As Q1 2021 came to a close, so did Star Communications Inc.‘s intent to own an AM/FM combo and an FM translator serving a small West Virginia city situated between Charleston and Parkersburg.
The facilities have been sold, and await FCC approval before being handed to a new owner.
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India is working to decide how to deploy digital radio on the FM band; and Nautel is calling attention to its part in that process.
The RF manufacturer noted that both Digital Radio Mondiale and HD Radio are being evaluated in digital broadcast tests in India.
“All India Radio, operated by Prasar Bharati, has been testing methods of broadcasting multiple digital signals from a single FM transmitter in order to provide a wider range of services,” it said in an announcement.
“Both DRM and HD Radio standards are being evaluated; in both cases Nautel’s proprietary Digital Multiplexing technology has been instrumental in demonstrating the full potential of digital transmission.”
Nautel’s user interface shows digital multiplexing that combines multiple digital signals in the FM band using HD Radio, left, and DRM.Nautel CTO Philip Schmid is presenting a paper on digital multiplexing at this week’s ABU virtual conference.
The digital multiplexing concept allows a user to combine multiple digital radio signals in the FM band, which are received via existing digital radio receivers.
“Nautel transmitters using digital multiplexing allow broadcasters to operate multiple channel allocations out of one transmitter, one antenna, and one location, which reduces their equipment needs,” Schmid said.
[Related: “Digital Radio Mondiale in Focus in India”]
[Related: “HD Radio and Digital FM in India”]
Nautel said the tests done by Prasar Bharati “have successfully demonstrated the viability of operating up to six separate digital channels from one transmitter, each of which carries multiple HD Radio or DRM services. Each channel can be operated independently, allowing several broadcasters to use the same transmitter while maintaining control over their content and distribution.”
Schmid said the concept is a suitable solution for nationwide rollouts of digital broadcasting, “especially in applications where multilingual services are required.” He also said the technology is applicable to single-frequency networks, with some of the content remaining local or regional while other channels are sent nationwide.
Nautel was involved in the rollout of digital MW broadcasting in India; 33 NX Series transmitters cover most of the country with a DRM signal.
The post Nautel Participates in India’s Digital Tests appeared first on Radio World.
It’s been nine months since Philip Falcone exited HC2 Holdings Inc. under a black cloud, with accusations that Falcone defaulted on loans leading to today’s efforts under new chief executive Wayne Barr Jr. to raise capital by divesting non-core assets.
For Falcone, he’s swiftly moved on, and in Q1 2021 became an active buyer of low-power TV stations through a newly created entity.
He’s at it again, and has just entered the Pacific Northwest’s biggest market.
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Xperi says the pandemic has increased the importance of personal vehicle and in-dash infotainment, and that “this is especially true for Millennials and Gen Z.”
It cites a survey of about 1,000 adults in the United States that was conducted in January on behalf of Xperi subsidiary DTS, which released the findings.
Xperi makes automotive technology platforms like DTS AutoSense, DTS AutoStage and HD Radio, and it is highlighting results of the survey that support the importance of car radio, personalization and hybrid radio features.
[Read: Xperi Has Big Ambitions for DTS AutoStage]
“Close to half (47%) of all vehicle owners feel their personal vehicle is more important than ever to them today versus pre-COVID, with only 6% saying their vehicle is less important as they no longer commute, according to the survey,” the company stated.
“The survey also found that nine out of 10 vehicle owners say it is important to have radio in their dashboard, with nearly 80% of Millennials valuing radio in the dashboard more than their generational counterparts (Gen Z/GenX/Boomers). The pandemic has also changed content consumed in-vehicle, and the significance of in-vehicle dashboard entertainment personalization has increased.”
It found that 91% of vehicle owners believe it is important to have radio in their dash, with 72% saying it is indispensable or very important.
The survey was done by Engine Insights. Xperi quoted Eric Corliss of the survey company saying it was notable that Millennials value radio in the dashboard so highly.
Xperi also said the survey supports the importance of personalization, cost-free content and “service following,” being able to continue listening to a station digitally when the car has gone out of broadcast range. That’s a feature of hybrid radio platforms like the company’s DTS AutoStage.
The post Xperi Says Pandemic Put Emphasis on Dashboard appeared first on Radio World.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — When it comes to texting and hand-held communications, there’s perhaps no group of National Capital Region residents more experience and savvy with such devices as the Gallaudet University student body and faculty.
This Northeast Washington institution has provided higher education opportunities to the deaf and hard-of-hearing for generations. While TV has been, along with print media, major services consumed by the hearing impaired, radio has been left out.
American University‘s NPR Member station, across town in Northwest Washington, has changed that — thanks to ENCO.
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To bring WAMU-FM‘s programming to all Washingtonians, the station deployed an enCaption4 captioning system from ENCO.
This generates live, automated transcripts of its on-air audio via the WAMU.org website — not so dissimilar to the audio transcripts of FCC open meetings found on the agency’s website.
As of today, live on-air captions remain in beta test. “We’re working to add live real-time captions to our radio broadcast,” WAMU says. “While we continue to refine this early release effort, please pardon our errors and inaccuracies.”
Interestingly, the caption feed is several seconds ahead of the audio streaming feed; this suggests the captions are synched with the over-the-air broadcast.
The inspiration for WAMU’s captioning project came when a deaf political candidate seeking office in Washington requested to appear on WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi Show and wanted the broadcast to be accessible to all.
“At that moment, it stood out to us that we hadn’t been serving that important part of the population before and that there was demand for bringing our content to this audience,” said Rob Bertrand, WAMU’s Senior Director of Technology.
For that particular broadcast, the station used a service provider with live human transcription and live sign language interpretation for that particular broadcast. From there, Bertrand knew that a different approach would be needed to serve the hearing impaired community on an ongoing basis. “The timing of the content can be unpredictable, which means we can’t schedule a transcriptionist or sign language interpreter,” Bertrand said. “We realized there was now technology that would allow us to automate the process. Automated closed captioning has existed for television for some time. What if we could take the equipment used to generate captions for TV, and instead use it for radio to bring captions to our website?”
The enCaption4 was selected by Bertrand after learning of lots of positive feedback from broadcasters using it for television. “We did a demo of enCaption4, and our web development team came up with a way to present the captions it creates on our website,” he said.
How does it work?
Audio from WAMU’s Telos Alliance Axia audio-over-IP backbone is converted by an Axia xNode to an AES/EBU signal that serves as the input to enCaption4. Then, enCaption4 ingests the same on-air signal path being routed to WAMU’s transmitter and online streaming encoders, enabling live, 24/7 captioning of all of WAMU’s on-air content. The captions created by enCaption4 are then fed to the station’s website, where they are displayed in a dedicated transcription page.
As a pilot project until now, WAMU developed a small but loyal following, with roughly 150 people routinely watching the station’s captions for around 30 minutes per day. WAMU expects this to grow once the service starts getting promoted.
Furthermore, WAMU plans to upgrade its content management system to allow integration of its internal data sources with enCaption4, thus providing a dictionary that will further increase the accuracy of WAMU’s captions with the spellings of challenging local names and events.
The station also ultimately intends to integrate the captions directly into its core streaming player.
— Reporting by Brian Galante. Editing by Adam Jacobson.
Adam Jacobson is a 1994 graduate of the American University School of Communication.
It started off as a Generation Z and Millennial-focused news and information offering distributed strictly in the “over the top” (OTT) space. Then, it morphed into a MVPD-distributed cable channel.
Now, Newsy is headed to free-to-air television as a “DigiNet,” come this autumn.
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TORONTO — Exactly one year ago, he was named VP/Sales at Specialty Data Systems (SDS), following a 13-year stint as a senior sales manager at Wide Orbit.
Now, this familiar figure to radio station engineering pros is being mourned, as Jon Crossland has died. He was 68 years old. The cause of death was not released. However, SDS President Dave Cole said Crossland’s passing was sudden.
Crossland spent his formative years in Hood River, Oregon. Professionally, his Radio career includes a 12-year stint as a Regional Sales Manager with CBSI/Wicks Broadcast Solutions/Marketron. He also spent some 17 years in radio station management, and is a former Sales Manager at Entercom’s Seattle station group.
Circa December 1979, Crossland was in charge of KBFM-FM “B104” in McAllen-Brownsville, Tex.
— Editing by Adam Jacobson in Boca Raton, Fla.
The growth of iHeartRadio and the reboot of Radio.com as Audacy have certainly gathered the broadcasting world’s attention. What does this mean for TuneIn, which grabbed a significant share of the audio streaming consumer pot in the mid-2010s, only to see key U.S. radio broadcasting companies develop their own “walled gardens,” if you will?
A recent RBR+TVBR column on audio streaming prompted recently arrived TuneIn CEO Rich Stern to reach out, and he’s our guest on the latest InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM.
Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: TuneIn CEO Rich Stern” on Spreaker.
PILOT, the innovation initiative of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), has revealed this year’s recipients of its annual media technology and innovation scholarships.
The awards, valued at $2,500 each, will be presented to four college students — two undergraduate and two graduate — for pursuit of studies related to broadcast or media technology and innovation.
The scholarship program was launched in 2019 and is administered in partnership with the Broadcast Education Association (BEA).
This year’s winners (and the schools to which they plan to apply their scholarships) are as follows:
Eligible academic areas for scholarship applicants include broadcast television or radio engineering and technology, broadcast content creation including sports and news production, web and online media, mobile media, media-related information technology (IT), multi-platform audience measurement and media technology research.
“The NAB is excited to work once again with BEA in presenting these PILOT scholarships to worthy students as they pursue careers in broadcast and media technology,” said Sam Matheny, the NAB’s executive vice president of Technology and chief technology officer. “Helping young people better understand our industry and its challenges will inspire fresh thinking to engage future opportunities.”
BEA Executive Director Heather Birks added that the partnership it has with PILOT “is dedicated to supporting the next generation of media innovators, and these scholarships will further our mission of fostering future leaders shaping broadcast radio and television.”
For further information, please visit nabpilot.org/scholarships.
A key provider of digital media tools and workflow products has purchased an application used around the world by broadcasters, production companies and post houses to streamline content creation workflows.
Genstar Capital’s Telestream is buying ContentAgent from Vecima Networks.
ContentAgent is an application used around the world by top tier broadcasters, production companies and post houses to streamline content creation workflows, built to automate common tasks such as camera card ingest for editorial teams and creating file-based deliverables such as broadcast masters and viewing copies.
“ContentAgent has done very well in the production and post production markets and we intend to bolster continued development and utilize its strengths as we continue to expand into additional markets including creative agencies and corporate enterprises,” said Dan Castles, Telestream’s CEO.
ContentAgent contains a graphic user interface and benefits for those in field production and in the post production process.
The ContentAgent team, based primarily in the United Kingdom, will be fully integrated into the Telestream family.
Existing customers can expect to see additional resources being deployed to support ContentAgent around the world, Telestream says.
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