NBC's 5.1 audio provided courtesy of Linear Acoustic®
Cool fact: Over 219 million Americans tuned in to enjoy the 2012 London Summer Games - making it the most watched event in US television history. Extra cool fact: Every second of the audio heard by those viewers was monitored through or processed by a Linear Acoustic product!
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Vintage Audio: "Stop, hey, what's that sound?"
One of the endangered sound-makers at the Museum of Endangered Sounds look long enough and you can find a museum for just about everything technical. Thanks to the work of assorted packrats and hoarders, our geek history is being saved from the dumpsters. Many of the artifacts however, are in static displays, no longer in working condition. When that happens, the sounds that went with the equipment are often lost forever.
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Radio Tech: Less Wire, More Efficiency
Kirk Harnack Cuts through the Tangle
We've all seen it: the cable tray so full that it looks as if it might overflow and spill to the ground at any second. Or the wall of punch-blocks that stretches the entire length of the TOC. And who could forget that tangle of wires leading from the ceiling to the rack that resembles the product of a 5-year-old with Play-Doh and a spaghetti press?
Read More"Surrounded" by Olympic Caliber Audio
NBC's 5.1 audio provided courtesy of Linear Acoustic®
Cool fact: Over 219 million Americans tuned in to enjoy the 2012 London Summer Games, making it the most watched event in US television history. Extra cool fact: Every second of the audio heard by those viewers was monitored through or processed by a Linear Acoustic product!
Old World Meets the New Tech
Another new distributor has joined the Axia Audio network of worldwide representatives: Magnetic Media, of Poznan, Poland. Piotr Kubacki, Magnetic Media’s owner and General Manager, took a few moments to speak with Axia’s Clark Novak.
IP links: Ready for STL?
Your STL is your lifeline. Everything you are travels over that STL. Ideally, the STL should be a “nailed up” connection, whether via microwave, or leased lines. It should be always there, always on.
But, because of the rising costs of leased lines and other “nailed up” lines such as a T-1, or switched lines such as ISDN BRI, some stations are looking for an alternate path for their STL. If the station is willing to accept the slight risk of audio (and sometimes control) interruption in STL usage, a connection from ISP to Internet, and back to ISP can be considered.
Read MoreFor Mobile-Savvy Broadcasters, High-Quality Audio Encoding is No Longer An Option
In an effort to retain their customers, the five leading cable companies have collaborated to give them the best possible wi-fi experience. Bright House Networks, Optimum, Xfinity, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable have banded together under the brand name CableWiFi to share this access in metropolitan areas. The move will give customers access to over 50,000 hotspots across the country. Each of the companies will now be adding CableWifi to their existing branded Wi-Fi hotspots so that users know which are participating in the program.
At the same time, International Data Corporation (IDC) has just published some amazing growth figures for the tablet, smartphone and PC markets. In short, IDC says total shipments will pass one billion for 2012, and we'll see closer to two billion in the year 2016!
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Connecting Zephyr XStream codecs over IP
Kris Karb of Clear Channel writes, "Will our two Zephyr XStreams with v.3.7.9p and v.3.7.3p firmware talk over IP?"
Telos Tech support replies, "Yes, the Xstreams will talk over IP. You need to set the INTERFACE in the TEL menu to either RTP or SIP mode, depending on which method you want to use. Then when you press the DIAL button, you will see a field to enter the IP address of the box with which you want to connect. For two way audio, you would need to use the SIP mode.
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Save KRE!
It has been dubbed the West Coast center devoted to all things radio. But today, the California Historical Radio Society (CHRS) is in danger of losing its headquarters. The beautifully-restored art deco KRE building that has been home to CHRS, the Bay Area Radio Museum (with its hundreds of vintage San Francisco airchecks, listenable on-line), and Hall of Fame for the past nine years, is being sold. The landlord has gone into bankruptcy, and CHRS must quickly raise $750,000 to purchase the building.
Read MoreCounterfeit cabling? Say it ain't so!
As everyone in broadcasting knows, the cost of copper has skyrocketed in recent years. Tight supply (fewer mines and refineries due to economic and regulatory issues) and increased manufacturing (China now accounts for 40% of the global demand for copper) have combined to create a classic seller's market[1].
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