-party specialists, a state-of-the-art end point detection and response tool has been deployed to the environment, which is continuously monitored around the clock by security professionals.”
The post Marketron Traffic Services Are Back Up appeared first on Radio World.
Radio World presents a special webcast in which five technology vendors provide a fast-paced look at their newest offerings.
Representatives of RCS, Wheatstone, WorldCast Systems, Telos Alliance and Comrex talk with RW Editor in Chief Paul McLane about their new product introductions.
Paul will also update you on several stories that Radio World has been following including drones in radio, trends in shortwave, computational FM antenna pattern modeling and more.
Especially in light of the cancellation of several major trade shows, it’s important to stay on top of new products and technology.
The free webcast streams on Sept. 30 and is available on demand after that date.
The post Radio Face-2-Face: A New RW Webcast appeared first on Radio World.
Among the many things disrupted by COVID-19 is the opportunity for the National Association of Broadcasters to celebrate the 75th anniversary of its Broadcast Engineering & IT Conference.
Radio and TV techies will have to wait another half-year to gather in person again now that the 2021 NAB Show has been cancelled. But knowing the interest that our readers have in this topic, here’s our interview about the history of the engineering conference with NAB Senior Vice President, Technology Lynn Claudy.
Radio World: How did the BEITC get started?
Lynn Claudy: NAB consultant and former staffer Skip Pizzi wrote a NAB PILOT blog about this very subject in early August at nabpilot.org. Here’s an excerpt:
“The year: 1947. The place: Atlantic City, N.J. The event: The first NAB Broadcast Engineering Conference (BEC) — subsequently renamed the Broadcast Engineering and Information Technology (BEIT) Conference — held continuously on an annual basis thereafter, making the 2021 BEIT Conference the 75th such event.
“Prior to this conference, NAB’s Engineering department had collaborated with the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE), the University of Illinois and Ohio State University to produce a standalone broadcast engineering conference hosted by the universities, dating back to 1938. That event was curtailed after the 1942 program due to World War II, and NAB was involved again when it restarted in 1946.
FM pioneer Major Edwin Armstrong was among the speakers at the inaugural engineering conference. Courtesy John Schneider.“But the following year NAB decided to launch its own engineering conference, to be held in conjunction with the 25th NAB Convention in Atlantic City, and the NAB BEC was born. Among the presentations there was a demonstration of ‘Unusually High Frequencies in FM Relays’ by Major Edwin Armstrong.
“The first BEC was a one-day event, held on Sept. 15, 1947, at the Atlantic City Convention Center, renowned for its many years as the site of the Miss America Pageant. The conference grew to two days at the 1948 NAB Convention in Los Angeles, expanded to three days the following year and settled on a four-day length at the 1950 show in Chicago. It later expanded to a fifth day when partner content was added, a length it currently maintains.
“That growth over the years indicates the conference’s popularity, and historically it has had the highest attendance — and the greatest longevity — of any NAB Show educational offerings.”
RW: Lynn, who conceived it and who were the early drivers of its success?
Claudy: Much of the thinking and strategy behind launching the Broadcast Engineering Conference may be lost to antiquity, but a lot of credit should go to then-NAB President Judge Justin Miller and NAB Director of Engineering Royal V. Howard.
Miller, a former associate judge of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, served as NAB president from 1945–1951. Howard, former VP of engineering at KSFO in San Francisco, was director of the engineering department at NAB from 1947 to 1950.
In those early days, questionnaires were sent out to the broadcast engineering community each year seeking guidance as to topics for technical papers for presentation at the NAB Convention. The NAB Conference Committee, which still exists today with a slight name change, supervised the final conference agenda to conform as much as possible to the survey results.
RW: An anecdote from the early days?
Claudy: According to the conference transcripts, the first conference was opened by Royal Howard with the following auspicious statement: “My name is Howard. Most people think that I am the director of engineering for NAB; actually I am the coordinator of confusion.”
Right before lunch, the group was addressed by NAB President Judge Justin Miller, who said: “Mr. Chairman, I am very happy to be with you this morning. I have not been going to most of these clinics, but I felt a particular obligation to the engineers, especially because NAB may seem to have been neglecting you during the last couple of years preceding this one. As a matter of fact, I have always been inclined to regard you folks more or less as the gods of the machines. I confess that if there is anything I do not know about in broadcasting, it is engineering.”
RW: Can you give us sampling of radio technology topics that appeared on the agenda over the years?
Claudy: The BEC and the current BEITC have always, by design, centered on the important topics of the day for broadcast engineers. Because of how papers and presentations are sought out and selected, it has been high on the relevance scale for technologists and engineers attending the show, and a great educational adjunct activity to visiting the exhibits on the show floor.
It’s pretty hard to pick out the important topics at any given point in time. But a sampling of four presentations might be illustrative of the value and, in retrospect, the perspective that the conference has provided over the years:
1. Going back to the first NAB Engineering Conference again, one of the talks was on “FM Broadcast Station Construction” presented by Paul A. DeMars, a consulting engineer with the Raymond Wilmotte organization. He ended his talk with the following, which tells you something about the times:
“We hear a lot about the coming atomic age. There have been a lot of serious and semiserious statements made that because of the vital importance of broadcasting in our national life, broadcasting stations, at least a certain number of the large key ones, may have to be put underground in order to prevent a national panic in the event that our present facilities should be totally wiped out,” he said.
“Possibly the large number of FM stations that are technically feasible and that will in all probability be built scattered all over the U.S. within the next decade may furnish the national service, even in the event of atomic war, that will take the place of the almost impossible problem of putting the old standard facilities underground.”
2. A talk from the 1957 conference titled “The Radio Station of the Future” presented by John M. Haerle with the Collins Radio Company showed a perspective on how radio might be changing in the future. Here are a few of the ideas from that talk, both prescient and otherwise:
“Would it be beyond the realm of possibility to envision a transmitter built in open fashion on the walls of its own building? The entire transmitting plant could be shipped to the site, the walls bolted together in typical prefab fashion and the various circuits joined by terminal boards. Ridiculous? Today, possibly … not in the radio station of the future.” …
“Monitors could be heading for obsolescence. Transmitter crystals have been improved to the point where it is actually true that some modern transmitters are more stable than the companion frequency monitors.” …
“The radio station of the future will eventually use some form or some adaptation of automatic programming. Many point to the operator who is required to be on duty and to the possibility that a so-called ‘robot’ operation would result in programming devoid of personality. Perhaps a compromise will be the semi-automatic operation, in which the operator on duty can select or cue any desired record by pushing a button.”
3. The NAB Broadcast Engineering Conference has long sought reports from standards organization and other groups to report their progress at the annual convention. For radio, the National Radio Systems Committee has been a consistent presence at the conference since the early 1980s, whenever announcements were timely.
Formed in 1958, though, there was another NSRC, which stood for National Stereophonic Radio Committee. At the 1960 conference, C.G. Lloyd, former NSRC chairman, presented the progress of that committee’s quest to deliver stereophonic broadcasting and had just delivered a report to the FCC on the subject. The NSRC had received 14 proposals for FM systems, at least seven for AM and four for TV sound. Each of these broadcast platforms eventually followed different circuitous paths to stereo — 1961 for FM stereo, 1984 for television sound and 1993 for AM stereo — but the NAB Broadcast Engineering Conference helped engineers understand the process from the beginning.
4. Radio has endured many technical controversies, with digital radio being a particularly salient example. At the 1991 NAB Broadcast Engineering Conference, NAB sponsored a demonstration of the Eureka-147 DAB system with transmissions from the top of the H on the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel next to the convention center (now the Westgate) and a repeater installed on the roof of the Golden Nugget Hotel downtown. A 40-seat bus fitted with a receiver and headphones drove attendees around Las Vegas showing the consistently crystal-clear audio quality of the system.
At the Broadcast Engineering Conference, an entire afternoon was devoted to the different technical approaches to digital broadcasting, Eureka-147 included, but also a presentation from Paul Donahue from Gannett Broadcasting and Tony Masiello from CBS titled “Project Acorn: Compatible DAB.”
Those who have been around awhile or studied radio history will recognize that this was the original concept for the system that eventually became HD Radio. At the time, NAB had officially endorsed the Eureka-147 DAB system and was favoring an allocation for DAB in the L-band. This issue was hotly debated at the 1991 convention at various levels, and of course, in-band, on-channel technology eventually won the argument for NAB and for U.S. broadcasters.
It’s notable, though, that the Broadcast Engineering Conference program did attempt to present all sides of the proponent technologies and kept the politics to a minimum, as the advocates had a forum where they could plead their respective cases on a technical basis.
RW: How is the BEITC different today?
Claudy: The conference has moved with the times, such as adding “Information Technology” to the title of the Broadcast Engineering Conference, recognizing the importance of IT skills in the modern broadcast plant.
Other than that, NAB Technology still has a committee of broadcast engineers that meets several times a year, albeit virtually these days, to organize topics, review papers, assign session chairpersons and so forth, all the things that go into planning a top notch technical conference.
This year the chair of the BEITC Committee was Jim DeChant, vice president, technology at News-Press & Gazette Broadcasting.
We also work with partner organizations including the Society of Broadcast Engineers, the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) to provide program content that will be relevant to the BEITC audience.
RW: Describe how BEITC content is found and chosen today, and by whom.
Claudy: In a normal year, a call for papers is released in the fall, and the BEITC committee and NAB Technology staff review the submissions and accept papers that will be presented late in the year.
Papers that will be published in the proceedings must be submitted by mid or late January. We will typically get submissions that would occupy at least twice the space that we can accommodate, so it’s a pretty competitive process. If there ends up being gaps in the program, or important topics identified where there weren’t any submissions, NAB Technology staff may solicit additional speakers.
The post BEITC Serves “The Gods of the Machines” appeared first on Radio World.
Regarding Larry Langford’s commentary “Sweeten the Pot to Entice AM Digital”:
My initial concern is what a 100% digital signal will do to co-channel and first-adjacent stations who are operating in analog with listeners in the fringe. Should these analog AM stations be given compensation for the loss of coverage? Should they be given companion channels of operation to replace lost coverage?
I still recall a rather contentious debate in a broadcast list some decade or more ago. The CE of a Class 1B station was bragging about his IBOC, while some people were complaining about how it chewed up analog stations some 100 to 400 miles away at night. The fellow justified the use of power and propagation as being “necessary to cover the station’s market area, roughly 45 miles in radius.”
So to cover a 45-mile radius of market, we have to ruin a 400-mile radius of spectrum? Isn’t this like playing your 250-watt stereo at full volume in an apartment complex because you’re deaf and unconcerned that it’s bothering the neighbors?
I still think that in the scope of protecting what we have and need for public service, the FCC should revise the frequency tables, using the recent incentive auction as a model.
Move TV broadcasters out of Channels 5 and 6. Allot that spectrum to digital radio broadcasters with a caveat that after five years on the air, they surrender their analog service. Mandate that all new radios (especially mobile) be outfitted with the new DM band. And since most 1A/1B broadcasters see no financial value in long-distance transmission, cap all transmissions to provide a 45-mile radius.
Working the math, you could get all the wannabe digital stations into the new band, and over time analog would pass. However it won’t be killed off by those wanting digital more than the need of listeners wanting analog.
Radio World welcomes letters to the editor to radioworld@futurenet.com.
The post Letter: Rethink the Radio Bands appeared first on Radio World.
We seem to be headed down two tracks on our way to the broadcast facility of the future.
Phil OwensOne is the appliance track, where we are migrating away from the model of apps running on a Windows PC and moving functions instead onto one dedicated appliance that isn’t subject to the finicky PC.
These are generally specialized AoIP or automation appliances that are Linux-based and therefore do not require Windows drivers, updates or PCs. Good examples are streaming appliances like Streamblade or Wheatstream that replace multiple PCs by putting everything streaming related into one AoIP Linux appliance.
The other is the app track, which takes us to the cloud and away from hardware in the rack room.
Here, we are offloading functions to the cloud where they can be remotely reconfigured, maintained and provisioned on a case-by-case basis. At its most ideal, centralized cloud-based applications will give us the ability to dial up encoding, IFB, routing, mixing, playback and even the kind of console needed for a given show or operator skill level.
Wheatstone, Xperi and other broadcast product makers are working on cloud-based apps using cloud technologies such as container platforms like Docker that will make it possible to transition from the entirely fixed-location studio to a more virtual operation.
Already, many of these apps exist. We know of broadcasters who are containing audio drivers in a virtual machine onsite in preparation of eventually offloading that part of their operation to the cloud and others who are putting multiple studio workflows from multiple locations in a one-stop virtual interface.
Moving it all to the cloud can downsize space requirements in the rack room and shift engineering management to an offsite provider. Eliminating any piece of gear in the air chain along with its connectors and potential points of failure is a good thing, and that goes for specialized appliances too, because these can replace more generic PC-based functions and also reduce space requirements and engineering management.
CoexistenceThere are advantages and disadvantages of both the cloud-based app model and the appliance model.
Offloading functions to Microsoft, Amazon or other cloud provider takes away the cost and upkeep of hardware in the rack room but leaves you subject to third-party vulnerabilities. On the other track, having an appliance onsite gives you some of the consolidation benefits of an all-in-one rack unit similar to the cloud model, although at the additional expense of on-premise infrastructure and upkeep.
It doesn’t have to be one way or another, fortunately. There are many different ways to divide and subdivide that signal chain between functions in the cloud and functions onsite in an appliance.
For example, it’s possible to have automation and mixing functions in the cloud but maintain control from a local virtual or hardware interface. If your playback is being done mostly off a cloud server, you might have a virtual control surface in the studio that is talking to a mix engine in the cloud. Similarly, you could also be receiving your mic audio from a codec that’s in the cloud.
More likely, the broadcast facility of the future will use a combination of both: appliances for consolidating functions into a single 1RU box that eliminates a bank of Windows PCs yet the use of cloud for shared mixing, routing or removes streaming and automation without the real estate, upkeep and of the Windows PC.
We’ll likely arrive at the future broadcast facility from both tracks, and not entirely from one or the other.
The post Appliance? or Cloud-based App? appeared first on Radio World.
Jessica Rosenworcel wants members of a key advisory group to help the FCC “sort through some of the toughest security problems facing our country’s communications networks.”
The acting chairwoman recently reconstituted the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council, seeking to “revitalize” it. And on Wednesday she spoke to the group to lay out her vision for its work.
She opened her remarks by citing a litany of recent notable cybersecurity events: a wireless carrier in the Netherlands whose traffic was susceptible to monitoring; a security breach of Exchange software that left bank, health and government servers vulnerable; the SolarWinds Breach that allowed hackers affiliated with the Russian government to access government and private networks undetected; the theft of data on millions of T-Mobile customers; and the ransomware attack on an Iowa farming co-op this month.
“This needs our attention because enough is enough,” Rosenworcel told the CSRIC members.
[Related: Rosenworcel Names Members to Revamped Advisory Group]
She said the FCC is pursuing a multipronged strategy to assure security as the use of 5G expands.
“In this environment, rechartering CSRIC was a no-brainer. This council is one of the nation’s most impactful cybersecurity partnerships. But we didn’t want to do it same-old, same-old. We wanted to make it better.”
She explained that for the first time the group will be co-chaired by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which leads a national effort to enhance the safety of the cybersecurity and communications infrastructure. “Earlier this year, CISA co-authored a leading report on potential threat vectors to 5G infrastructure. Their partnership here will help ensure a unity of effort between those responsible for protecting the country and those who own and operate the infrastructure that is so critical to that mission.”
She said the group also will reflect more participation from the public interest community. “The public and consumers also will have a voice on issues that ultimately affect their safety and security along with private sector stakeholders.”
The group is to prioritize 5G.
“That means we have a working group to explore the security and resiliency of Open RAN. We have a working group looking at more broadly leveraging virtualization technology to enhance network security. We have a working group looking at the technical issues involving the security of 5G signaling protocols. And building on CSRIC’s earlier work to remove untrusted hardware from our communications and infrastructure and building on lessons learned from the SolarWinds hack, we have a working group looking at the software side of supply chain security.”
Rosenworcel noted that Hurricane Ida knocked cell sites offline in Louisiana, so she wants the group also to make progress on the resiliency of communications networks. “We’ve got a working group to look at improving 911 — specifically 911 service over Wi-Fi. And we have yet another working group that will be looking at ways to improve Wireless Emergency Alerts.”
[Related: Marketron and Its Users Slammed by Cyber Event]
She called this “a to-do list of security challenges that we already know about,” and she asked the members of the group to be “on the lookout for threats that are just around the bend.”
Sectors represented on the group include local emergency officials, transportation, wireless and broadband companies, consumer electronics manufacturers, chip makers, public broadcasting and government agencies.
The post Rosenworcel Gives CSRIC Its New Charge appeared first on Radio World.
A group of over two dozen U.S. Senators are urging President Biden to designate acting FCC Chairman Jessica Rosenworcel to a permanent position, making her the first woman to hold the office.
The chairmanship of the commission has been in limbo since Biden was sworn into office on Jan. 20, 2021, with Rosenworcel operating in acting capacity. Some of the group of Democratic Senators (and one Independent, Angus King of Maine) noted that they had voiced their support in a similar letter to Biden after he was declared winner of the 2020 election and said having a permanent chair is important, in light of Congressional efforts to provide funding for expanded broadband access nationwide as well as address the impacts of the 18+ month pandemic, part of the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021,” now being considered by the House.
“Given this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ensure all people have access to broadband, it is absolutely essential that there are trusted, qualified appointees leading these agencies to coordinate the deployment effort across your administration” the senators — representing 17 states — wrote in a letter to the president.
They asked President Biden to appoint her to the chairmanship “as quickly as possible,” adding that “further delay simply puts at risk the major broadband goals that we share and that Congress has worked hard to advance as part of your administration’s agenda.”
They added that Rosenworcel is the best person for the job.
“There is no better qualified or more competent person to lead the FCC at this important time than Acting Chair Rosenworcel,” the senators said. “We have long experience working with her and her team, and she has already shown an ability to steer the FCC through these extraordinary and difficult times. Importantly, we believe that Acting Chair Rosenworcel will face few obstacles to her confirmation.”
The delay in appointing a permanent FCC chair is “the longest in 44 years,” according to Telecom TV. Capitol Hill pundits speculate that the delay could surround the administration’s indecision on whether to have the commission’s first female chair or whether or not to nominate an African-American to the position.
The post Senators Urge President Biden to Make Rosenworcel Official FCC Chair appeared first on Radio World.
The Federal Communications Commission has extended the due date for FY 2021 regulatory fees to Monday night Sept. 27.
It’s a three-day extension and it applies to all annual regulatory fee payors. The announcement did not provide a reason.
Fees have been in the news in our industry because the commission had planned to raise them for most radio and TV stations, but it backed away from that after getting strong pushback from the industry.
[Related: “Broadcasters Get a Win on Regulatory Fees”]
The post FCC Extends Deadline for Regulatory Fees appeared first on Radio World.
Please show your support by using the Ko-Fi link at the bottom of the page. Thank you for supporting REC's efforts!
