Aggregator

Big semiconductor company NXP has joined RadioDNS, calling the decision a restatement of its commitment to broadcast radio.

The two organizations have worked together extensively but now the manufacturer becomes a formal member of the hybrid radio project.

Nacho Seirul-Lo Salas, NXP’s director of Program Management Customer Application Support, also joins the RadioDNS Steering Board.

He said in the announcement, “After years of fruitful collaboration, where NXP has presented at least three generations of hybrid radio demonstrators, NXP is now happy to join the RadioDNS organization to restate our commitment to broadcast radio and enhancement of its user experience by adding metadata from the internet.”

Nick Piggott, project director, said the decision “reflects the growing importance of our open standards for hybrid radio. … We’ll continue to work closely with [NXP] to help their OEM customers implement our global standards for hybrid radio.”

[Related: “Power Up Hybrid Radio With RadioDNS”]

The post NXP Joins RadioDNS appeared first on Radio World.

From our Who’s Buying What page: This fun photo shows some of the 12 NV5LT transmitters currently in production at Nautel that are headed for Turkish Radio & Television.

“These transmitters are going to nine stations across five regions to enhance TRT’s coverage across Turkey,” the company said in a Facebook post.

The manufacturer recently landed a substantial contract to provide 5 kW transmitters to that client throughout 2021. Combined with other orders over the past decade, Nautel has said that its transmitters have been “used to modernize a large portion of Turkey’s national FM Radio infrastructure.”

Among other notable sales recently reported by Nautel, Cumulus station WFAS(AM) in White Plains, N.Y., is using a Nautel NX3 transmitter with Omnia.9 audio processor for its all-digital AM signal that went live in May.

[More postings on “Who’s Buying What.”]

Submit announcements to mailto:radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Transmitters Prepped for Turkey appeared first on Radio World.

The best form of advertising has always been word of mouth. TechSurvey 2021’s way of measuring this metric for radio is the Net Promoter Score (NPS). When ranked on a likelihood to recommend scale of 1 to 10, those choosing 9 or 10 are classified as promoters. Those selecting 0 to 6 are the detractors. Applying simple math, percent promoters – percent detractors = NPS.

One thing that hasn’t changed since TechSurvey began publishing NPS scores is that Christian and public radio lead the noncommercial radio pack in the number one and two places respectively. Noncommercial radio has shown steady growth over the past 17 years, hitting an all-time high of 50% in 2021. Christian now has an impressive score of 80%, while public radio is close behind with 75%.

[Read: Survey Says Full Speed Ahead for Mobile Devices and Apps]

The commercial radio part of the NPS ranking has changed from TS 2020, where rock and country were in the lead, and alternative was bringing up the rear. This year, the leaders are rhythmic urban and urban AC, with news/talk in last place. The NPS numbers for TS 2020 were largely driven by women, younger demos and music fans. No breakdown was published for TS 2021.

Online meetings have experienced explosive growth over the past year and a half, largely due to COVID, and for the first time, Jacobs Media has begun to track who is attending, and how often.

The word Zoom has become ingrained in our vocabulary, often synonymous with any type of online meeting, even though there are Google Meet, GoToMeeting, Skype and other online gathering providers.

TS 2021 numbers suggest that daily and weekly participants in online meetings are largely in younger demographics, led by 53% of Millennials, with Greatest Generation at the trailing edge with 26%.

Online meetings have had unexpected benefits for some organizations. Many had relied on in-person gatherings in the past. That tended to restrict participants to those in close driving distance, and/or those who didn’t mind rush hour traffic and parking issues in urban areas. Online meetings have leveled the playing field, giving an equal presence to everyone regardless of distance from an organization’s main office.

The post TechSurvey Says Christian and Public Radio Still Leading Radio Recommenders appeared first on Radio World.

The accelerative impact of COVID-19 on digital transformation has led to improvements in mobile marketing capabilities for advertisers. Growth in “m-commerce “and use of social media have provided brands with new opportunities to reach consumers, driving up mobile marketing budgets set to be worth $230 billion globally in 2021.

That’s the latest finding from WARC Data.

There’s just one caveat: privacy concerns could hamper mobile’s growth potential.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

Thanks to exceptional growth in its digital segment, Entravision Communications Corp. stock has enjoyed a six-month surge.

Entering Christmas Eve 2020, shares were priced at $2.70. As of midday trading on Tuesday (6/15), EVC is up 104% since then.

That has Zacks Equity Research asking if it is time for investors to cash out.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

Until now, it’s been mainly known for its conservative Talk radio stations, Christian-themed radio programming including music-oriented “The Fish,” and a publishing arm that finished 2020 strong.

Now, Salem Media Group‘s sales division has formed an entity focused on “connecting brands with the fans of leading Christian social media influencers.”

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

The Radio Mercury Awards have announced the 2021 Final Round Jury.

The incoming panel of top-level agency creative leaders represents radio’s top advertising categories, including automotive, consumer packaged goods (CPG), communications, community service, education, financial services, nonprofits, quick-serve restaurants, retail, spirits, technology, travel and utilities.

The jury, curated with the help of 2021 Radio Mercury Awards Chief Judge Robin Fitzgerald, the Chief Creative Officer at BBDO Atlanta, is comprised of “thought leaders from across the country and represents all size markets with diverse audiences and cutting-edge creative work for advertising’s biggest brands,” the RAB says.

Listed below is the 2021 Radio Mercury Awards Final Round Jury:

• Chief Judge – Robin Fitzgerald, chief creative officer, BBDO Atlanta
• Adia Betts, associate creative director/copywriter, Dagger Atlanta
• Nathalie Brown, executive creative director, VMLY&R NY
• Bianca Guimaraes, partner and executive creative director, Mischief NY
• Paul Johnson, freelance copywriter/creative director
• Derrick Ogilvie, vice president/creative director, BBDO Atlanta
• Andrés Ordóñez, executive vice president/chief creative officer, FCB Chicago
• Alejandro Ortiz, executive creative director, Campbell Ewald Detroit/NY
• Shannon Washington, senior vice president executive creative director, R/GA
• Lewis Williams, chief creative officer, Burrell Communications Group Chicago
• Sherman Winfield, executive creative director, VMLY&R Atlanta

To find out more information regarding the 2021 Radio Mercury Awards and enter, please visit www.radiomercuryawards.com.

“Despite some past speculation, LP-250 is not dead in the water. We are just starting over with a new plan and a different commission.”

That’s the assessment of Michelle Bradley, founder of REC Networks, on the topic of a possible power increase for low-power FMs.

In an online post, Bradley responded to a Radio World story in which we speculated that this week’s pending FCC action “affirming” a limit of 100 watts was bad news for REC Networks’ latest LP-250 proposal.

But Bradley said our interpretation was a misreading of events at the commission.

“The draft Order on Reconsideration merely upholds the FCC’s prior decisions made in the Report and Order in MB Docket 19-193, which prompted Petitions for Reconsideration by two different groups,” she wrote.

“The ‘finality’ that Acting Chair Rosenworcel suggests is the finality of these specific pending issues and once they were finalized, the commission could proceed with a LPFM filing window, which will follow sometime after November’s full-service noncommercial educational filing window.”

Bradley’s post details her extensive communications with the FCC staff over details of a possible 250-watt rule and why she believes her “Simple250” proposal will now get what she calls “a full set of downs.”

Her bottom line: “REC continues to feel that today’s FCC will have more of an appetite for an LP-250 rural expansion as compared to the previous Pai and O’Reilly FCC.”

Read her post.

The post Bradley: LP-250 Is Not Dead in the Water appeared first on Radio World.

He serves as the anchor and managing editor of NBC’s flagship news broadcast. He has also served as principal anchor of “Dateline NBC” since September 2011 and leads NBC News’ special reports, breaking news and primetime political coverage.

Lester Holt is now being recognized for those efforts with his induction into the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

The ceremony will be conducted during the 2021 NAB Show, scheduled for October 9–13 in Las Vegas. Holt will accept the honor at the NAB Show Welcome event on Monday, October 11 at 9am Pacific.

Holt joined NBC News in 2000 and served as an anchor of “Newsfront” and “Lester Holt Live,” a daily news show on MSNBC, before becoming co-anchor of “Weekend TODAY” in 2003 and anchored the weekend editions of “NBC Nightly News” beginning in 2007. During his time at NBC News, Holt has moderated presidential debates; reported from breaking news events in the U.S. and abroad including terrorist attacks, natural disasters and civil unrest; anchored numerous specials and investigative series; interviewed national and international newsmakers; and covered every Olympics since the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

“Lester Holt’s integrity, gravitas and dedication make him one of the preeminent journalists in America today,” said NAB President/CEO Gordon Smith. “Millions of Americans turn to him every day to find out what is happening in their communities and deepen their understanding of the world. We are delighted to recognize his contributions to broadcast journalism by inducting him into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame.”

Before joining NBC News, Holt began his television journalism career at local broadcast stations WCBS-TV in New York, KCBS-TV (then KNXT) in Los Angeles and WBBM-TV in Chicago, where he worked for 14 years including as the afternoon and evening news anchor.

BOCA RATON, FLA. — Its roots are in newspapers, and its former dailies include the Naples Daily News and the Treasure Coast Newspapers that are now part of Gannett.

Now, The E.W. Scripps Co. is ready to bring local news to Floridians across some of the state’s biggest markets once again. Only, there’s no print involved. This time, it involves a screen, TV cameras, and internet connectivity.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

On June 3, RBR+TVBR first shared the news that Sinclair Broadcast Group had opted to sell its lone radio broadcasting stations — a pair of AM spoken-word stations, a heritage Hot Adult Contemporary FM, and an FM that simulcasts one of those big AM properties.

The buyer is Lotus Communications. Now, paperwork filed with the FCC offers new details on the deal — including a pending call-letter change for the AM/FM pair, and just how much cash Lotus will pay Sinclair.

Please Login to view this premium content. (Not a member? Join Today!)

On Thursday (6/17), television industry executives will once again be gathering in a virtual manner. While COVID-19 pandemic concerns are rapidly melting away, the organizers of the annual Kagan Media Summit opted to forego traveling to New York just yet. The comfort level of participants will undoubtedly be higher, as the 2020 affair was a digital one, too.

With the Radio + Television Business Report again the official media partner for the summit, same-day coverage of key Kagan events produced by the S&P Global Market Intelligence group will be delivered to RBR+TVBR subscribers at RBR.com. What can participants expect this year?

S&P Global Market Intelligence Senior Research Analyst Justin Nielson spoke with RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson to offer a preview of the event, and you can listen to what he says in the latest InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM.

Listen to “RBR+TVBR InFOCUS Podcast: Justin Nielson” on Spreaker.

The media technology industry is facing a shortage of industry components.

Factory shutdowns during the pandemic caused shortages across the electronic components industry, affecting automakers, mobile device manufacturers as well as broadcast and media technology companies. To try to determine how widespread the problem is, the IABM, an international trade association for broadcast and media technology, recently conducted a survey across its membership of media technology suppliers asking for their direct experience with potential shortages of electronic components.

The survey yielded 130 responses from companies both within the U.S. and internationally and found that 40% of its member companies reported severe shortages while 45% were facing moderate shortages. Only 15% of respondents said they were seeing mild issues.

The IABM took this to mean that every company that responded said they are experiencing some level of problems in obtaining components.

“The worldwide shortage of electronic components … is also having a significant impact on the broadcast, media and entertainment technology industry,” said Lorenzo Zanni, head of knowledge at IABM. “We undertook this international survey because some of our members indicated that they were having problems sourcing components; these survey results, which were given to us by members in every geography, clearly show that this is an international problem.”

The survey revealed that 43% of those who responded said they were struggling to obtain chips in particular. Broken down between logic chips and memory chips, 13% of those respondents said memory chips were the specific item they were unable to obtain while 11% said they were looking for field-programmable gate arrays or FPGAs. Other items that were in demand included assemblies and subassemblies — including workstations, motherboards and printed circuit boards — followed by oscillators, GPUs, CPUs and small-form factor pluggable transceivers or SFPs. Fifty-six percent of all respondents reported shortages across most of these component categories.

The survey also found that geography is playing a role. Twenty-six percent of the respondents identified Asian Pacific countries as the source of supply trouble — although a majority saw this shortage as an international problem with supply issues appearing nearly everywhere components are manufactured.

What next? The survey asked respondents what steps they were taking to mitigate the effects of these shortages; 40% said they are finding alternative suppliers or spreading orders across several manufacturers with 31% either ordering large stocks of supplies or paying more for components. Of those surveyed, 19% say they are managing customer expectations successfully and 10% are simply waiting for the market to improve.

There doesn’t seem to be an easy fix for this issue, Zanni said. “[G]iven the difficulty in obtaining some of the rare raw materials and the fact that you can’t suddenly switch up production to meet demand, [this problem] looks likely to be with us for some time to come.”

One solution proposed by the IABM is the BaM Stock Exchange, a database that will allow IABM member companies to search for and find high-demand components. The goal is to help IABM members to obtain the parts they need or reduce their unused stock overhead.

The exchange is searchable and filterable in an effort to help a company connect with a company with extra stock. Most media technology companies do hold some stock of components, including those that they may no longer use, said Peter White, IABM CEO. “Since many components are common across broadcast and media tech suppliers, it makes compelling sense to use the industry’s independent, international organization as an exchange,” he said, adding that idea came from a conversation with Grass Valley CEO Tim Shoulders.

“IABM is committed to building and sustaining a thriving global media tech community and this kind of initiative plays perfectly with that mission,” White said.

The post Media Companies Beginning to Feel Pinch from Component Shortage appeared first on Radio World.

A major television brand has surpassed a major milestone in the rollout of addressable televisions across the U.S. — bring more screens to life that are enabled with dynamic ad insertion technology.

The news from VIZIO comes on the heels of numerous successful ad campaigns from America’s top TV networks.

The number represents a significant milestone for members of Project OAR, the addressable advertising consortium founded by VIZIO and America’s top TV media companies.

How so? By expanding the footprint, programmers are able to deliver and manage addressable TV ad inventory inside of linear programming broadcast to homes across America.

“Addressable TV advertising has arrived,” said Adam Gaynor, VP Network Partnerships and Head of Addressable for VIZIO and OAR. “Today’s milestone pushes the consortium beyond a ‘Project’ and into an addressable business. We have worked to put standards in place in collaboration with top networks to deliver addressable campaigns at scale and enhance the TV experience for viewers at home. With the infrastructure in place and more campaigns going live in the market, we are making it possible to deploy, manage and sell dynamic ads for local and national inventory.”

The consortium, which is composed of America’s leading television networks and operators and VIZIO, “have worked hard to create open standards that anyone in the ecosystem can use to increase the relevancy of advertising and improve linear viewing for consumers,” the TV set manufacturer noted.

AMC Networks, FOX and WarnerMedia are among several of the companies that have executed national addressable campaigns using the OAR standard.

“WarnerMedia has run national addressable campaigns across linear and VOD since 2020, while expanding our capacity and footprint through direct integrations with multiple distributors, and partnering with brands across an array of categories,” said JP Colaco, head of advertising sales at WarnerMedia. “As pioneers in the addressable industry for nearly a decade with DirecTV, we are excited to collaborate with other industry leaders like OAR to continue to drive awareness, education and enablement, while advocating for standards, in addressable TV.”

Colaco was the President of Radio Disney from 1998-2006. He would go on to serve as SVP of Advertising Sales and Operations at Hulu, from 2007-2013.

CHICAGO — A broadcast technology integration firm that’s gaining national recognition for its efforts has added a Partner as it prepares to welcome a Systems Engineer to their team.

Taking up a leadership position at Inrush Broadcast Services is Shaun Dolan.

He was formerly a Product Manager at Telos Alliance, where Dolan’s team developed and launched Telos VXs, a virtual voice over IP talk show system. He also managed the Telos VX product family of broadcast telephony systems.

Meanwhile, Sam Reiman takes the engineering role following a tenure at Weigel Broadcasting, which is based in Chicago.

Brian Sapp (pictured), a Partner at Inrush, saluted Reiman for his “deep knowledge of media workflows, paired with his innate ability to take a deep dive into new topics and become a subject matter expert in short order.”

The NBC Sports Group’s Olympics arm has selected Telestream to provide media capture and automated processing workflows for its production of the Games of the XXXII Olympiad, which remain on schedule for July 23-August 8 in Tokyo.

NBC Olympics will use Telestream’s Lightspeed Live Capture and Vantage media processing platform to perform a unique, mixed HDR/SDR workflow.

The Lightspeed Live Capture systems will receive 1080p59.94 HDR signals from the events and create media simultaneously to two different formats.

As the 1080p59.94 HDR is recorded in XAVC Class 100 HDR (Hybrid Log Gamma or HLG) format, Telestream’s Vantage software, running on an array of Lightspeed G6 servers will process the media as it is growing. SDR versions will be created in XDCAMHD 422 at 1080i59.94. The HDR to SDR conversion will be done through a new advanced color processing pipeline in Vantage utilizing color processing Look Up Table filters (LUTs) that translate HDR (HLG) to SDR (Rec. 709). In real time, while Lightspeed Live Capture is under record, Vantage will check both HDR and SDR assets into Avid Interplay. The Vantage system provides frame chase editing capabilities of both the HDR and SDR product, allowing Avid operators to edit on the fly from the live files as they are being recorded.

The HDR/SDR workflow takes advantage of Avid’s new cross-rate dynamic relink capability. Avid operators focus on editing the 1080i59.94 SDR-based content, which will be consumed by the majority of viewers, and then simply re-link/conform to the HDR assets to finish edits against the 1080p59.94 HDR product.

The complexity of producing Olympic Games coverage requires testing and monitoring solutions with the highest level of performance and reliability to ensure high-quality content is being delivered to viewers. To handle this task, NBC Olympics will leverage the complete suite of UHD/4K Waveform Monitors from Telestream’s Tektronix Video product family supporting UHD/HDR formats and ITU-R BT.2020 wide color gamut (WCG), Master Sync and Master Clock Reference Generators, and more to support its coverage.

The equipment, along with Sentry OTT monitoring solutions from Telestream, will be used to monitor and test the quality of video and audio content used in NBC Olympics’ production, post production, transmission, and distribution workflows in NBC Olympics’ facilities supporting a record level of content.

Chicago-based broadcast services and integrator Inrush Broadcast Services has announced the hiring of Shaun Dolan and Sam Reiman.

[Visit Radio World’s People News Page]

Dolan was previously with The Telos Alliance as a product developer and manager specializing in the VX family of VoIP telephone products. He will be a partner with the company.

Reiman most recently was a broadcast systems engineer for Weigel Broadcasting. He will be a systems engineer for Inrush

Send news of engineering and executive personnel changes to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Dolan and Reiman Join Inrush Broadcast Services appeared first on Radio World.

SANTA MONICA, CALIF. —In addition to serving as the Los Angeles home for HC2 Holdings-owned Spanish-language broadcast television network Azteca America, KJLA-TV owns and operates two greenscreen stages and production studios at its westside L.A. facility.

With growing demand from its studio rental clients for higher-resolution video acquisition and production, KJLA purchased four SK-UHD4000 cameras from Hitachi Kokusai Electric America, Ltd. (Hitachi Kokusai) to meet these requests and set the stage for future growth.

KJLA rents its studios to premium media and entertainment clientele for projects ranging from network TV shows and motion pictures to music videos and corporate video productions. Clients can use the studios’ in-house equipment or choose to bring in their own gear. KJLA also uses the studios to produce its own original content for its sister company LATV Networks, a bilingual media enterprise.

KJLA was equipped with 1080i HDTV camera systems but received increasing requests for 1080p “full HD” production, and also saw growing client interest in 4K acquisition.

“We considered upgrading to 1080p cameras, but looking forward, that would only buy us a couple of years before we would need to go all the way to 4K,” said Tony Solano, chief engineer at KJLA-TV. “People were already starting to ask for 4K, so we decided to upgrade all the way.”

KJLA took delivery of the SK-UHD4000s at the beginning of February. Three of the cameras are deployed on Cartoni pedestals, with the fourth on a Jimmy Jib Triangle.

“The quality of the Z-HD6000s was great but the SK-UHD4000s are even better, even when we’re using them to shoot HD,” Solano said. “I also love the depth of picture controls that we have access to, not only through the controller but also through the cameras’ integration with the Ross Dashboard software.”

While KJLA often provides camera operators with their full-service studio and equipment rentals, other times clients bring their own crew and simply use KJLA’s gear and space. Solano notes that both their own operators and client users have found it simple to get up to speed with the new 4K cameras. “The learning curve on the SK-UHD4000s is very quick,” he said. “While our clients’ crews are professionals, the cameras are so easy that I feel like almost anybody could use them.”

The exceptional sensitivity of the SK-UHD4000s has also been beneficial for productions’ lighting requirements. “The stage manager for our LATV Networks productions noted that they don’t need to do as much lighting as they previously did,” Solano explained.

Overall, the Hitachi 4K cameras have positioned KJLA to meet the evolving needs of themselves and their clients both today and in the future. “The upgrade was very smooth, and it has been a great experience,” Solano summarized. “The SK-UHD4000s let us better serve our existing clients, while giving us the ability to take on a greater breadth of new customers and projects.”

— RBR+TVBR West Coast Bureau, with reporting by Brian Galante