Industry News

An ANGA GOM “Restart” has been confirmed.

On May 10, some 300 confirmed exhibitors and high-level conference speakers will gather in Köln, Germany, as “Europe’s leading Exhibition and Conference for Broadband, Television & Online” is moving forward with a delayed 2022 in-person gathering.

The three-day affair looks to be one of the world’s biggest post-pandemic events for the visual entertainment and media industry. Due to various stand enlargements, the total space of the European and North American exhibitors is already at the level of the last ANGA COM show held in 2019.

The gross exhibition space for the first 300 exhibitors is already more than 20,000 sqm.

“We receive growing optimism of our exhibitors every day,” says Dr. Peter Charissé, Managing Director of ANGA COM. “The broadband and media industry is facing a new and splendid level of investment. In Germany, for example, with its more than 40 million households, network operators and a steadily growing number of international investors have announced to invest many billions in new fiber infrastructures. All leading fiber operators will be prominently represented in the conference program. ANGA COM will be the first major industry meeting with early summer conditions. With 15-meter high exhibition halls, a huge foyer and the popular open air plaza with food trucks, our location has never been more attractive.”

The complete conference program of ANGA COM 2022 will be published in March. Conference topics include OTT, AppTV, Video Streaming, Fixed Mobile Convergence, Sustainability, Artificial Intelligence, Smart City and Smart Home and the political, legal and regulatory issues of the broadband and media industry.

— With reports from correspondents in Kaiserslautern, Germany

Registration for conference and exhibition visitors is now possible online at www.angacom.de. 

A schematic for an Oscilloscope “Circuit Octopus”

You probably have a junk box of components, but can you identify all of them? And do you know whether they all work?

I came across a neat video prepared by amateur radio operator W2AEW, a 10-minute tutorial on checking components. The video gives an example of performing simple component testing using a curve tracer or “Circuit Octopus” and an oscilloscope.

It describes the Octopus, then delves into how to check resistors, diodes, transistors and even capacitors. When feeding an oscilloscope with the test fixture, you can identify open or shorted components. Here’s the link for the video: https://youtu.be/Gwo3pEH7hUE.

There are hundreds of schematics for building your own Octopus. Stephen M. Powell’s design, shown above, is one of the simplest.

Old law, new take
Over the years consultant Frank Hertel has contributed many useful ideas for readers of this column. Frank’s brother, Johnny, likes to delve a little deeper into electronics.

He writes that he recently came across a list of electricity definitions. Most were familiar, but three jumped out at him:

The first is 1 Ohm, which was defined as the resistance of a column of mercury (at the temperature of melting ice) of a uniform cross section of 1 square millimeter and a length of 106.30 centimeters.

One Volt is the electromotive force that produces a current of 1 Ampere when steadily applied to a conductor with the resistance of 1 Ohm.

One Ampere is the unit of current strength. It is the current which, when passed through a solution of nitrate of silver in water (in accordance with certain specifications), deposits silver at the rate of 0.00118 of a gram per second. The flow of electrical current is measured in Amperes or Amps, using an Ammeter.

Kind of relates Ohm’s Law in a new way, doesn’t it?

You need a shrink
A number of years ago, 3M developed a product called Cold Shrink as a weather seal for cabling. Broadcast engineer and frequent contributor Dan Slentz called this line of cable joints and terminations to my attention and wondered why he hadn’t heard of it before now.

3M Cold Shrink pre-stretched tubes effectively seal coax connectors from weather.

When it was released, I recall that each Cold Shrink tube was pretty expensive, much more costly than other forms of connector weather-sealing. Apparently as the product has evolved, its cost has gotten more reasonable.

So what is Cold Shrink tubing? It’s an expanded tubular rubber sleeve, and 3M found a way to stretch the diameter of the tubing so it will fit over an RF connector.

[Check Out More of Workbench Here]

The sleeve is kept in its expanded state with a wound plastic core. After the sleeve is positioned over the connector to be weatherproofed, you unwind the plastic core. As the plastic core is removed, the expanded rubber begins to shrink, forming a constant radial pressure seal around the connector and cable.

An image from the 3M website shows installation of Cold Shrink for an underground cable run.

Originally designed for the power industry, Cold Shrink tubes are ideal for outside RF connections in the broadcast industry. Plus, in addition to protecting connectors, Cold Shrink tubes conform to the water seal requirements of ANSI C119.1.

See the video Dan found at the website of Thorne & Derrick International at www.powerandcables.com/cold-shrink-tubes/.

3M itself has a useful info page that we’ve linked at https://tinyurl.com/rw-coldshrink.

Can you imagine trying to use a torch to heat shrink a standard weatherproofing boot up on a tower? Keep this product in mind for your next tower cable run.

John Bisset, CPBE, has 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. He 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 Use an Octopus to Check Components appeared first on Radio World.

With shares at their lowest value in a decade, discarding the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, investors may be intensely awaiting the latest fiscal report card for Nielsen Holdings plc.

When will the nation’s dominant audience measurement and consumer data analysis house share the company’s fourth quarter and full-year 2021 results?

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He has had a “unique” path to success. Now, 2022 NAB Show attendees will get to hear all about it, as Byron Allen has agreed to appear in a flame-free “fireside chat” scheduled for Wednesday, April 27 at the Las Vegas event — the NAB’s first since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Allen will be interviewed by retired NAB President/CEO Gordon Smith, who now serves as a special adviser to the organization.

The discussion is on the calendar for a 9:15am Pacific start.

Allen is the President/CEO of Allen Media Group and Entertainment Studios, and has emerged as a media mogul, with broadcast TV stations just one component of his empire.

It is Smith’s goal to have Allen engage in a two-sided conversation in which both the former U.S. Senator and the TV industry star “discuss the steps in their professional careers that helped them achieve success.”

The chat will serve as the centerpiece of the NAB Show Executive Leadership Series session. Allen and Smith also plan to address their respective roles as advocates and leaders in the broadcast industry and the “enduring value” of local television in an ever-changing marketplace.

Allen Media Group owns 27 television stations in 21 markets, and could grow exponentially in the coming months and years.

Allen also partnered with Sinclair Broadcast Group in 2019 to acquire 21 Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) — a story often overlooked by national media.

Meanwhile, Allen’s Entertainment Studios, which predates the owned-station operation, produces and distributes syndicated program and sells advertising for 67 broadcast and cable television programs.

THE GORDON SMITH SHOW As previously reported, the retired U.S. Senator and former NAB head will receive NAB’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, at the 2022 NAB Show.

It’s known for nationally distributed digital multicast television networks such as the popular MeTV and siblings DECADES, Start TV, Heroes & Icons and MOVIES!

Now, the family of Weigel Broadcasting‘s national broadcast networks is set to expand.

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The E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse (Photo by Paulo JC Nogueira. Used under a Creative Commons license.)

Oral arguments are set for April 12 in the broadcast industry’s lawsuit against the FCC, seeking to overturn the commission’s order mandating disclosures for foreign government-sponsored programming.

On Friday the National Association of Broadcasters, the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters filed a reply brief with the federal appeals court. They are the organizations that brought this suit against the FCC.

They say the court should set aside the action because it violates not one but three crucial standards: the Communications Act, the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act.

Among their arguments, the broadcasters say that the FCC order tells stations to engage in “reasonable diligence” to determine the true source of the programming aired on its station, which mandates independent investigation of government websites.

“But the broadcaster’s statutory duty is far narrower,” they said. “Congress required only that each broadcaster ‘shall exercise reasonable diligence to obtain from its employees, and from other persons with whom it deals directly’ information necessary to disclose to the public the person who paid for the programming.” The plaintiffs emphasized the underlined phrase, concluding: “The commission cannot ignore the restrictions Congress has placed upon a broadcaster’s duty of diligence.”

They also criticized “the regulation’s extraordinary reach and sheer pointlessness” and said mandatory investigation “redresses a phantom harm never known to occur: namely, a foreign governmental entity registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act or a U.S.-based foreign media outlet registered under Section 722 of the Communications Act who leased broadcast time without disclosure.”

And they say the rule imposes substantial burdens on thousands of broadcasters to address the phantom harm. It said the FCC’s limited evidence — which in any event concerns no “harms” that the order redresses — can’t justify requiring every commercial broadcast station in the country to conduct independent investigations for every existing and future lease.

[Read the reply brief.]

The rule was approved 4–0 by the commissioners last year. Now, when a broadcaster leases time, they need to ask the “lessee” if they or their programming are from a foreign governmental entity.

“If the answer is yes, a sponsorship identification will need to be placed on air and documented in the station’s public file,” Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wrote at the time.

“If the answer is no, a broadcaster will need to independently verify the lessee using the Foreign Agent Registration Act website from the Department of Justice and the FCC’s semi-annual foreign media outlet reports.”

The FCC believes that foreign governmental entities are increasingly purchasing time on domestic broadcast stations.

Rosenworcel said last year, “We know that foreign entities are purchasing time on broadcast stations in markets across the country, including Chinese government-sponsored programming and Russian government-sponsored programming right here in our nation’s capital.”

The post Broadcasters Reiterate Opposition to Disclosure Rule appeared first on Radio World.

We’re starting to hear from companies about their exhibit plans for the NAB Show in April.

RCS — which will be located in the new West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center — says it has expanded remote features throughout its product line, focusing on the user experience and automating everyday tasks.

Zetta automation has a revamped Zetta2GO Voice Tracker with Zetta tools like volume points, trim in and trim out. The platform now has multiple Zetta themes, performance improvements for scalability, Virtual Events (identifying multiple assets within a single long-form file) and redesigned Hot Keys.

New Zetta2GO features include expanded drag and drop, keyboard navigation with Windows shortcut functionality, and F1 dynamic help.

[Read more stories about the 2022 NAB Show.]

RCS Cloud will be another focus of the RCS booth. The company calls it a true disaster recovery cloud solution, written for and on Amazon Web Services, following best practices and securities. “RCS Cloud disaster recovery can not only back up your audio, logs, metadata, and SQL backups, securely with Zetta’s built in Site Replication service, but we’ve also incorporated business friendly workflows.”

New GSelector 5.0 got a subtle thematic facelift, the company said, with the addition of new themes, scalable icons and a user-customized Song/Link Window, allowing users to organize and hide or display metadata based on multiple layouts.

“Programmers can already view and schedule their time granularity by hours and minutes, but now, with GSelector’s Flex Clocks, users can build their clocks and grids down to the minute or a single clock up to 24 hours a day, allowing for endless programming opportunities to save time and efficiently.”

Selector2GO allows users to add or edit elements, adjust clocks, schedule and massage logs, and analyze their spins.

RCS also highlights Aquira, its CRM, sales and traffic solution; RCS News, a centralized location for reporters to monitor RSS news feeds and email accounts, customize alerts for breaking news, define sub-categories and create and edit rundowns or audio; and Revma, a content delivery network infrastructure.

RCS Booth: W5222

The post NAB Show: RCS Powers Up Its Remote Features appeared first on Radio World.

Software company WinMedia named Florin Velea-Grumezea as its new sales manager.

“Florin’s expertise in broadcast has enabled him to acquire knowledge of all broadcast products, from studio to transmitter,” the company stated.

WinMedia said it is managing an increasing number of turnkey projects that require knowledge of IP audio and NDI for video. Velea-Grumezea is also expected to help the company grow its business in countries in Eastern Europe.

The announcement was made by CEO Stéphane Tesoriere, who said that Velea-Grumezea “will continue the prospecting work that we launched three years ago and which is proving to be a real success with many customers who have trusted us with the modernization of their radio from audio-only to visual.”

See more recent People News coverage.

The post Velea-Grumezea Joins WinMedia appeared first on Radio World.

Alexander Leschinsky

G&L has joined RadioDNS.

“We want to help bringing the right radio content to each listener on the device of their choice,” said co-founder and Managing Director Alexander Leschinsky in the announcement, citing the company’s experience in hybrid radio metadata and IP distribution.

RadioDNS promotes the growth of hybrid radio globally through its open-source standards. The organization will hold its annual general assembly later this month.

[See Our Who’s Buying What Page]

G&L Geißendörfer & Leschinsky GmbH is headquartered in Cologne, Germany, and has offices in Berlin and Munich, as well as Pleasanton, Calif., in the United States. It offers solutions for processing and delivery of media content, and says its customers include providers of CDN services, vendors of players and encoders, and service providers for monitoring and controlling IT systems.

“G&L is a trusted partner to the German public service broadcasters, who represent a large amount of radio listening in Germany, the most populous country, and will be providing RadioDNS services for them,” according to the announcement.

Another recent new member is Hubbard Radio. The RadioDNS website has a list of members, which include familiar major media names like the BBC, NPR and the European Broadcasting Union.

The post G&L Joins RadioDNS appeared first on Radio World.

It positions itself as “a voice for the TV viewer” yet is one of the biggest pro-cable TV service provider lobbying groups Inside the Beltway. The American Television Alliance (ATVA) has made noise for its finger-pointing and one-sided blame for every recent retransmission consent dispute, citing broadcast TV owners for causing the problem despite the need for a MVPD and broadcaster to agree on a fair deal.

Now, it is sharing its thoughts with the FCC on a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking crafter to consider changes in the ATSC 3.0 licensing regime — a matter that comes following a NAB request.

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