Recent Posts
AoIP in a Nutshell
If you travel to Fremont, Nebraska and tour the studios of Walnut Radio's KHUB 1340 AM and KFMT 105.5 FM, you won't see very much equipment; just a console, three computer screens, and a few microphones in each room. But that's a good thing. Chief Engineer Tom Russell designed it that way for several reasons. “It gives the studios a clean look, it eliminates fan noise and is just easier for our operators to work in.” He adds that all the stations' programming comes from automation, voice tracking, or live announcements.
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Zeno and KPISS with Sheri Barclay
Radio production and distribution in its newest forms is the world of Sheri Barclay. She’s a producer and test engineer at Zeno Radio. Her latest project there, Zeno Live, connects hosts and listeners like never before. Plus Sheri reveals the struggles building her own Internet station that has a “storefront” location.
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Vintage Audio: Broadcast Electronics 500
An earlier installment of Found in the Attic looked at the ATC/Collins P-190 cart machine, which was the first commercially available tape cartridge deck, and the hit of the show at NAB '59. Around that time, Ross Beville, Chief Engineer of WWDC in Washington, DC had the same idea, and also began to develop tape cartridge machines. He apparently did not know about the work of ATC's Bailey and Jenkins until NAB '59. In June of 1959, Beville founded Broadcast Electronics in Silver Springs, MD, to manufacture Spotmaster cart machines. The first production runs were built in the station's garage.
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The Xcuse Box with Dick Debartolo
The Giz Wiz, Dick Debartolo, admits he’s no engineer. But he does have an eye - and ear - for fascinating devices and products. Some are useful - others, not so much. MAD magazine’s maddest writer joins Chris Tobin and me, Kirk Harnack, to ooh, ahh, and snicker at the some gizmos he found at CES.
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Shay: Manufacturers Plugged In to AES67
The Audio Engineering Society held its second annual Plugfest this past November at NPR studios in Washington, with nearly a dozen manufacturers in attendance, each working toward the goal of audio interoperability. Telos Alliance Chief Science Officer Greg Shay was on hand, and says despite the attendees being competitors, there was a spirit of cooperation that made the event a success.
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The Full Scope of Podcasting
Mention 'podcasting' and most people conjure up images of individuals broadcasting from closet studios with makeshift equipment. That impression is changing as this medium is maturing and getting mainstreamed. More organizations are seeing the value of using podcasts as a form of content marketing to talk to customers one on one. As a result, many podcasts are taking on a more professional polish.
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Video Special Forces with Colleen Kelly Henry
Mission: Acquire and send real-time HD video and audio from a remote venue you’ve never seen before, then format and distribute it to every popular computing platform known to man. It has to work right the first time. There are no do-overs.
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Axia Behind the Cellar Door
Dan Overy is Group Technical Director for Celador, a U.K. entertainment company that made a name for itself with the hit TV game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? The company produced the original British version of the franchise from 1998-2007, and had major success again in 2009 with another millionaire-themed production, the award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire.
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Music Licensing and PPM Grunge
John Stephens with netcaster theroots.fm talks about music webcasters closing down due to the huge hike in music licensing costs. And Dave Anderson joins Chris Tobin and Kirk Harnack on the additional audio grunge produced by Nielsen’s new Enhance CBET PPM Encoder. Are we driving away the audience we wish to measure?
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Newfound Simplicity with Axia, AoIP at Canada’s Newcap
Copper wire is expensive, so when Shawn Basha - Newcap Radio's Director of Engineering in the Canadian province of Newfoundland & Labrador - removed thousands of feet of the stuff, he could have made a killing on eBay. How did he excise all that wiring infrastructure and make operations more efficient? With a little help from Axia in what was quite a substantial overhaul of wiring and equipment alike.
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