|
|
|
|
|
Quote of Note
"A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken."
- James Dent
|
|
"Engine, Engine No. 9"
There's a new Omnia steamrolling down the tracks
 Omnia 9 is based on a completely new platform for audio processing, which is unlike anything ever offered within the Omnia family, and it's winning customers in markets where ever it goes. Just ask Bill Bowin, a contract engineer in Columbus Ohio, who has installed Omnia processors in several AM and FM stations over the years. Recently he shared his thoughts on the Omnia 9 with eNews.
Bill was one of the early adopters of Omnia 9, and initially he used it on stations with rock and classic rock formats. "What impressed me was the clean and punchy sound of this Omnia. The bottom end has a great deal of clarity, without the low-frequency intermod noticeable on some other processors." He adds that with Omnia 9, he can match the loudest stations in the market and still sound much cleaner.
In addition to a great sound, other features make Omnia 9 a winner. "The built-in test equipment - spectrum analyzer and oscilloscope, make it easy to tune up your own sound, or take the output of a mod monitor and look at the competition's signal." Bowin also uses the spectrum analyzer to monitor the RDS spectrum and accurately adjust injection level. These features were originally developed as a designer's tool, but were then "left in" for the benefit of Omnia users.
In addition to its use in updating firmware, and transferring presets between Omnias, the USB tool can be used for signal analysis. "You can make recordings of the same song on different stations and get some great insights on what the other guys are doing," explains Bowin.
Of course, Omnia 9 comes with plenty of presets, so it can be competitive right out of the box. But it's also powerful enough to customize for that unique sound your station has been looking for. Bowin adds, "It has a wealth of processing features, some I've never even heard of before. Others, like the phase rotator, don't work the same way they do in other processors."
Another feature that Bowin likes are the redundant power supplies, each with its own power cord. "Uninteruptable Power Supplies do fail occasionally," adds Bowin, "so it's good practice to plug one supply into the UPS, and the other into the power line."
Omnia 9 has many other features, including a fully automatic program-dependent declipper and multiband expander for damaged content such as loud CDs. There's also streaming encoding built in for Primary Digital (HD) and (Optional) Secondary (HD2) and Tertiary (HD3) Omnia 9 supports encoding to MP3 (Mpeg-1 Layer 3), MP2 (Mpeg-1 Layer 2), AAC, HE-AAC (including RTSP/3G for streaming to mobile phones), Ogg Vorbis, WMA and WMA Pro. There you might have a place in your rack for a 9? Check out OmniaAudio.com/9/ for more.
|
|
Opportunity knocking
Strike while the iron is hot - these deals won't last forever
Last month we told you about two special offers for Omnia and Axia clients. We try never to repeat ourselves (or say things twice), but we wanted to make sure that our new subscribers heard the word as well.
 Deal Number One, from Axia: You're outfitting a studio with a sweet new AoIP console, and you realize -- "I need phone gear, too!" No worries, we've got your back. For a very limited time, you can buy an Axia Radius console with a QOR.16 console engine, and we'll pick up the cost of the phone gear -- you'll get a hot, new Telos Hx1 POTS phone hybrid at no extra cost That's a $795 US value. Get all the details here.
 Deal Number Two, from Omnia: The Omnia Summer Trade-Up Deal is really heating up engineers' desire glands. They've been trading in their Omnia.fm Classic, Omnia.fm Hot, Omnia-4.5, Omnia-5 and Omnia-6 processors for a trade-up allowance worth $4000 on a brand new Omnia.11 FMHD -- you know, the one that makes the competition scratch their heads and wonder what sort of black magic you're using to sound so clean, clear and loud. Like the Axia deal, it's a limited time offer. Click here for the full story.
|
|
|
News from the Field
Who's getting new gear?
Axia mixing consoles are on-air at: - BIOLA University's BIOLA Radio, Los Angeles, California
- Cumulus Media's' WKHX-FM, Atlanta, Georgia
- Bonneville's KIRO-AM / FM, Seattle, Washington
Telos ProFIler automated program archiver is logging audio at: - Classic Radio's KING-FM,
Seattle, Washington - Western Kentucky University's WKU-FM, Bowling Green, Kentucky
- Capitol Broadcasting's KMFA-FM, Austin, Texas
Omnia ONE is outperforming more expensive audio processors at: - Faith Communications' KSOS-FM, Las Vegas, Nevada
- Radio Might, St. Petersburg, Russia
- Rama Communications' WOKB-AM, Orlando, Florida
|
|
Get the NOW! catalog
100 pages of broadcast-y goodness.
Click here to get a copy mailed to you! |
|
Radio Video
Classic Radio on the Net
 | | RCA's Radio At War, 1943 |
World War II was history's first conflict in which combatants had the advantage of instant remote communications. RCA, of course, was hard at work building those communication devices for Allied armed forces, and wanted the public to know it. This featurette from 1943 promoted to moviegoers back home just how effective the use of radio was in the modern theater of operations. Plenty of vintage gear to be seen, from Jeep-mounted field units to shipboard wireless consoles. Click here to watch.
|
|
|
Golden West Chooses Axia - again!
Canadian broadcaster loves IP-Audio
 Golden West Radio serves small and medium-sized communities in Canada, across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta with a network of 30 AM and FM radio stations. As Golden West upgrades existing stations and builds new ones, the task of doing the installs falls on the shoulders of Tom Wiebe, Broadcast Project Leader. "IP audio has revolutionized the way we do installs," notes Wiebe. "In the bad old days, we used to spend weeks living in hotels, working long days pulling multi-conductor cable, wiring punch blocks and soldering christmas trees." He adds his record for time spent in a hotel was six months for a particularly complex install. "Today, we're able to do a complete Axia install in three days with one or two engineers," explains Wiebe. The secrets are standardization of components, and pre-fabricating racks and studio furniture. All assembly takes place in the shop at Golden West's Steinbeck, Manitoba facility. Completed racks are tested and burned in for for a week before shipping. Golden West contracts with a local millwork company for all studio furniture which is also standardized, resulting in a fast turnaround time and reduced cost. The same philosophy of standardization is applied to their RF engineering installs, automation and phone systems. IP-Audio saves Golden West time and money on installs, but why Axia? Wiebe recalls the initial decision came after a lot of research, and there were several reasons for the decision. "We had been looking at another vendor, but their IP audio system was proprietary, not an open standard like Livewire. Pathfinder PC (Axia's automated routing software - Ed.) was also an important factor." Pippin Technical, the Canadian distributor for Axia, was another positive influence on the decision. "We wanted to get training for our engineers on Axia installs and Livewire," recalls Wiebe, "and Pippin was very willing to teach us all that they knew."
 | Golden West studios (L-R): Drumheller, ON, Humboldt, SK, Kenora, ON and Weyburn, SK.
For a closer look, check the Axia Facebook page at Facebook.com/axia.audio |
|
|
Axia welcomes 3 new partners
More broadcast equipment connects to Axia networks
 When it comes to building new broadcast studios, it's pretty clear that engineers and talent alike prefer facilities that are networked using IP-Audio. Why? Engineers love it because it goes together easier, faster, and costs less than hardwired studios. Jocks love IP-Audio because intelligent consoles, phone systems, codecs, playout systems, computers et cetera now talk to each other, eliminating hassles like mix-minus construction, MLS switches, and plant intercoms that won't go to air.
As more and more broadcasters discover the joys of networking, broadcast equipment makers are jumping on-board, too. We're pleased to announce that three new companies are now Axia Livewire partners, and will soon be bringing products to market that connect to Axia networks with just the click of an Ethernet cable: Stirlitz Media, makers of logging software for radio and TV; Innes Corporation, with their loggers and time zone delay products; and Deva Broadcast, who make RDS and RDBS equipment, FM monitoring and scanning devices and more.
Did you know that there are now over 40 companies making products that connect directly to Axia networks? And even more, thanks to our recent partnership with RAVENNA (click here to get the scoop on that). It's a fact: more gear connects with Axia than with any other console brand.
|
|
Tales from the TV side
Introducing the amazing, expanding, loudness controller!
 So you finally bought that two-seater sports car you've always wanted. Right before you found out you were having twins. You can't add two more doors and a couple of seats, so it's "goodbye, sports car" and "hello, minivan."
Outgrowing a major purchase is no fun. So we introduced the Linear Acoustic AERO.1000™ Audio/Loudness Platform, a completely new take on our industry standard transmission audio processors for digital television, which lets you expand as you go without having to buy new hardware. Each 1RU AERO.1000 can be equipped with up to eight 5.1+2+2 AEROMAX® audio engines (including UPMAX® upmixing and downmixing), up to eight Dolby E/Dolby Digital/Plus Encoders and Decoders, and up to eight Nielsen watermark encoders.
That translates into 64-channels of renowned Linear Acoustic loudness control, upmixing, and Dolby coding packed into a single 1.75-inch-high box. And unlike the two-seater you owned for two weeks, AERO.1000 will grow with you. If you only need two processing engines right now, you only buy two. If you need to add more later, you can enable additional processing engines, Dolby coding, and options with a software key, making AERO.1000 as close to future-proof as possible.
So if the guys in your TV plant are looking at loudness control (and who isn't, these days?), have 'em check out AERO.1000 at www.linearacoustic.com .
 | | AERO.1000: Up to 64-channels of DTV loudness control, upmixing, encoding, and decoding in a single software-expandable 1RU package. |
|
|
Tech Tip of the Month
Connecting Zephyr XStream codecs over an IP link
 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.
But, notes Support, this works best on a private IP connection. "Please remember, if you use the Internet as part of the communication path, you take the chance of Internet jitter, dropped packets, etc., causing glitches and possible disconnects that would not occur with Quality Of Service-guaranteed connections, such as ISDN and/or a private QoS-guaranteed network." |
|
Tech Updates
New Software for your Downloading Pleasure
|
|
Discrepancy Sheet
Save KRE!
 | Historic KRE, site of the
California Historical Radio Society |
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 it's 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.
To date, the non-profit has raised about two-thirds of what's required, but they really need the help of individuals and corporations. CHRS recently gained a little breathing room when a petition to deny the completion of the landlord's bankruptcy was filed in New York. This means the deadline to raise the necessary funds has been extended -- but not by much..
The KRE building was immortalized in the movie "American Graffiti" as the studio from which Wolfman Jack did his show, and today it's the site of many vintage radio and broadcasting activities. Along with the Bay Area Radio Museum, CHRS offers classes in radio history, restoration and repair, holds radio repair clinics, and restores museum artifacts in the site's fully equipped radio / TV repair shop. The vintage audio service digitizes audio from reel, cassette, LP, ET, 8 track, wire, 45s & 78s. Vintage radio collectors events are held regularly in the KRE parking lot. The site also houses the James Maxwell Communications Research Library, which has materials dating back to the early 20th century including the Archives of the Society of Wireless Pioneers. The organization's amateur station, W6CF, houses a fine collection of vintage ham, commercial & military gear. Check out http://www.californiahistoricalradio.com/ to help this historic piece of radio history stay "on the air."
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
|
|
About Us
eNews is published once each month. Looking for a link or a story from a back issue? Click here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
