Welcome to another edition of "Ask The Omnia Guy", a continuing series of expert answers by the Omnia guy, Paul Kriegler, to real-world questions from our electronic mailbag. Our question:

Q: "Hey Omnia Guy - If I purchase the Nielsen watermark license for our Omnia.9, can it encode our HD channels as well as our streams?"

A: Short answer: Yes! The latest version of Omnia.9 software allows you to watermark any program stream your Omnia.9's processing.  

To get started, make sure first that you are running the latest free software update for Omnia.9 mkII software, which at the time of this writing is 3.30.69 (you can always find the latest software at https://support.telosalliance.com/).

Then, make sure your Omnia.9 is licensed for Nielsen watermarking. Enter the “System / System Configuration / Upgrades” menu and check the “NLSN” box; it should read “Installed” (as seen in the capture below). 

If your Omnia.9 is not yet licensed for Nielsen, give your favorite Omnia dealer the Serial Number from the back of your Omnia.9, and the MAC address, as shown here. Your dealer will need that information to process your license key and activate the feature.

You’ll also need to get CSID codes from Nielsen to identify your signals. Once these are set up, you can apply Nielsen watermarking to your OTA and HD processing outputs, and up to two streaming channels.

For complete instructions on installing and configuring Nielsen watermarking, read our Help document "Setting Up Nielsen Encoding in the Omnia.9." 

If you'd like our assistance in selecting your next audio processor, email our sales team - we're always happy to help!

Need help getting your station to sound its very best? Paul Kriegler eats, sleeps, and breathes broadcast audio processing (that's one way to stay skinny!). Got a question? Shoot Paul a note at Ask The Omnia Guy.