Industry News

In response to the rapidly growing immersive audio market and growth of the Dolby Atmos format in film, television, gaming, and music production, a Finnish loudspeaker manufacturer has brought to market an amplifier designed specifically for the needs of multi-channel workflows.

By combining the latest advanced Class-D technology and in-house designed proprietary buffer stage, Amphion‘s Amp400.8 offers up to 410W of power across up to 8 identical channels.

“Atmos is naturally of great interest to us and we have been digging into it deeply,” says Amphion CEO Anssi Hyvonen. “It has the potential of being something very interesting to the end customer, but only if it is done right. We strongly believe that the only way to utilize the considerable, often updatable DSP processing power of the latest immersive monitor controllers is to keep the monitoring chain as transparent as possible. Therefore, it should be free of any unnecessary additional DSP or other electrical circuitry. As the number of channels grow, even the slightest shortcomings in monitoring lead to lack of cohesion, which is clearly audible through speakers as well as headphones.”

Amp400.8 is available for $4,500 and is shipping now.

For more information about Amp400.8, please visit: http://amphion.fi/create/

Wireless microphone system maker Shure has issued a firmware update for the recently released ADX5D wireless receiver.

Now available in the dual-channel portable receiver is a party dial feature that enables users to enables users to

Construct a custom group of frequencies, for instance open channels at a venue, and rapidly move between them.

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In addition, the menu structure has been “optimized” to make frequently used features closer to each other and shortcuts are dedicated to most popular items.

Send your new equipment news to radioworld@futurenet.com.

Info: www.shure.com

The post Shure Updates ADX5D Firmware appeared first on Radio World.

The Copyright Royalty Board judges on Monday issued the public version of their final determination for webcasting royalty rates and terms.

Those are the royalty rates for webcasters that stream sound recordings from 2021 through 2025. This is one of the final steps in the process of implementing rates that we told you about earlier.

The document released by the judges is a deep dive into a legalistic discussion over how rates for entities like Spotify, AM/FM broadcasters, colleges and other streamers are calculated. The public version of their document is available here. Some confidential information has been redacted.

The document includes an extensive discussion of why the judges rejected the NAB’s idea that simulcasters should pay lower rates. They ruled that simulcasters and other commercial
webcasters “compete in the same submarket and should be subject to the same rate.
Granting simulcasters differential royalty treatment would distort competition in this submarket,
promoting one business model at the expense of others.” (That discussion starts on page 218 of the document.)

The rate for commercial subscription services in 2021 is $0.0026 per performance. The
rate for commercial nonsubscription services in 2021 is $0.0021 per performance. Subsequent rates will change based on a Consumer Price Index.

Noncommercial webcasters that don’t exceed a certain total number of tuning hours per month have a flat rate of $1,000 annually for each station or channel.

Public broadcasters and certain educational webcasters previously reached their own separate rate settlements for the five-year period with SoundExchange; the CRB approved those last year.

The post CRB Judges Release Their Rationale for New Rates appeared first on Radio World.

From Podcast Business Journal

Baton Rouge-based radio broadcasting company Guaranty Media has launched a new podcast network.

The company owns four stations in the Louisiana market, and the new podcast network has six shows.

Full details on the network, including an interview with Digital Content Director Jay Parker, can be found HERE.

What does Evergrande have to do with Entravision, Nexstar or Nielsen?

Absolutely nothing. Yet, media stocks were swept up in a decisively down day on Wall Street, fueled by what some are calling the potential collapse of a Chinese property Goliath.

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The DRM Consortium is characterizing its own data from recent FM-band trials in India as “extremely positive and very encouraging.”

Digital Radio Mondiale is one of two digital systems being considered by AIR (All India Radio) for local and regional services on the country’s FM band. HD Radio is the other platform in the running.

AIR is expected to make a recommendation to the country’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Tests and trials of DRM were done in February and March.

The AIR R&D organization did its own measurements but the DRM Consortium says it took measurements too. “While the final official recommendation of the AIR Committee is still awaited, the DRM Consortium has gathered and visualized the data and measurements it recorded in parallel with AIR in New Delhi and Jaipur,” the consortium said in an announcement Monday.

“The measurements clearly demonstrate that DRM as the global all-bands digital radio standard can deliver an unmatched number of digital audio services in the given spectrum (up to three audio plus one multimedia service per DRM signal block), while allowing for maximum utilization of the FM band spectrum (with every DRM signal occupying only 96 kHz spectrum bandwidth, half the bandwidth analog FM requires for a single audio service).”

It said that the trial confirmed that DRM transmissions would not interfere with ongoing analog FM services. “Also, DRM as a pure-digital radio standard proved its ability to efficiently broadcast multiple DRM signals side by side from a single transmitter (multi-DRM transmitter configuration), and for operating in flexible configurations alongside an analog FM signal from the same transmitter (simulcast transmitter configuration).”

Further, it said DRM could deliver Journaline advanced text service in multiple languages, “to be ready for delivering Emergency Warning Functionality (EWF with CAP interface), and to efficiently enable traffic, travel and online teaching services over broadcast, without requiring internet connectivity.”

DRM said reception in the FM band was demonstrated on various receivers of various types including car receivers and mobile phones. “It was proven that existing receiver models, already supporting DRM in the AM bands as adopted by India, can support DRM in all bands by a simple firmware upgrade without hardware modifications.”

The consortium has posted its overview of these findings (PDF).

The post DRM Says India Trials Make Its Case appeared first on Radio World.

A global media company operating 42 TV channels and multiple digital products across six continents that’s a major player in content distribution and broadcasting worldwide is joining forces with Paris-based Canal+ Group.

CANAL+ is taking a 70% majority stake in SPI International. It’s a move that’s also a vote of confidence in SPI, as has pledged to keep the current management team and operational structure in place.

SPI’s Founder Loni Farhi and CEO Berk Uziyel will continue to manage and develop SPI’s business with the support of their executive committee. “The parties will be able to generate reciprocal synergies to further strengthen the two groups’ presence in the
international markets,” Canal+ says.

In a joint statement, Farhi and Uziyel said, “It is very exciting news and the start of a new era for SPI INTERNATIONAL. CANAL+ and SPI share a common vision for continuous growth and a strong international presence. We have been strategic partners for years, where we have built a great tradition of collaborations and achieving mutual goals. Now we will have the chance to join forces under one roof. SPI will further accelerate its growth with CANAL+ while leveraging natural synergies. SPI International has an amazingly talented team that has produced incredible growth in the last decade. Now, with this great team and with much enthusiasm, we are delighted to become part of the CANAL+ family. Our joined forces will strengthen the existing entertainment products and expand the distribution of our compelling content to far larger audiences.”

Maxime Saada, CEO of CANAL+ Group, adds, “The acquisition of SPI INTERNATIONAL is
part of the strategy we have been implementing for several years. We have set ourselves the goal of reaching a minimum of 30 million subscribers by 2025, and SPI INTERNATIONAL will certainly be a key asset in achieving this ambition.”

The completion of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is designed to help CANAL+ expand its content investment strategy, which already includes Studiocanal, and Kino Świat in Poland.

The power of the auto insurance brands can be seen once again at Spot Cable.

The latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Cable report is out, and for the last week, four of the top 10 spots by play count are represented by auto insurance specialists. Who’s at No. 1?

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As social media and technology companies face criticism for not doing enough to stem the flow of misleading information on their platforms, a new Pew Research Center survey finds that some 48% of U.S. adults get news on social media sites “often” or “sometimes,” a 5 percentage point decline from 2020. 

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The latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Radio report has one big takeaway with respect to the most active ad category at broadcast media: auto insurance brands.

At radio, there is a leader that is not present at Spot Cable. It shows that broadcast media is the preferred way to go for achieving stronger ROI.

That’s because Progressive is the category leader at Spot Radio once again, with GEICO at No. 9.

Some 46,194 spot plays are attributed to Progressive, as DuckDuckGo is the No. 1 paid advertiser by play count for the week.

Meanwhile, it is another big week for Babbel, and it and McDonald’s are back in the Spot Ten.