TWiRT 358 - Dangerous Towers with Tom Ray

Tom Ray visits a lot of radio stations.  He’s a full-time broadcast engineering consultant, and an inspector for New York State’s Alternative Broadcast Inspection Program. One troubling trend that Tom sees is the deterioration of broadcast towers. Tom joins Chris Tobin and Kirk Harnack to warn us and bring us some good advice.

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

Axia User Offers a Free Utility to Aid Simple Livewire Routing

Anthony Eden is a broadcast engineer and systems integrator in Australia. And, he's a big fan of Audio over IP technology, particularly Livewire+.

PathfinderPC and Pathfinder Core PRO provide powerful and flexible scheduling, routing, monitoring, and alerting for Livewire+ AoIP networks. However, Anthony Eden needed a bit less horsepower for a particular application. His client simply needed to select which studio would feed the station's air chain. So, Anthony wrote a Windows application in Python to do just that - and only that.

Topics: IP Audio Network Routing & Control, Livewire, STLs

Major Telos VX Install Saves Big Money at WGN

Bill Murdoch is Chief Engineer at WGN Chicago, a major News / Talk station in the Windy City. With a significant amount of talk programming it’s always been essential for WGN (720 on your AM dial) to have lots of phone lines coming into your facility, and quality audio so callers are heard loud and clear. But all those phone lines can create quite an expense.

Enter the Telos VX system.

Topics: Broadcast Telephone Systems, IP Telephony, Telos VX

Understanding the Implications of AES67 and Livewire+ AES67 on the AoIP Market

As the use of Audio over IP (AoIP) began to grow and evolve, the Audio Engineering Society recognized the need for interoperability and standardization between professional AoIP devices using different networking protocols. The Telos Alliance was a charter member of the AES X.192 Working Group and collaborated with other member companies to help define the AES67 standard in 2013. 

TWiRT 357 - Audio Heard by Millions with Matt Aaron

Are drones more than “big boy toys” for broadcast engineers? Well - YES! Sam Wallington is VP of Engineering for Educational Media Foundation. He’s using drone video and photography to locate trouble spots and prep for tower repairs, saving return trips.

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

Talkin' Telos with Talk Productions

Sean Martin is Managing Director at Talk Productions, a UK company behind WTOR HD (Torbay’s Big T), an online station that's been operating for several years with thousands of listeners tuning in each week.

It's a small company with a largely volunteer staff, but with big plans for the future; they're currently in the process of applying for Community FM and DAB licenses for the city of Torbay (hence the name 'Torbay's Big T') in Southwest England. Torbay currently has no station, so Talk Productions would fill that void, and as a community station, would offer their studios to community groups that would not normally have access to broadcast facilities. Sean says Talk Productions would also like to one day establish a school of radio in Southwest England.

Topics: Telos Alliance 24/7 Support, community radio

AoIP Is the Way to Be for RMG

The Moscow headquarters of Russian media conglomerate Russian Media Group include five radio stations and two television stations. Starting a decade ago, the radio stations began rebuilding their facilities using an Axia Livewire AoIP infrastructure. Axia AoIP consoles, Telos phone systems and digital hybrids, and Axia xNodes were used both as the system core and also to extend the Livewire infrastructure to AES digital audio, and analog audio. Livewire’s ability to handle general purpose interface (GPI) information together with the physical GPIs provided on Axia xNodes and Axia consoles extended the core infrastructure to include GPI on equipment that did not support Livewire+ AES67 AoIP natively. The AoIP infrastructure was soon used throughout all of the radio studios including ISDN interfaces for outside broadcast.

TWiRT 356 - Practical Drone Use with Sam Wallington

Are drones more than “big boy toys” for broadcast engineers? Well - YES! Sam Wallington is VP of Engineering for Educational Media Foundation. He’s using drone video and photography to locate trouble spots and prep for tower repairs, saving return trips.

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

Saul Levine: Omnia Is the Solution to AM Radio's Woes

As one of the early believers in FM in the 1950s, Saul Levine is a pioneer in FM broadcasting. And as the owner of Mount Wilson Broadcasting in greater Los Angeles still today, he’s been a major player in the industry for decades.

As an early proponent of FM, when many were skeptical of the new technology, it may seem a little like deja vu all over again for Saul these days – and yet, a bit of a role reversal at the same time – as he fights for a broadcast format many have grown skeptical of – AM.

Topics: broadcast audio processor

He's a Jack of all Broadcast Trades... But we Call him Jim