College Radio: Igniting the Soul

Down on the lower end of the FM dial is where you’ll find them… Diligently plugging away, sometimes sounding as if they’re not so sure of themselves, playing music you’ve likely never heard before. Depending on what you hear, you may feel it’s not your cup of tea and tune your radio to something more mainstream.

But do you ever get tired of mainstream and feel like you want something a little different? Then I invite you to stick around a while, bear with the young DJ spinning the tunes, and open your ears to something you don’t always hear on mainstream radio. Welcome to the wonderful world of college radio.

Topics: college radio, College Radio Day

Live(wire) in Canada!

This past weekend was the annual conference of the CCBE (Central Canada Broadcast Engineers) outside Toronto. The proceedings featured a small-scale interoperability event similar to the AES Plugfest, and a keynote presentation on the benefits of AES67 and AES70. Our Jeff McGinley attended along with Tyler Everitt, from our Canadian dealer Pippin, so we caught up with them for a review.

Frank's Magical Mystery Tour of Abbey Road

Have you ever experienced something surreal? Recently, I had reason to visit and work at Abbey Road Studio in London, and it still seems surreal!! My colleague Jayson Tomlin, Gary Katz (producer of Steely Dan), and myself were there to do testing and evaluation of some new technologies we’ve been working on for broadcast and consumer applications.

TWiRT 366 - CyberSecurity for Broadcasters

Chris Tobin is speaking at the Central Canadian Broadcast Engineering conference (CCBE) in King City, Ontario, Canada. He joins the show from the relaxing Kingbridge Conference Center. We’re discussing CyberSecurity for Broadcasters - what we learned from a recent expert panel discussion in Columbus, Ohio. And a first look at troubles with the National EAS Test.

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

Vintage Audio: Fly with an Edo-Aire ADF Receiver

Found in the Attic columns regularly seek out forgotten or unusual types of AM receivers, be they farm radios, high-fidelity AM, unlikely frequency coverage, or novelty types. If you're totally stumped by the picture of this device, don't feel too bad. Unless you've had a pilot's license and been flying private aircraft for the past thirty years, you'd have no reason to encounter one of these receivers. This installment follows on the Sony AIR-7, and is our second aviation-related entry. The Edo-Aire R-556 E ADF (Automatic Direction Receiver) is typical of radio navigation aids that were in virtually all private aircraft before the advent of GPS receivers.

Topics: Vintage Electronics, Vintage Technology, Broadcast History

5 Tips to Rock Your Support Experience

Having been at Telos for over 17 years (and in the Pro Audio industry for 10 years prior to that), I have had much experience with Customer Support. People frequently ask me, “What is the best way to get support from a vendor?”

TWiRT 365 - EAS In Times of Trouble - with Rob Dale

The Emergency Alert System - EAS - suffers a love-hate relationship with most broadcast stations. Radio folks may love the fact that EAS handles the burden of alerting the public to life and safety threats. But sometimes the program interruptions are just too much, and the audio quality is often just terrible. Rob Dale is the Regional Planner at the Ingham County, Michigan, Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management. He’s also a broadcaster and meteorologist. Rob joins us to discuss the state of EAS, training, and where we might be headed.

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

IBC 2017: Big Announcements, Big Awards 

Another IBC has come and gone, and this year's visit to Amsterdam was another exciting and successful one! The booth was packed, the champagne flowed for our big new product announcement, and by the end of the five-day show two major awards were in our hands, cementing our position as the leader in broadcast innovation. After such a whirlwind show, you'd think we'd want to take a break, but we're super psyched and looking forward to bringing our latest solutions to audiences across the globe.

Topics: ip-tablet, IBC 2017, Infinity

Retire the Soldering Iron

Add SOME COLOR!

Axia customers may not realize that we offer different colored fader caps for our consoles. Seen here is a picture of the Element console at Nebraska’s NETV (Nebraska Educational Telecommunications), a state network of public radio and television stations based in Lincoln, Nebraska, provided by NETV’s James Duchesneau. As you can see, they’ve added red caps on the host and guest mike faders, while the six gray caps designate AudioVAULT channels.

Manufacturers Plug In at AES Plugfest

The third annual Audio Engineering Society Plugfest was held recently in Houston, as manufacturers of broadcast and audio/video gear alike gathered to test their products for interoperability with other companies’ offerings. Representing the Telos Alliance at this year’s event was Support Engineer Jeff McGinley, who provided us with a review of the event, starting with a refresher as to just what exactly Plugfest is.