The Ins and Outs of Surge Suppression

Chances are, sooner or later, some part of your facilities will take a lightning strike. Preparation can help guard your expensive equipment against damage or even destruction. Here you'll find some tips compiled by the Telos engineers to help keep your station running smoothly.

For these Radio Pros, Amateur Radio Offers Enjoyment

It’s no surprise that many broadcast engineers are also amateur radio enthusiasts. The concept of sending out a signal and communicating with people around the globe combined with the ability to tinker with gear and tweak that signal makes for an exciting mix for radio technicians, electrical engineers and others the world over.

It may also come as no surprise that we’ve got a few amateur radio operators within the ranks of The Telos Alliance. Chief Science Officer Greg Shay, KD8WLN, Telos Systems Vice President Kirk Harnack, KD5FYD and Support Specialist Ted Alexander, W8IXY are proud to be ‘hams,’ and each has a unique perspective on the hobby.

Punyed: Telos Alliance has Solutions for Mexico

Professionals in Mexico have particular concerns about the audio over networks, says Juan Punyed, director of sales for Latin America and Canada for The Telos Alliance.

Strategic Audio Processing with Bell Media’s CHUM-FM and Virgin 99.9

As North America's fourth largest city, with a population of 2.79 million, Toronto is a very competitive radio market. No less than 25 FM broadcasters compete for listeners. Among them are 104.5 CHUM-FM owned by Bell Media, and its most recently acquired station, CKFM 99.9 Virgin Radio. Overseeing the technical operations of both stations is Director of Engineering Wally Lennox.

Yea Engineering with Rob Chickering

What’s an engineer to do when the talent loves technology as much as he does?  Roll with it and have fun! Rob Chickering is the VP of Operations and Engineering for Yea Networks - the house that Kidd Kraddick built. Rob joins us to show off his fantastic radio studios in Dallas, and talk about how engineers can be just as creative as major-league talent.

Telos and Linear Acoustic: Helping Broadcasters Keep Their Eye on the Shifting Center of the Broadcast Universe

The television broadcast industry has become infinitely more complex during the last five years, with producers churning out more content than at any other time in history. Meanwhile, the broadcast landscape has become vast and wholly unpredictable, with consumer preferences driving when, where and how content is consumed. These changes have come upon the broadcast industry swiftly and relentlessly. Less than a decade ago, content producers could safely predict that consumers were watching the vast majority of content on television sets in their homes. But now, with an abundance of smartphones, mobile devices and apps — all of which are routinely relaying broadcast content — the lines on the playing field have changed. And they are anything but predictable.

While the beginning and endpoints of this new playing field are still somewhat discernable despite constantly evolving technical standards, broadcast mediums, consumer device and viewing preferences, the middle points and content distribution methods are murky and less defined. Even though producers are now able to express themselves using more technically advanced tools than ever before — and consumers are able to consume content more conveniently 'anytime, anyplace, anywhere' — this has put strain and uncertainty on the part the broadcasters themselves, who are less visible than the producers or consumers in the broadcast chain. These broadcasters essentially need to create and adapt new content distribution channels and working methodologies where no precedent already exists.

There is a lot at stake for broadcasters, since their role is critical to both the content producers and consumers. The Telos Alliance, and its subsidiary Linear Acoustic, has played an active and innovative role not only in helping define this new broadcast distribution landscape, but also in helping its international customer base understand and overcome the challenges it presents. Over the course of this interview, Tim Carroll, Chief Technology Officer of Telos Alliance, explains how the broader television broadcast environment has changed and how Telos and Linear Acoustic are helping customers navigate and overcome the daunting challenges that now exist.

Roots Radio with John Stephens

John Stephens describes himself as a Serial Entrepreneur. After 35 years working in all forms of the media John finally got around to his lifelong dream of building and operating a radio station. John's station is an "Internet Pure-play" meaning on-line only, no transmitter required. "Our Musical Roots"  has listeners in 30 different countries around the world. John calls his format "Progressive Rock for Vintage Rockers."

Chris Tobin and Kirk Harnack talk with John about the evolution of his Internet station from original idea, to business  plan and then finally the fun part, designing, building and bringing his dream to life.

Saul Levine: FM Radio Pioneer

Saul Levine, one the pioneers of FM radio in Los Angeles, has been operating KKGO 105.1 since February 1959. Through his company, Mount Wilson Broadcasting, KKGO is the oldest, independent FM station in Los Angeles and one of the very few independent FMs remaining in any major market.

The station originally signed on as KBCA, became KKGO, then KMZT, then returned to the KKGO call letters in 2007. The station began as a classical music outlet, then had a long-running jazz format, returned to classical, and finally adopted a successful country music format.

Recently, Omnia Brand and Marketing Manager Denny Sanders spoke with Saul Levine at his Los Angeles headquarters.

Vintage Tech: Sencore DVM-56A Microranger

A better title for this month's technical missive might be "Found on the Workbench", because that's where this item has lived for the past 30 years. When it was introduced in the early 1980s, the Sencore DVM-56 was a milestone device. It was one of the first DVMs to feature autoranging, thanks to the marriage of voltmeter and microprocessor technologies. No more constant fiddling with the range switch, remembering units of measurement, or where the decimal point goes. Other nice features were a programmable dB function, peak-to-peak, average and true RMS AC ranges, peak and null indicators and switch-selectable resolution of 3, 4 or 4 ½ digits. Resistances could be measured up to the unheard of range of 100 megohms and greater by paralleling a 90 meg resistor across the input terminals and using the Hi Power Ohms function.

Engineering for Non-Engineers with Skip Pizzi

For most of us engineers, our jobs would be easier if our colleagues understood a bit more about broadcast engineering. Skip Pizzi has finished updating the fourth edition of “A Broadcast Engineering Tutorial for Non-Engineers.” He joins us for a fascinating look at this updated book, and how both engineers and non-engineers benefit from broadening their engineering horizons.