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Quote of Note
Clarke's Second Law: "The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible."
- Arthur C. Clarke, 1960
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Sweet summer deals from Axia & Omnia
Better get 'em now, before the boss gets back from vacation
In case you didn't know it, our Marketing guys cause a lot of trouble around here. Summer's when they're at their worst, all pumped up with caffeine and Korean BBQ after NAB. Always stirring the pot -- you know the type. This summer they've been especially boisterous. They've cooked up two special offers for Omnia and Axia clients -- and let's just say you should grab 'em before the guys in accounting get wind of what's up.
 The Axia Deal: "Meet the new Radius console. Now with dial tone."
Axia's Radius consoles have been a huge hit. They're so affordable, clients are putting them into studios where they hadn't considered a networked console before. But what good's a console without phone gear? So, for a very limited time, when you buy a Radius console with a QOR.16 console engine, we'll buy you a Telos Hx1 POTS phone hybrid. That's a $795 US value, friends - hey, we like to go big or go home. Get all the details here.
 The Omnia "Summer Trade-Up" Deal: Omnia clients are constantly telling stories about their first Omnia audio processor. They remember how it felt when they first fired up that fire-breathing Omnia-6FM, and the difference that it made to their station's sound. So the Omnia guys came up with a way for stations to experience that thrill all over again. With the Omnia Summer Trade-Up Deal, if you've got a pre-loved Omnia.fm Classic, Omnia.fm Hot, Omnia-4.5, Omnia-5 or Omnia-6 processor, you can trade it in for a $4000 trade-up allowance toward a brand new Omnia.11 FMHD. So you can take your stations to an even higher level of market domination! Like the Axia deal, it's a limited time offer. Click here for the full story.
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Axia xNodes win big at NAB
New fanless compact AoIP interfaces were a big hit
 | | Radio Mag's Chriss Scherer presents Axia R&D genius Maciej Szlapka with a Pick Hit award |
Axia walked away from Las Vegas with two awards for our new xNodes, a compact AoIP interface introduced at NAB. Radio World recognized xNodes with its 'Cool Stuff' trophy, while Radio Magazine gave it the "Pick Hit" award.
xNodes come in Analog models with 8 mono balanced line-level inputs and 8 mono balanced line-level outputs (or 4 stereo inputs and outputs); an AES/EBU version, a Microphone xNode with four pro-grade mic preamps and four balanced analog line outputs; a GPIO model with 6 general-purpose logic ports; and a unique Mixed-Signal xNode with 1 selectable Mic/Line analog input, 2 dedicated analog line inputs, 3 analog line outputs, 1 digital AES3 input and 1 AES3 output, and 2 GPIO ports.
To find out the secret to xNode's success, we went straight to the source. Maciej Szlapka is the R & D engineer in charge of the xNode project. He notes two reasons for xNode's receiving so much attention at NAB. "Customers gave us their input on what features they wanted in the next generation of xNodes. Second, is the work of our engineers. They rose to the challenge to make the impossible possible."
Asked what he likes the most about the new xNodes, Maciej divides the list into hardware and software. "The small size means they can be mounted on a wall or under a table, not just in a rack. Since they consume 13 watts or less, xNodes may be powered from a PoE switch. Also, there are DB-25 connectors in parallel with the RJ 45 jacks, appealing to those users who prefer the Tascam-style audio wiring. On the software side, the new units have a much quicker setup, just input one number and you're ready to go."
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News from the Field
Who's getting new gear?
- Calvary Chapel's KWVE-AM & FM, Los Angeles, California
- Sirius XM Satellite Radio, New York City, New York
- WRIS-AM & WJLH-FM, Roanoke, Virginia
- University of Arkansas' KUAR-FM, Little Rock, Arkansas
- Radio Bandeirantes, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
- Univision Radio, Austin, Texas
Axia mixing consoles are on-air at:
- Cumulus Media's KPLX-FM,
Dallas, Texas - California Lutheran University's KCLU-FM, Thousand Oaks, California
- Radio Might, St. Petersburg, Russia
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Get the NOW! catalog
100 pages of broadcast-y goodness.
Click here to get a copy mailed to you! |
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Radio Video
Classic Radio on the Net
 | | Schafer Radio Automation System at Australia's 2KA, 1975 |
Well-known as "The Magic Christian" for two decades on stations from Boston's WVBF to San Diego's KCBQ to Toronot's CHUM, Chuck Christian was one of radio's best voices. Here's a compilation of his work courtesy of George Junak's California Airchecks.
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IP for STL: Saves hassles, saves money
 The Joy FM puts 22 Z/IP ONE codecs in STL service
For The Joy FM, a contemporary christian radio station in Florida, with satellite stations throughout the state, things had reached the breaking point. They had been using C-band satellite feeds to distribute the signal, leading to a number of bottlenecks and inefficiencies. "All of our automation computers were at the transmitter sites, which are inhospitable environments," according to contract engineer Dave Anderson. "When the computers inevitably failed, our IT guy had to drive out to the sites." Clearly, it was time for a change. "We started looking for a replacement," adds Anderson. "but nothing had a price point that made sense for us." Enter the Telos Z/IP One.
 The Joy FM started out with two units. Things worked out well, and now they have 22 Z/IP Ones in the network. Anderson developed a fully redundant system using the Telos units. The main path is a 35 Mb fiber, while the backup feed is a 10 Mb wireless over Motorola hardware. Two of the four Internet sites can be lost, and stations can still stay on the air. Failures result in no more than two seconds of dead air. Anderson has a tuner at each transmitter site, and uses the return path from the Z/IP Ones for quality monitoring.
The network of 22 Telos Z/IP Ones enabled a radical restructuring of station resources. Now all automation computers are located in the Sarasota headquarters, greatly reducing maintenance time. Not only does the Z/IP One enable The Joy FM to streamline its operation, it saves money too. "We pay less per month for the Z/IP One infrastructure than we did for satellite, and now there's no single point of failure," adds Anderson.
Anderson is enthusiastic about the audio quality, too. "The difference between satellite feeds and Z/IP One is amazing. Even more impressive though, is the difference between raw audio and Z/IP One. There is none." Anderson set up double-blind tests where listeners could switch headphones between program audio and the Z/IP One output. "Only one audiophile could hear a slight difference, the others couldn't tell which was which," explained Anderson.
Check out Telos-Systems.com/zip-one/ to see if Z/IP could solve some problems for you, too.
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"What, 10 years already?"
NAB Wrapup: Linear Acoustic celebrates the past by looking into the future
 | The DM2000 Bitstream Analzyer and AERO.1000, introduced at NAB 2012
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NAB 2012 is history now, but this year's show was special for Linear Acoustic so we're allowing ourselves one final look back. What made this year so different for us? For one thing, 2012 marks the 10th Anniversary of Linear Acoustic. Back in 2002, company founder and President Tim Carroll figured out that someone needed to get a handle on digital television audio, so he set up shop in a New Jersey garage. The rest, as they say, is history, and today broadcasters tell us we're regarded as the industry leader in DTV loudness control, metering, and monitoring. (Aw, shucks... we're blushing.)
Another thing that made this year's show special was the evolution of our long-standing relationship with Dolby® Laboratories. Dolby technology is at work inside nearly every Linear Acoustic product we make. At NAB, we announced that we are cooperating to carry on the legacy of Dolby broadcast hardware via two new co-branded products: The LA-5280 Professional Audio Codec and the DM2000 Bitstream Analyzer.
And, with the CALM Act on the minds of every U.S. television broadcaster, we showed off some new additions to our existing lineup of loudness control and metering solutions. AERO.lite offers stations that don't need multi-channel processing an affordable way to deliver Linear Acoustic quality sound to viewers at a competitive price. It can even be equipped with an optional ITU-R BS.1770 meter built in to make matching output levels to Dialnorm a breeze. On the other end of the processing spectrum, AERO.1000 can be configured with up to 64-channels of AEROMAX® loudness control, all with UPMAX® upmixing, and all with optional Dolby® encoding, decoding, and Nielsen Watermarking. ITU-R BS.1770 and TCP/IP remote control are included, too - all in compact 1RU package.
Find out more about what's new on the TV side of the house at www.LinearAcoustic.com .
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Old friend, new voice
Tom Vernon joins the eNews crew
 We're very happy to welcome a familiar name to the eNews editorial crew: Tom Vernon. He's perhaps best known for his many articles in Radio World, but since 1983, he has written product reviews, features, how-to, and countless NAB articles. Over the years he has also performed engineering duties at a number of stations, including WNEV-TV, WBUR and Kiss-108 in Boston, and WXPN in Philadelphia. His hobbies include gardening, collecting vintage broadcast gear, cardstock modeling and restoring his 19th-century house.
We've known Tom and admired his work for years, and it's a real pleasure to have him contributing to eNews every month. |
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Tech Tip of the Month
Configuring GPIO events with the Axia iQ Console
 Rod Simon, Studio Engineer at Moody Radio in Chicago e-mails us asking, "Is there a way to turn on a light when any of the faders or audio output of the IQ is active? Since we currently are not using the recording function I thought I may use that, but it is still not automatic. I basically want a virtual GPIO mixer controlling one GPIO port." Axia technical support recommends PathfinderPC for this. "If you don't want to use Pathfinder, then you will have to pull out every channel in a separate GPIO port and sum them together with some logic for your light. I suppose this would work but it would require 8 separate ports, basically a whole external GPIO Node. If you are willing to use Pathfinder and silence sensing, that may be a better option. You could apply one of these to your PGM output and let that be the determining qualifier for any external signaling you would like to do. This is a pretty easy application and we would be happy to jump on a remote session with you and help to set it up." "More information is available in the Pathfinder manual. Page 43 deals with the threshold settings and page 47 walks you through an audio based even change, which is what you are trying to do. Once you have the qualifier set up, then it is a matter of connecting a GPIO to the light and you are good-to-go."
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Discrepancy Sheet
Railroading and audio processing
 | | Foti rides the rails. |
Think those two topics don't have anything in common? It's amazing how many broadcast engineers are model railroaders, too. Frank Foti, the Godfather of Omnia Audio, is one of them, with a lifelong interest in all things related to trains, from HO models to full scale. "My very first memory, of anything in life, occurred about the age of two," Frank says. "That's when my father sat me down under the Christmas tree to watch an American Flyer electric train circle the tree again and again. I was spellbound by the chuff-chuff sound the American Flyer steam engine made, and also by the smell of the smoker unit. To this day, some fifty-plus years later, I still get a rush whenever the smell of American Flyer smoke is in the air!" From that childhood Christmas on, he was hooked. Once the A.C. Gilbert Co stopped making American Flyer S gauge trains, Frank got into HO scale. Finally, his lifelong dream was fulfilled about nine years ago when he purchased a 1/8th scale (7.5" gauge) live steam locomotive, named "East Wind" after its 1:1 B&M prototype.. Today, Foti is a life-member of of the Lake Shore Live Steamers Club in Kirtland, Ohio. You can read more about Frank's love affair with trains, in his own words, at OmniaAudio.com/east-wind-and-me/ .
Until next time, stay well!
Clark Novak, Tom Vernon, Denny Sanders, Angi Roberson, Guy Hufferd and Jim Kuzman
for Axia, Telos, Omnia and Linear Acoustic
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About Us
eNews is published once each month. Looking for a link or a story from a back issue? Click here.
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