TWiRT 373 - Visual Radio Live from WAMU

Radio industry experts are talking with each other, sharing ideas about “visual” radio. We’re asking a lot of questions, too. What are we trying to accomplish with video added to radio? Can we engage our audiences better and longer? What strategies seem to be working?  Chris and Kirk attended the Visual Radio Symposium this week, and Al Reynolds of WAMU was there, too.

Topics: Broadcast Engineering, Streaming Audio, audio, audio quality

The Bisset Brief: Winter Weather Preparedness Revisited

Winter weather preparedness is a topic near and dear to our readers’ hearts, with some good suggestions from our initial column on the subject. Ray Gorney is the Assistant Director of Engineering for Calvary Chapel of Twin Falls, ID, CSN International, and the Effect Networks. Ray added a very important consideration to that survival backpack we wrote about last issue—prescription medications. For engineers who take prescription or even over-the-counter meds, having a one- or two-day supply in the survival kit is a necessity. It could be dangerous, if not deadly, for some to be without their meds.

Topics: Broadcast Engineering, weather preparedness

Cutting Edge Audio for Cutting Edge Music

On the air for more than 25 years, CISM (broadcasting in French) specializes in cutting edge music and elements of Montreal's creative culture. The transmitting antenna is located on top of Mount Royal and covers about a 50-mile radius which includes Montreal, Laval, the South Shore, and the North Shore with 10,000 watts of power and a potential audience of over 4 million people. Each week, the station broadcasts 70 different programs featuring nearly 100 radio hosts.

Recently we sat discussed the sound of the station with CISM's Gabriel Meunier, and how he achieves just the right sound for music on the cutting edge with OmniaSST.

Barefootin' from A to Z: AoIP to Z/IP ONE 

Jordan Bitz is Chief Engineer for Barefoot Media Ministries, a small Christian radio group headquartered in Boise, Idaho and operating 89.5 KTSY, the heritage Christian radio station in the Boise market, as well as Project 88.7, a Christian Hip Hop station, 88.1 The Bridge in Twin Falls, and a handful of other stations and translators across Idaho and Oregon. In short, Jordan is a busy engineer managing multiple sites over hundreds of square miles.

Before joining Barefoot 15 months ago, Jordan’s previous experience was as engineer and programmer at stations in North Dakota, where he hadn’t worked much with Audio over IP. While the adjustment to AoIP took some time, once he got the hang of things he’s been amazed by the simplicity and flexibility.

TWiRT 372 - Tom Vernon on Smart Speakers

“We’re on the verge of a Voice Activated Internet,” says Tom Vernon. Tom’s recent front page Radio World article, “Can Smart Speakers Bring Radio Home?” points to new radio listeners using smart speakers. We may also find voice-activated tasks around broadcast stations, facilitated by Amazon Echo or Google Home devices.

Topics: Broadcast Engineering, Streaming Audio, audio, audio quality

New Consoles in Newcastle

Southern Cross Austereo is a major Australian broadcast network consisting of over 100 radio and TV stations across the country. Recently, SCA has made the move to AoIP and Axia at a number of their radio facilities, including moving their Newcastle operation – about two-and-a-half hours north of Sydney – into a new building earlier this year. The Newcastle location features two radio stations, KOFM 102.9 and NXFM Hit 106.9.

Slaying the Lost Packet Dragon with Pathfinder

Using IP radios as your STLs has many advantages. One disadvantage though is that they can be more susceptible to rain and snow fade than other STLs.

Using Axia Pathfinder and syslog, I’ve been able to keep my stations on-air, without hearing a dropped packet. Though I am using syslog, the same result can be achieved using SNMP. Even if the IP radio you have is not capable of sending syslog, you can still make this work for you with a little tweaking...

Minnesota Public Radio Upgrades to Axia Fusion Radio Consoles

, we sat down with Chief Engineer of Minnesota Public Radio Bill xxxx . MPR was one of the very first Axia customers, installing xxx

 Bill and wanted to upgrade their entire facility to the Axia Fusion consoles. "Our AxaiElements were more than 10 years old. They had served us very well and we were so impressed by them, we decided to replace 

Essentially we are one of the early adopters of Axi, elements over 10 years old, maintenance issues, two answer, they have served well. We are so impressed by it, it gave its good service and decided to replace with the same thing. We didn’t do our due diligence, there are other systems out there. We had to know what was available, 10 years, owe it to ourself to investigate so that it got done. Took 24 plus elements, replaced them with Fusion.

We are doing it Room by Room, main room most used rooms already, going through production areas and secondary backup studios. Right now, that will complete the first of the fusion went over a year ago now, finishing up the rest of them in the next two months.

• Why did you decide to stick with Axia gear? 
•  

Stick with it. Well it’s what we understand and we have always found a way to do what we need to do, the product has evolved, we never felt roadblocked in any way by what Axia was capable of doing. AXIA—we do a lot Pathfinder server, so that works crucial with the Fusion consoles.

Specific Fusion consoles—for us Fusion and Element we gained a few things, Element to Fusion not meaninguful in what we were able to accomplish, Fusion was the replacement for Element that’s what we did.

• What are the benefits, in your opinion, of Livewire over some of the other protocols out there? 

Livewire ecoysystem—certainly simplifies things. Cuts costs because we are not interfacing phsycial outfputs on devices. We have probably favored products of the ecosphere. Early adopters in this ecosphere. More and more the devices are used. Lviewire made the difference between buying one or another. Becoming real common and we are not being outside of that, personally don’t understand the difference, always able to work within LW. Right now everything is Livewire.

Elements—one of the first, not bets one to consult about the history, I was not here. Tom Nelson.Engineering facilities. Legend was we had second largest one for quite a while. 20 years ago.

• Are the Fusions installed yet? Do you have any images we could use? 

7) Were there any challenges with the installation? 

Installing... most of the stuff is so straightforward, there are challenges, one situation where we added onto the console in certain situation, wanted another mixer part of the fusion console, attached via the Canbus, added even more mixers to a 32…

Pictures.

We have phone system, VX and processing for many things… we use other products.

Topics: Radio Consoles, Fusion, console upgrade, axia element

Building the Transmission System at One World Trade Center - TWiRT Ep. 371

There are myriad perspectives from which to view One World Trade Center’s rebuilding after the tragedies of 9/11. From the broadcast perspective, 2017 marks a notable milestone – the resumption of television transmission from atop One WTC. The latest transmitter and antenna technology is now deployed at One WTC, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere at a symbolic 1,776 feet in height; it has resumed broadcast operations as one of the world’s elite broadcast centers. John Lyons, Director of Broadcast Communications at The Durst Organization, leads a presentation focusing on this new, premiere, RF transmission facility.

Topics: Broadcast Engineering, Streaming Audio, audio, audio quality

Paul Kriegler Named U.S. Omnia Sales Manager

The Telos Alliance this week welcomed Paul Kriegler as Omnia Manager of U.S. Sales.

Topics: broadcast audio processor