Industry News

Digital Nirvana, a provider of media monitoring and metadata generation services, is preparing for the release of the newest version of its AI-driven compliance logging and monitoring product.

MonitorIQ 8.0 integrates with its Media Services Portal. The update brings its Linux operating system and all included software up to their latest versions.

This helps to negate security vulnerabilities, and offers increased resiliency. Additionally, quicker navigation is seen. Plus, there is lower latency for live video.

Digital Nirvana’s MonitorIQ allows operators to record, store, monitor, analyze, and repurpose content quickly and efficiently with a minimum of clicks. “Natively recording content from any point in the video delivery chain, from production (SDI) to consumption (OTT and STB), MonitorIQ enables broadcasters to collect and use knowledge about their broadcast content to meet a wide range of regulatory and compliance requirements,” the company says. “Users can view live or recorded content across hundreds of channels from desktop and mobile devices in any remote location worldwide for instant recall of proof of performance, compliance, or ad placement.”

MonitorIQ is based on the Linux operating system.

Among other improvements touted by Digital Nirvana are improved video intelligence. This, it says, “means broadcasters can now identify ads on competitive channels, detect logos in high-value content, recognize faces from news sources or entertainment content, and generate closed captions or transcripts of clips from live or historical content or advertisements.”

The MonitorIQ 8.0 upgrade will be available starting in the fourth quarter at no cost to active customers. Digital Nirvana support will contact customers to schedule the upgrade process. More information about Digital Nirvana and its products and services is available at www.digital-nirvana.com.

Celebro Media, a provider of live TV services to broadcasters around the world, has partnered with Quicklink as part of their new global studio project.

Quicklink’s ST500 (Studio-in-a-box) solution has been chosen to provide contribution facilities across Celebro’s televisions studio spaces.

As part of the global studio project, Celebro plans to open 80 new television studios across the world over the next two years. This will complement their larger facilities in London; Washington, D.C.; and Los Angeles.

Roll out has already begun with Miami and New York; Paris, Brussels and Moscow are next to open.

In these locations, Celebro Media chose Quicklink’s ST500 (Studio-in-a-box) to facilitate the contributions back to their MCRs in Washington or London.

The ST500 (Studio-in-a-box) is a compact unit with in-built lighting and camera that can be controlled from any remote location. The camera, lights and audio can be controlled from a
Chrome web-browser using the Quicklink Manager Portal.

In order to facilitate Celebro’s studio roll-out, it has partnered with Regus. As such, Celebro can easily open studios/bureaus at locations where a news event is happening, such as a sporting event or elections.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — PILOT, the innovation initiative of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), has announced two winners of the 2021 PILOT Innovation Challenge. Winners will receive relevant mentorship, feedback, travel support and exhibit space at the 2021 NAB Show, held October 9-13 in Las Vegas.

Individuals, companies, academic institutions and nonprofit organizations submitted applications to address the challenge focus areas which included edge technologies, broadcast journalism and in-vehicle technologies.

This year’s winners are as follows:

BeamOn – Beam Dynamics. BeamOn is a cloud-based product intelligence platform for broadcast stations. The platform bridges the communication barrier between product owners and manufacturers to help broadcast studios reduce costly downtime on set and extend equipment life cycles.

Reinventing Local TV News: Prioritizing Animation and Graphics – Northeastern University. Researchers at Northeastern have shown that animation and advanced graphics are effective ways to enhance broadcast journalism. Northeastern University’s team provides research data, a roadmap, expertise and ready-to-use templates for animations and graphics.

“We are delighted by this year’s Innovation Challenge submissions offering creative proposals for the broadcast industry,” said PILOT Executive Director John Clark. “The winning entries offered solutions that broadcast stations can immediately act upon and put into use right now. We look forward to bringing these award winners to Las Vegas and showcasing their innovative ideas at NAB Show.”

The Innovation Challenge is one in a series of PILOT initiatives that each support a facet of the full innovation cycle, including the ideation, validation and incubation of media and technology-focused ideas.

Cleanfeed, a collaboration tool for high definition, live audio and recording in a browser, is now offering enhanced studio tools to the marketplace.

The U.K.-based company says this amounts to improving the service for podcasters and broadcasters on a global level.

Cleanfeed’s products fulfill the need to broadcast or record in high-definition audio, straight from a browser.

There are enhancements to the existing Clips feature, and a new Player for longer cuts of audio.

The tools give podcasters and broadcasters the functionality of a professional radio studio, straight out of their laptop. Features now give users the opportunity to give their listeners and guests a finished production experience, including the ability to play intro and background music, host a panel show or quiz with sound effects, review music, have guests comment on interviews or even play voxes from the public.

Marc Bakos, co-founder of Cleanfeed, comments, “As business owners we are continually striving to take feedback directly from our users, as well as industry professionals, to ensure we are servicing our community with the best user experience possible. The new enhanced tools really reinforce that creativity is only ever limited by our imagination and we are excited about the possibilities that these features open for everyone who uses them.”

— RBR+TVBR European News Desk, in Kaiserslautern, Germany.

Blonder Tongue Laboratories, a designer and manufacturer of telecommunications, fiber optic, video and data delivery technologies, has unveiled the updated Aircaster AQT8 series of transmodulators – including the Aircaster AQT8-QAM/IP and Aircaster AQT8-IP.

The company calls them “a comprehensive and flexible toolset to create custom IP and QAM channel lineups from any ATSC 1.0 off-air or QAM content source.”

The solution, it says, “is ideal for facilities looking to incorporate off-air video programming without paying additional retransmission fees for local cable or satellite services.”

Ted Grauch, President and CEO of Blonder Tongue Laboratories, notes, “Until now, off-air to digital rebroadcasting equipment have been single use or only offer one-to-one signal conversion. Creating new channel lineups as well as correcting channel metadata to be fully standards compliant has required a labyrinth of converters, splitters, amplifiers and more The Aircaster AQT8 reimagines what off-air rebroadcasting equipment can do in a single compact unit, enabling custom lineups of up to 64 channels, accessible to thousands of residential homes in the case of service operators, or hundreds of rooms and TV sets for hospitality, institutional and SMB use cases. It effortlessly creates and multiplexes a complete digital media service, while eliminating unnecessary fees and equipment.”

The Aircaster AQT8 transmodulators are ideal for any fiber optic or cable service operator as well as video integrators with small- and medium-sized business (SMBs) customers. Requiring 1 RU, the device can accept up to 8 ATSC 1.0 off-air or QAM sources, and simultaneously output a series of either Single Program Transport Streams (SPTS) and/or Multi-Program Transport Stream (MPTS), creating both a custom IP feed and/or QAM transmissions.

Featuring an internal active splitter, the Aircaster AQT8 enables users to create a full lineup of up to 64 channels and distribute them across a facility, eliminating the need for countless digital converters, external splitters, and legacy one-to-one solutions.

Additionally, Aircaster AQT8 includes the following features:

· Pass Through Mode, which directly maps the demodulated RF port content in MPTS format to IP output

· Encrypted QAM input and IP/QAM output allows for MPTS or SPTS formats while preserving the source MPEG tables (PAT, PMT, PSIP, VCT, and MGT)

· Virtual channel mapping via a simple interface, where users can change the packet identifier (PID), program number short name, major/minor channel (PSIP) and overall channel lineup

· Signal testing and GUI-based remote monitoring and control via any web browser can greatly improve quality while drastically reducing truck rolls

· Emergency Alert System (EAS) control to override standard inputs and distribute an alert signal to an entire MDU facility

For more information, please visit: https://www.blondertongue.com/.

The U.S.-based NGO Developing Radio Partners is playing a crucial role in socioeconomic development in several African countries by using local radio to address their communities’ greatest needs.

In Malawi, DRP is closing the knowledge and information gap on sexual reproductive health with a project that helps young people know their health rights. The project, supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development, has trained more than 400 young people ages 14 to 19 to produce weekly radio programs on diverse topics related to reproductive health.

The project is aimed at making sure boys and girls understand their health rights and are aware of the reproductive health services that are available to them. DRP’s project includes partnerships with nine community-based radio stations that are focusing their weekly radio programs and public service announcements (PSAs) on topics aimed at ending child marriage and reducing rates of teen pregnancy, HIV infections and COVID-19.

The programs also encourage girls and boys to stay in school and complete their education.

In Burkina Faso, DRP trained community health workers and radio reporters to produce a weekly program that was broadcast by a community-based radio station. They believed that if local health workers delivered messages about COVID-19, the communities would pay attention and take preventive measures.

Charles Rice, DRP president and chief executive officer, says radio is how most people in Malawi and Burkina Faso get their news and information.

Internet is often nonexistent or very limited in rural areas, and television can be expensive and require electricity. Radio, on the other hand, is relatively inexpensive, and a radio set can be powered by batteries or by solar.

“We have found radio to be the best option to reach a lot of people all at once. In Malawi, for instance, our potential listening audience among the nine radio stations we work with is about 6.5 million people,” Rice said.

“We work with community radio stations because they are part of the community; they are operated by the community. They are often trusted, and the stations we work with often focus on stories that affect the community – whether it’s related to farming, public health or the environment.”

Chiko Moyo, DRP’s coordinator and trainer in Malawi, works directly with the mentors, the youth reporters and the radio listening clubs at the nine partner radio stations.

“Just as an example, the youth are taught how to hold public officers accountable and they see the fruits that come out of such actions; public funds for SRH (sexual and reproductive health) are put to good use, youth arise to monitor how officers are conducting youth friendly health services, and many other things that help communities to be served better,” Moyo explains.

DRP conducts trainings on a monthly basis and sends weekly tip sheets to help youth reporters focus on specific topics for their weekly programs and PSAs. The Weekly Bulletin is researched, written and fact-checked in Malawi; it provides background on specific issues as well as questions for the reporters to use in their programs and contact details for people to interview.

“Station partners have told us that they rely on these bulletins because they are accurate and timely — and we believe this is why their weekly radio programs are popular. Listeners know that the information they are hearing is accurate” said Mercy Malikwa, who writes the Weekly Bulletin.

DRP has been producing the Weekly Bulletin on sexual reproductive health since May 2017. It started a special weekly bulletin on COVID-19 in March 2020 and it is still being produced.

The radio programs, both in Malawi and Burkina Faso, have proven to be popular with listeners as well as health officials.

“The project has tremendously improved youth reproductive health awareness and rights in the sense that we have better information dissemination through radio, and that has improved the lives of youth and changed their behavior,” said Jossein Chazala, the Youth Friendly Health Services Coordinator in Malawi’s Nkhotakota District.

In Burkina Faso, the radio program led to the creation of a health association covering 16 villages in the listening area; it comprises community leaders and local health workers who work closely with villagers to ensure everyone gets regular health checks and observes COVID-19 preventive measures.

The Malawi stations often use peer-to-peer storytelling to change behavior, and that was dramatically illustrative for Florence Deusi, who was a child bride at 16 but says the weekly youth program on her local station (Mudzi Wathu Community Radio in Mchinji in central Malawi) helped her escape her illegal marriage to a much older man.

“Whenever I was alone I could tune in to the youth program and that’s where I gathered courage to get out of the mess that I was in.”

Now 19, Florence has told her story on the program, “and I encourage girls who are in situations like me to get out of such marriages and go back to school.”

The Malawi stations have other notable successes, including a yearlong campaign by youth reporters at Chirundu Community Radio in Nkhata Bay to have an abandoned hospital converted into a vocational school teaching such skills as bricklaying, welding, and plumbing.

Also, data tracked by DRP and the stations suggests that programs and PSAs at the Mchinji station from January to March 2021 led to an eight-fold increase in the number of young people seeking HIV testing and counseling services. The station manager launched the programs after noticing a huge drop in visits related to HIV testing between October and December 2020.

After Gaka FM in Nsanje in southern Malawi began partnering with DRP in January 2021, visits to the local youth health clinic climbed 81% between January and March compared to figures from July-December 2020.

Data from the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare also suggest that there is correlation between the reduction in child marriages and the radio programs and PSAs produced by DRP-partner stations.

“Based on the data, we believe the radio programs are having a significant impact by reducing child marriages in the districts where we work and increasing the number of COVID-19 vaccinations in those districts where DRP is operating” Rice said.

The author, a public policy analyst, has served as a consultant with the United Nations and the World Bank. He has authored and coauthored numerous books and is a TEDx fellow.

The post Developing Radio Partners Makes a Difference in Africa appeared first on Radio World.

For our readers in the northern hemisphere, fall community sporting events are about to find their way onto many stations.

Here’s a neat project put together by Frank Hertel, principal with Newman-Kees RF Measurements and Engineering, ideal for your remote broadcasts.

When you are broadcasting from a crowded playing field or stadium, crowd noise may make it hard for your listeners to hear the announcer. What you need is an inexpensive and easy way to attenuate the crowd noise.

[Check Out More of Workbench Here]

Frank’s noise-canceling mic is a good solution. By connecting two mics out of phase and using a modified mating connector, you cancel out crowd noise picked up by both mics, which are 180 degrees opposed. The talent mic is clear, with the crowd noise greatly attenuated.

Frank’s idea was the result of a conversation with fellow engineer Phil Bailey around their workbench, preparing for the Evansville Fall Festival Parade, rumored to be only second in size and attendance to Mardi Gras.

The parade was less than a week away and the engineers needed a fix to control the crowd noise. Although they had tried several “noise canceling” microphones, the noise was still distracting.

As they talked, Phil recalled an incident that happened during the taping of a TV show. An intern had wired up a new microphone cable out of phase, with Pins 2 and 3 reversed on one end of the new cable.

Three guests were sitting alongside one another. A microphone, properly phased, was placed between the first and second guest. The out-of-phase mic was placed between the second and third guests. As a result, the guest in the middle was picked up by both mics.

But with one of them out of phase, the audio of the middle guest was subtracted from the combined mix. In this situation, noise cancellation was undesired, so they had to stop taping to fix the problem.

But the TV show’s wiring mistake became the fall festival’s crowd noise solution.

In use, Frank selected two Electro-Voice 635A omnidirectional mics. Imagine your reporter holding the top microphone within about 2 or 3 inches of their mouth, while the bottom microphone is pointing away from the mouth. Crowd noise is picked up equally by each 635A mic, thus the crowd noise is suppressed — virtually canceled!

You can experiment with pattern types; Frank finds that it works best with identical omnidirectionals, and the 635As are inexpensive, under $150 each.

The first photo shows the parts you’ll need to construct this project. Once you’ve gathered them, follow Frank’s step-by-step instructions.

Email me to let our readers know how well this works out for you during the upcoming sports season.

John Bisset, CPBE, has more than 50 years of broadcast engineering experience. He handles western U.S. radio sales for the Telos Alliance and is a past recipient of the SBE’s Educator of the Year Award.
Workbench submissions are encouraged and qualify toward SBE recertification. Email johnpbisset@gmail.com. 

The post Workbench: A Noise-Canceling Mic for Sports Remotes appeared first on Radio World.

“Just as the introduction of digital radio improved usage of RDS, the introduction of hybrid radio will lead to better usage by broadcasters of digital radio in general, and metadata in particular.”

That’s the opinion of David Layer, the vice president of advanced engineering at the National Association of Broadcasters.

Writing in Radio World’s ebook “Trends in Digital Radio 2021,” Layer says the technologies of hybrid radio and its cousin, audio streaming to computers, smartphones and tablets, are poised to bring new features and functionality to radio, just as digital radio did back in the 2000s. 

“Interactivity, non-linear (on-demand) content and rich metadata are going to be what consumers will learn to expect.”

He thinks newer products and services developed to support hybrid radio will support digital radio as well, and that broadcasters will take advantage of this dual capability. 

“As has happened before, consumer expectations will once again be raised (this time by hybrid radio) and as broadcasters respond they will again, or maybe for the first time, recognize the value digital radio can bring to their services.”

Layer believes the stakes are higher than ever for radio broadcasters, as the proliferation of mobile broadband has increased consumer choice in audio services. 

“It’s important for all broadcasters to embrace the use of metadata so that as consumers scan the terrestrial radio dial, what they see is as useful and compelling as when they scan their favorite streaming audio service or satellite radio,” he concluded. 

“Today that is not the case; but if history repeats itself, the introduction of hybrid radio will result not just in support by broadcasters for hybrid services, but better support for digital radio, too.”

Our ebook provides other opinions about the state of global digital radio from thought leaders at organizations like WorldDAB, Digital Radio Mondiale, RadioDNS, Commercial Radio Australia, the European Broadcasting Union, the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, Audi, Xperi, 2wcom, Digital Radio UK and Nautel.

Read it for free at radioworld.com/ebooks.

The post Will the History of RDS Repeat Itself for Digital Radio? appeared first on Radio World.

iHeartMedia Panama City, located in the Florida Panhandle, is no stranger to hurricane goings-on.

Sympathizing with the people of New Orleans, the broadcast cluster set about on Operation Storm Relief to collect needed items, along with some money in the wake of Hurricane Ida.

[Read: Big Louisiana Radio Tower Comes Down in Ida]

When all is collected, the denizens of the Crescent City will receive three truckloads, the semi variety, of goods, food and water.

Items requested, other than nonperishable food, include everything from shampoo, to hand-operated can openers, baby products and bedding. Clothing is frowned upon though underwear and socks are requested.

iHeartMedia Panama City includes WEBZ(FM), WFLA(FM), WFSY(FM) and WPAP(FM).

The post iHeart Panama City Responds to Hurricane Ida appeared first on Radio World.

This is one in a series of interviews with companies planning to exhibit at the 2021 NAB Show in October.

Gregory Mercier is director, product marketing and pre/post sales support for WorldCast Group.

Radio World: What will be your top news or theme?

Gregory Mercier: We are glad to share many exciting developments this year. Our strategy since the pandemic is to support our customers and the industry to adapt to this new environment.

KYBIO, our monitoring and control software, has been improved with the launch the V4. Available on-premises or as a SaaS option, KYBIO is now fully agnostic for all communication protocols used within the media industry. Users also benefit from Dynamic Diagram enhancements, which have moved beyond the previous site level representation to now also include views at the root, site and equipment level.

On the broadcasting side, SmartFM is our innovative technology for Ecreso FM transmitters; it enables broadcasters to reduce their consumption by up to 40%. SmartFM has seen a huge increase of users worldwide, including big national FM networks. This year, we launch the V2 to increase the potential savings and to better meet broadcaster’s requirements on the field.

Our monitoring range has improved with what is probably the most powerful Audemat FM Probe. Still on the Audemat range, we also provide a new RDS Server that gathers any data source and feeds RDS encoders to improve radio datacasting and revenues. This solution is compatible with the new and fully digital Audemat RDS Encoder.

The migration to IP and less hardware remains on our priority list, with two new APT technologies: APTmpX, a unique algorithm to transport MPX over IP with low quantity of data and huge signal transparency; and SynchroStream, the most accurate technology to transport synchronous Audio or MPX over IP. These two technologies are also compatible with our existing ScriptEasy for advanced monitoring and control, and SureStream for always-on redundancy.

RW: What is your FM-SFN Solution and what is different about it?
Mercier: With our range of advanced broadcast products, technologies and services, we centralize all the expertise needed for synchronous FM: Ecreso FM transmitters with digital modulator and perfect control of the signal, APT IP codecs for transparent and reliable transport over IP, and SynchroStream to synchronize the content over multiple transmitter sites.

The solution can also include Drive Tests during the deployment phase thanks to the Audemat FM MC5, and Kybio to monitor the entire broadcasting network operation 24/7. This level of integration from a single supplier and the highest synchronization accuracy available on the market are key for several broadcasters to increase their audience and revenues.

RW: How has the pandemic affected your business?

Mercier: Since last year, and like most companies, our first concern was to ensure the safety of our teams in Europe, Asia and the U.S. while having to reorganize our business operations to meet multiple, new challenges.

Thanks to the agility and determination of our teams, we managed to keep our workflow as seamless as possible, and remain available for our customers who, like us, are impacted by COVID-19.

Added to the pandemic we are also dealing with a global component crisis. However, with the help of our dealers and partners, we anticipate purchasing and production needs to keep delivering our customers worldwide.

We also saw an increase of WorldCast sales in the first half of 2021, both from new customers and existing ones. It is positive from a market point of view but we are especially grateful for all the renewed confidence.

RW: In what way will your company’s booth plans or customer interactions differ because of the pandemic?

Mercier: It’s quite difficult to anticipate how NAB will be this year, but we remain positive and ready to adapt ourselves to make it. As I speak in mid-August, we don’t know if the borders will be open to foreign nationals during NAB, which would of course affect the number of visitors and limit our team on the booth. In such a scenario, we would keep the opportunity to meet our customers, remotely for those who couldn’t attend, and in Vegas with our U.S. staff from WorldCast Systems and Connect. Of course, teams will be reinforced if conditions allow.

The post WorldCast Builds on KYBIO appeared first on Radio World.