Vintage Audio: B&W 410 Distortion and Voltmeter

A recent trip to the attic reminded me of the long-forgotten ritual of an annual proof-of-performance, required of all stations by the FCC. Sitting in a dusty corner was a B&W 410 distortion and voltmeter. Time to bring it down for a general cleanup and photoshoot.

The theory of total harmonic distortion measurement is simple. Feed a low-distortion sine wave into the device under test. Connect the output to the distortion analyzer. Filter out the fundamental frequency. What's left is second and higher order harmonics and noise. Of course, when theory is put into practice, things can get complicated.

TWiRT 306 - A Day's Work with a Side of Ham with Charles Wooten 

Charlie Wooten - ham call NF4A - is our go-to guy for what’s happening in an Amatuer Radio. Charlie joins Chris Tobin with highlights from the Dayton Hamvention including a new member of the D-Star family.  It’s broadcast engineering with a side of ham!

Guest: Charles Wooten - Director of Engineering and IT, iHeartMedia, Panama City, Florida

Host:  Chris Tobin, IP-Solutionist 

VR Comes to Broadcasting

Virtual Reality, or VR, was one of the hot topics at the recent CES and NAB shows in Las Vegas. The technology began to develop in the early ‘90s, when everyone was sporting those funny goggles. The novelty quickly wore off, and VR fell off the radar. Development continued however, and 2016 may be the year it finally reaches critical mass. No one is certain what the most popular applications for this new medium will be, but broadcasters are carving out a piece of the VR pie for themselves.

Topics: Virtual Reality

HD Multiplex with Philipp Schmid

What if you could transmit fifteen radio program channels from one FM transmitter, and receive them on existing FM-HD radios? Philipp Schmid, Research Engineer at Nautel, has been demonstrating exactly that. How does it work, and why might a broadcaster want to do this?  Philipp joins Chris Tobin and Kirk Harnack to explain.

Topics: Broadcast Technology

TWiRT 305 - HD Multiplex with Philipp Schmid

What if you could transmit fifteen radio program channels from one FM transmitter, and receive them on existing FM-HD radios?  Philipp Schmid, Research Engineer at Nautel, has been demonstrating exactly that.  How does it work, and why might a broadcaster want to do this?  Philipp joins Chris Tobin and Kirk Harnack to explain.

Guest: Philipp Schmid, Research Engineer - Nautel, Ltd.

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

Links from the show:

The HD Multiplex: What Will Be Possible?

BEC Preview: More on the HD Multiplex

Nautel on HD Multiplex

HD Radio Transmission Modes, including MP3 Mode

Paessler PRTG Network Monitoring Software

All About Adaptive Audio Streaming

Streaming for broadcast is a hot topic right now. Consumer convenience prompted online video services such as YouTube and Netflix to offer Adaptive Multirate Video Streaming, and audio-only streaming providers—especially radio stations—are just recently able to offer the same convenience to their online listeners. Adaptive streaming is actually simple and inexpensive to implement, but it is a bit different from traditional online streaming. Here, we do a Q&A with Telos Alliance Director of Streaming Ioan Rus to help define the tech behind Adaptive Streaming and illustrate how both broadcasters and listeners come out ahead with Adaptive.

Topics: Streaming Audio

NuTone 2067B-2068B Transistor Radio-Intercom System 

Radios come in all shapes and sizes, and this column seeks out some of the forgotten and unusual examples. Previous installments have examined farm radios, unlikely portables and early clock radios. This time around, we'll look at the NuTone 2067B transistor radio intercom system. It dates to 1965, when home radio-intercoms were something of a status symbol in larger houses.

Topics: Vintage Radio Technology, Vintage Electronics

TWiRT 304 - Why, Yes, it's WiFi

Chris Tobin joins us with a full hour live, remote broadcast from a park in Newark, New Jersey,  and he’s not using his telco carrier’s data!  It’s just another way that Chris is demonstrating that broadcast engineers can get it done for remote WiFi.  Chris reveals his methods and secrets on this episode of TWiRT!

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

Links from the show:

Ubiquiti NanoStationM  

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.