Welcome to another edition of "Ask The Omnia Guy", a continuing series of expert answers by the Omnia guy, Paul Kriegler, to real-world questions from our electronic mailbag. Our question:

Q: "Hey Omnia Guy - If I purchase the Nielsen watermark license for our Omnia.9, can it encode our HD channels as well as our streams?"

A: Short answer: Yes! The latest version of Omnia.9 software allows you to watermark any program stream your Omnia.9's processing.  

Topics: Streaming Audio, audio watermarking, Omnia.9, broadcast audio processor, HD Radio, Neilsen

Trending: Optimize Your Streams for Smart Speakers with Telos Z/IPStream R/2

“Some broadcasters aren’t paying enough attention to their streams,” says David Bialik, Director of Stream Operations for Entercom. “Broadcasters want to make a product advertisers want to sponsor, so delivering a quality product with quality audio is a must. We want to make sure the listener does not want to change the stream, or even adjust the volume for that matter.”

How to achieve this? David, who’s something of a streaming audio authority, having worked on a variety of streaming projects over the years, suggests the Telos Z/IPStream R/2.

Topics: Streaming Audio Processing Encoders, Streaming Audio, Z/IPStream R/2, Z/IPStream

Radio Solutions for Streaming Audio: How to Create the Stream of Your Dreams

According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB), streaming audio revenue has grown by more than 1,000% over the last decade. With the popularity of smart speakers and similar devices, the expectation is for streaming revenue to continue to climb, opening up a great opportunity for broadcasters.

Topics: Streaming Audio, broadcast streaming, Z/IPStream

TWiRT 387 - Studio & Show Lighting with Brett Gilbert

More of us radio engineers are being called upon to provide adequate lighting for new venues.  Many stations are building live performance studios. Others are putting cameras in the control rooms.  Whether it’s for a live audience or a video camera, talent needs good lighting to be seen - in a good light.  Brett Gilbert with iHeartMedia in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has been lighting up stages since high school. He shares a couple decades of hands-on knowledge with Chris Tobin and Kirk Harnack.

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

TWiRT 386 - Pirates and Snowcats with Nick Straka

Ahoy, matey! Thar be pesky pirates in New York, Boston, and Philly! Nick Straka is a contract and consulting engineer in the New York City area.  He builds and maintains licensed FM transmitter sites, plus he tracks down the pirate broadcasters who interfere with them.

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

TWiRT 384 - Radio Trends with Doug Irwin 

Between accommodating the Television Repack and Norway’s Public analog FM stations going dark, what’s a poor FM transmitter to do?  Radio Magazine’s Editor, Doug Irwin, talks about these topics along with changing workflows with on-demand radio programming and streaming media.

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

TWiRT 383 - Single Frequency Networks with Hal Kneller

Single Frequency Networks, or SFNs: European FM broadcasters have been using them for decades. Now, US and other broadcasters around the world are extending coverage and filling in coverage holes using synchronized FM transmitters.  Hal Kneller consults SFN projects and discussed the technology and techniques.

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

TWiRT 382 - Envisioning Virtual Studios

What might the radio studios of tomorrow look like?  What equipment is in them? What equipment is not in them?  Could the studio’s future really be “cushions and daylight” as one radio futurist has said? We’re live at the Cleveland headquarters of the Telos Alliance, talking with colleagues about where our studio technologies are headed.

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

Program & Process Your Stream for Success

Harry Lyles is President of Lyles Media Group and UrbanRadio.com, a network of streaming audio stations broadcasting various styles and eras of urban music. Harry is also a longtime programmer and programming consultant. With expertise in both programming and streaming audio, he frequently consults with urban stations across the country. Harry knows quality audio. We sat down with Harry to get his views on best practices for the programming and processing for broadcast streams.

Topics: Streaming Audio, Z/IPStream X/2, Harry Lyles

TWiRT 381 - Stupidity with Tom Ray

Tom Ray says his superpower is the ability to attract stupidity. But, being a clever engineer he deals with it swifty and moves on. Tom joins Chris Tobin and Kirk Harnack for this episode on stupidity - how to identify it, how to deal with it, and what we can learn from it.

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