Vintage Audio: Wollensak 1500 Series Tape Recorders

Anyone who worked for the high school AV club or college media services department in the late ‘60s or 1970s remembers the Wollensak 1500 series reel-to-reel recorders. Along with the RCA hand-threaded 16 mm projectors, they were the bread and butter of instructional media. The hallmark of these devices was their ease of use and indestructible design. Get ready for a flashback to your adolescence, when all you needed to know about tape recorders was 'PLAY-RECORD-STOP', as we peer beneath that white and chrome exterior of Wollensak 1500 tape recorders.

Topics: Vintage Radio Technology

Audio Processing as a Weapon

One of the newest members of the Telos Alliance family is Brian Kerkan, who came on board in March as North American Manager for Radio Processing Sales. Brian brings with him a background in broadcast engineering in both radio and television, including as Director of Engineering for Saga Communications, and a strategic approach to audio processing, his primary area of expertise. In his new role he will provide guidance to clients looking to get the most out of their Omnia Audio processors.

Beyond 8x2: Axia xNode Matrix Mixer Launches!

Go beyond the numbers with the Axia xNode Matrix Mixer, available now via the latest completely free v2.0 software update. This powerful new feature unlocks endless mixing flexibility and allows broadcast engineers to use their Axia xNodes to create mixes without the need for a dedicated studio mixer / switching system. Here, we caught up with Product Manager Milos Nemcik to get the DL . . .  

TWiRT 303 - Hey, We Found Chris Tarr!

What’s an engineer to do when the old transmitter you’re getting rid of won’t fit through the building door?  You could cut it apart with a Sawz-All, or you could break out a wall and make a bigger door.  Well, Chris Tarr used both strategies during two recent transmitter upgrades.  The Ninjaneer joins Chris Tobin and me for a TWiRT reunion episode.

Guest: Chris Tarr, Wisconsin DoE - Entercom

Hosts:  Chris Tobin, IP-Solutionist and Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, & South Seas Broadcasting

Links from the show:

Radio magazine’s story about the Cumulus NASH facility

Hardware Versus Software Streaming: Which Is Right for Your Facility?

One of the primary questions for broadcasters exploring a streaming solution early on, is: Do I go with a software-only product, a dedicated card, or a hardware appliance?

Dedicated Cards: No Way!

First off, I don't recommend dedicated cards. These are cards that you install in your PC and they provide some hardware-assisted audio processing or encoding. While they may serve a purpose for certain applications, they are often a hassle to maintain. As OS versions change, keeping drivers up to date can be a pain. And with fast multi-core CPUs found in modern PCs, dedicated cards are just not needed anymore. Enough said.

Topics: Streaming Audio

Good Things Come in 3.0

Since the introduction of Omnia.11 v 3.0 and G-Force at NAB 2016, there's been a lot of chatter - and a little confusion - in the industry as to the list of enhancements included in these packages. So perhaps we need to clarify what’s going on. For starters, it's that word - packages; Omnia.11 v 3.0 and G-Force are two distinct items. To help clear things up, we went right to the man behind both v 3.0 and G-Force, Telos Alliance Senior Algorithm Developer Cornelius Gould.

Topics: Omnia Audio

TWiRT 302 - Virtual Machine Tech and Radio

Virtual Machines have been used in computer data centers and corporate IT systems since the late 1990’s, with popularity skyrocketing in the past 5 to 8 years.  Today’s VM technology is allowing broadcasters to run several automation and production systems on virtual computers - on hardware that’s fully redundant.  Dave Turner from ENCO joins us to tell us how this all works.

Guest: Dave Turner, Executive Vice-President - ENCO Systems

Hosts: Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, & South Seas Broadcasting

Links from the show:

What is a Virtual Machine?

What is Microsoft’s Hyper-V?

“Best Practices for Virtualization of Broadcast Automation” (ENCO white paper)

IP-Radios - The New Studio-Transmitter Link (STL)

Abstract

Radio broadcasters have traditionally used 950MHz analog or digital point-to-point radio systems to transport their audio programming from the studio to the transmitter site. Leased T1 or E1 digital land-based circuits have also been popular where a line-of-sight radio path cannot be established. Each system has strengths and shortcomings;  the radio STL is one-way only and has little room for ancillary data. The landline T1/E1 solution implies a monthly lease expense, as well as high capital costs for the endpoint equipment, and still not much extra data bandwidth once the program audio is transported. With multi-station shared transmitter sites, HD Radio, off-site automation backup, security cameras, remote control, and Internet access all becoming necessities, a reliable, high-bandwidth data transport scheme becomes  critical. Enter the modern 2-way IP-radio system. These carrier-grade links can transport several stereo audio channels with bit-for-bit clarity, plus provide for all the other data services just mentioned and have room for growth. This paper describes not only the STL needs and challenges facing broadcast engineers, but provides clear, workable solutions both in the abstract and specific solution cases.

Topics: IP Radios, STLs, IP Radio STLs

Air Staff Shines with VOCO 8

With six signals covering parts of Michigan, Illinois and Indiana, the Shine.FM network broadcasts with a Contemporary Christian format, and the slogan 'stronger families, stronger communities'. Shine.FM's Kankakee, Illinois location is just south of the Chicago metropolitan area. The station is not-for-profit, listener supported, and owned by Olivet Nazarene University from Bourbonnais, Illinois.

Topics: Omnia Audio

TWiRT 301 - IP Audio Impairment Mitigation with Keyur Parikh

IP Audio security is a hot topic. IP Audio reliability is a strong concern as well. Keyur Parikh from GatesAir is working with a team of IP media experts to mitigate impairments to IP transport, and tells us about technical defenses against IP Audio hacking.

Guest: Keyur Parikh from GatesAir

Host: Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, & South Seas Broadcasting

Links from the show:

Parikh-Kim-Network-Security.pdf
Parikh-K130115-Network-Modeling-Revised-02-05-2015.pdf