|
|
|
|
|
Quote of Note
"Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it."
- Ayn Rand
|
|
Radio Free Asia's D.C. Digs
IP-Audio, VoIP and International broadcasting
 Radio Free Asia (RFA) was an early adopter of Axia technology. Starting in 2005 with its Asia bureau facility located in Bangkok, and then later in Seoul and Hong Kong, RFA has essentially become an All-Axia house, eventually completing the upgrade with its Washington DC headquarters, which has 35 studios. "Axia consoles are flexible, easy to install and network, and may be configured remotely." explains RFA's Engineer John Penovich . He and Yuri Terleckyj, Sr. Technician, headed up the team that did the ten-month upgrade to RFA's Washington facilities. Initially all the studios were islands, but now are all networked together, the facility has about 1,200 sources.
 | | One of 35 studios in RFA's DC headquarters prominently displays Element console, Telos VX VSet12 phoneset |
 | | A "mini-studio" in Washington, D.C. |
Telos' VoIP-based VX Talkshow System, which replaced their aging Series 2101 setup, is part of the mix as well, riding on the Livewire network along with all the Axia consoles and routing equipment. Their VX system makes use of 4 VX Engines to handle the load of calls coming in via ISDN phone circuits, SIP from an Asterisk VoIP PBX, and Skype. All told, there are more than 500 DID SIP numbers on the system, making phone system integration with the Axia network both desirable and essential.
 | | One of several production rooms at RFA's Bangkok, Thailand facility |
"Axia's show profiles are great for us," explains Penovich, "because with Elements equipped with motorized faders we can create set-ups that are as simple to use as possible. This allows our staff to engineer and produce their own segments, so our Production Engineers only have to operate the Elements for more complicated production, such as call-in and live shows." RFA has about 150 news announcers but staff training was remarkably easy. Penovich and Terleckyj setup a mock studio so RFA's training department could acquaint announcers with the operation of the Element consoles.
The final step in RFA's upgrade of their Washington headquarters is removal of the old TDM router. All audio paths in RFA's Master Control will then be Livewire. Routing will be done by a Pathfinder Server cluster. Due largely to Radio Free Asia's success with these upgrades, Radio Free Europe selected Telos-Axia as well when they moved to their new headquarters in Prague. If you'd like to read more about RFE, check out the feature article in the latest edition of the NOW! catalog. Don't have a copy yet? Get it sent to you, free of charge, by clicking here. |
|
"And now, a word from our sponsor..."
That knocking isn't your Chevy's engine. It's opportunity.
Time is growing short to take advantage of two special offers from Omnia and Axia. There's not much time left to hop on these special offers (and if you don't, you'll just regret it in the morning) -- the deals expire 28 September, 2012.
 Buy an Axia Radius console, get a Telos hybrid: If you're building a new studio, your console will be pretty lonely without a phone system to talk to. Fortunately, we have the answer (get it?): For a very limited time, buy an Axia Radius console with a QOR.16 console engine, and we'll buy you a smooth, clean-sounding Telos Hx1 POTS phone hybrid to keep it company - a $795 US value. Get all the details here.
 Get the hottest Omnia ever, and score some cool savings too: You want new processing but the boss won't bite? Sweeten your pitch with The Omnia Summer Trade-Up Deal. Trading in your existing Omnia.fm Classic, Omnia.fm Hot, Omnia-4.5, Omnia-5 or Omnia-6 processor for a $4000 allowance towards on a brand new Omnia.11 FMHD, the processor that's got listeners around the world marvelling at the newfound clarity and punch of their favorite stations. 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: - Townsquare Media's WBLK-FM, WBUF-FM, WYRK-FM & WJYE-FM, Buffalo, New York
- American Public Media,
New York City, New York - Entertainment Network SAOC, Muscat, Oman
Telos Z/IP ONE IP Codecs are traversing the Net at: - Family Radio's KEAR,
San Francisco, California - Rubber City Radio's WAKR, WQMX and WONE-FM,
Akron, Ohio - Salem Communications' KXMX, KRLA, KFSH-FM and KKLA-FM, Los Angeles, California
Omnia ONE is outperforming more expensive audio processors at: - Radio Works' KCXY-FM,
Camden, Arkansas - Midwest Television's KFMB-FM, San Diego, California
- Millennium Media's KKOR-FM, Gallup, New Mexico
|
|
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
 | Gary Owens talks about getting his
start in radio |
Gary Owens is one of the most famous voices of Radio's silver ages. If you didn't know him from Omaha's KOIL, Frisco's KEWB or Gene Autry's legendary "Station Of The Stars," Los Angeles' KMPC, you knew him from "Laugh-In", Scooby-Doo cartoons or one of a million other projects his golden tones have graced since the 1950s. In this short 4-minute clip, Gary tells how he got his start in radio, and hams it up along the way for fun. Click here to watch. It would be insegrievious not to. |
|
Tech Updates
New Software for your Downloading Pleasure
New Manuals for
Late-Night Reading
|
|
|
|
White Paper: Less wire for more efficiency
Kirk Harnack cuts through that tangle for you
 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?
In the broadcast plant, wire is the ultimate "frenemy:" you can't live without it, but you'd sure like to live with less of it. In his white paper, "Wire In The Broadcast Plant: Less Wire Means You're Doing It Right", Kirk Harnack says that "In a typical multi-studio radio facility, the investment in audio and control wire alone could easily exceed $10,000 to $20,000."
You don't need us to tell you that that's a lot of money. So how can you save on this particular bit of infrastructure? In Kirk's white paper, he looks at 14 case studies of broadcasters who've saved significant capital expense by deploying IP-Audio networks in place of TDM or old-fashioned discrete cabling, "radio engineers and contractors who got rid of fifty to eighty percent of the wire in their studios and rack rooms. They slashed their installation costs and time by - conservatively - half," writes Kirk.
You can download Kirk's paper for free from Telos-Systems.com/techtalk. |
|
Digital TV Adventures in the Middle Kingdom
Linear Acoustic takes care of transcoding at China Central Television
 | | Master Control racks at CCTV's new HD facilities in Beijing, featuring Linear Acoustic LA-5269 Dolby Digital/Plus Transcoders. Three LA-5269s are already on the air on CCTV-3, CCTV-5, and CCTV-8. |
As the predominant state television broadcaster in mainland China, Chinese Central Television (CCTV) programs 24 channels accessible to more than 1 billion viewers. Their new broadcast facilities were built to be "100% HD ready."
Since the ability to properly handle program metadata was a top priority, they specified 24 Linear Acoustic® LA-5269 Dolby® Digital/Plus Transcoders for the new plant, several of which are already up and running on CCTV-3 (Arts and Entertainment), CCTV-5 (Sports), and CCTV-8 (Series Television).
Most of CCTV's programming relies upon static metadata as set on the encoder, but from time to time, they need the ability to handle dynamic metadata as well, which the LA-5269 does with ease. That feature played a big part in their decision to choose Linear Acoustic.
The ability to accept SDI input, which simplifies workflow, was also appealing. Having SNMP and dual power supplies provides the stability, security, and reliability broadcasters demand in a transmission-critical environment.
Mr. Xu Gangming, Director of CCTV's Transmission Department, summed it up this way: "The Linear Acoustic LA-5269 Dolby® Digital/Plus Transcoder plays a critical role in the MCR at CCTV's new facility. It has not only simplified the system structure, but also provides stable, high performance 5.1-channel surround encoding for our HD channels. It fits the rigorous requirements of handling audio metadata and supporting the top quality program production and distribution we demand at CCTV."
Daniel Wang, Linear Acoustic Senior Business Development Manager, Asia, says the company's reputation for providing excellent support was also a determining factor in choosing the LA-5269. "We've been working side by side with the CCTV engineers since the early design phase of the project, doing our best to help make their transition to HD as smooth as possible," Wang said. View the entire Linear Acoustic toolbox at LinearAcoustic.com .  | | LA-5269 Dolby Digital/Plus Transcoder lets DTV broadcasters encode, decode, and transcode today's most popular multichannel audio formats. Metadata is supported via an RS485 connection, and can be extracted from an applied HD- or SD-SDI signal. |
|
|
Tech Tip of the Month
Controlling Telos Hx1 Hybrids with a Telos Direct Interface Module
 This month's Tech Tip Topic comes from Mike Uhl who writes, "Will a new Hx1 work with an old DIM (Direct Interface Module), used for ganging multiple Telos ONE hybrids into a multi-line system?" Mark Manolio of Telos tech support responds, "The HX hybrids will not work directly with the DIM, but there is a simple circuit that can be added to make it work. See Telos-Systems.com/support/csb.htm for Tech Bulletin #03032011, title 'How to interface an Hx series Hybrid behind a Direct Interface Module,' which describes this circuit." |
|
Discrepancy Sheet
Behind the doors of an EM-testing lab
 | | A sensitive antenna ready to sniff out EM Inside the EM Testing Laboratory at Riga Technical University |
As everyone knows, broadcast equipment is subject to stringent electrical immunity and electromagnetic compatibility regulations. After all, you can't have EM flying willy-nilly around a radio or TV studio without causing adverse effects - either to the broadcast material, or to its human producers! International standards for EM (or RF, if you prefer) emissions are set by the IEC, and must be strictly adhered to. And although it goes without saying that manufacturers must test all equipment they produce to ensure that its EM emissions are within those standards, most folks have no idea of how this is done.
Recently, our Kirk Harnack had the opportunity to observe EM testing of the new Axia DESQ console underway at the EM Testing Lab of the Riga Technical University in Riga, Latvia. And like any inquisitive engineer would, he documented the experience for the rest of us! The video presented here takes you into the "black box" of EM testing, as Kirk walks you through the facilities, equipment and methods used to ensure that nothing unpleasant escapes that new goodie you've just unpacked. Click here to watch. 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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
