TWiRT 338 - The Standard that Stuck - with Richard Burden 

Cassette tapes. 8-Track. Digital Cassettes. FM-QUAD. AM Stereo. Reel-to-reel.  Audio standards come and go, but Multiplex FM Stereo lives on and is nearly 60 years old! Richard Burden extensively tested our FM Stereo system when it was just a proposal. Dick joins me to chat about that and more on TWiRT!

Host:

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

Guest:

Richard Burden, Principal - Burden Associates

Show Links:

Stereo Multiplexing for Dummies

FM Stereo at Wikipedia

Travelers Information Service

Topics: Broadcast Engineering, audio, audio quality

5 Advantages of Switching to a Broadcast VoIP Phone System

We live in an increasingly digital and largely networked world. It’s no accident that AoIP is taking radio and TV by storm: the economies of scale, ease of use, and return on investment are undeniable. Traditional POTS and ISDN phone services are steadily being supplanted by SIP- and VoIP-based methods at the service-provider level. ISDN is already unavailable for many new installations, and POTS is moving that way now. A SIP/VoIP phone system offers digital phone services that cost less, sound better, and are more easily managed than traditional services.

Topics: voip phone system, broadcast voip, sip, voip phones

The Quest for the Perfect Control Room

The arrangement of equipment in radio studio control rooms was often the result of a tussle between programmers and engineers. In one extreme, the control room may have been a dream for jocks to operate, but a nightmare for techs to service. Too far the other way, and you had a setup that could be easily serviced, but required an octopus to operate. Most were a compromise (although some would be better termed a stalemate).

Topics: Radio History, Studio Technology, Broadcast Engineering

TWiRT 337 - Predicting Headphone Sound Quality with Sean Olive

How many times have you bought headphones or earbuds, only to be disappointed with their audio quality? Or maybe you were pleasantly surprised! Sean Olive is the Acoustic Research Fellow at HARMAN International. He’s doing headphone qualitative measurements that mean something, both for consumers and for manufacturers, toward better audio from our wearables.

Hosts:

Chris Tobin, IP-Solutionist 

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

Guest:

Sean Olive, Acoustic Research Fellow at HARMAN International

Show Links:

Sean Olive’s Blog, with links to articles and research

KZ ATE KZ-ATE Dynamic Balanced Armature IEMS In Ear HIFI Monitors

AKG N60 Noise Canceling Headphone

Topics: Broadcast Engineering, audio, audio quality

Radio Magazine: Frank Foti on Audio Processing for Broadcast Streaming

When it comes to broadcast streaming, there is a big difference between audio processing for streaming and audio processing for over-the-air. In the February 2017 issue of Radio magazine, Doug Irwin interviewed Frank Foti, along with other audio-processing experts, on how to process audio for broadcast streaming properly, asking them about the design differences between over-the-air processors and those designed for streaming media.

Topics: Omnia Audio, Telos Systems, broadcast streaming, Z/IPStream X/2, Z/IPStream 9X/2

TWiRT 336 - Hands-On AES67 with Patrick Killianey

Perhaps you’ve heard of AES67 for IP-Audio. It allows cross-connection of different, competing AoIP standards like Ravenna, Dante, and Livewire+. But until you actually try connecting audio devices together, AES67 is just a standard on paper. IP-Audio expert, Patrick Killianey from Yamaha Pro Audio is here to explain real-world AES67 from our recent technology demo

Hosts:

Chris Tobin, IP-Solutionist 

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

Guest:

Patrick Killianey, Network Systems Applications Engineer - Yamaha Pro Audio

Show Links:

Introduction to AES67 - Full Technology Demo [YouTube video]

Networking Fundamentals for AoIP - 6-part course [YouTube video]

Media Networking Alliance - Videos and Presentations

Untangling EAS with Pathfinder

For many years, broadcast stations have been required by law to incorporate emergency alerting into their air chains—usually directly in line with the program path as the last stage prior to the transmitter. As station groups have consolidated and air chains have become more complex, however, managing this insertion gets a bit trickier. What used to be a 1:1 correspondence between studios, transmitters, and everything in between is often now a matrix of possibilities including multiple studios or automation outputs, along with main and backup program paths and transmitters.

Passionate About Radio

At Telos Alliance, we hire people from all walks of life, but mostly, we hire people who are Passionate About Broadcasting, whether it be TV or Radio! Dave Sarkies, Social Media Community & Content Coordinator, is all about passion. Passion for music, passion for Radio...

Topics: Radio, The Telos Alliance, Broadcasting

Harnessing the Full Potential of Audio over IP

There is a misconception in the broadcast space that media outlets must wait for video over IP to mature before fully embracing an audio over IP (AoIP) infrastructure, but this is not the case. AoIP technologies have been stable for some time and today can provide the flexibility, reliability, and connectivity needed to deploy audio separately from video. Before the introduction of SDI video with embedded audio, video and audio had been handled separately for years. Although embedded audio seemed like a step forward, it did not reduce lip sync issues, and associated metadata is still easily separated from the audio. Since metadata is an increasingly essential part of new audio services, this becomes a major problem.

10 Ways to Save with Broadcast VoIP Phones for Your Facility

If you're reading this, chances are you are paying way too much for expensive analog phone lines.