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PREC Focuses on the Practical
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This year’s Public Radio Engineering Conference focused on practical information that engineers can use to better manage time and money while keeping their technical facilities current with new technologies.
Some 100 broadcast engineers attended the event, held by the Association of Public Radio Engineers in the Caesar’s Palace Conference Center in Las Vegas just prior to the NAB Show.
“A huge shift is occurring in broadcast plants with the widespread adoption of IP-based equipment, resulting in significant new control and flexibility but with a steep learning curve,” said APRE President Mansergh, who’s director, radio engineering and media technology at KQED, San Francisco as well as an RW contributor. “We aim to help with that, so that engineers can feel confident when considering these new technologies.”
Some highlights of the 12th annual event:
• The FM HD+ booster project at KUOW(FM), Seattle is in the construction phase. NPR Labs Technologist John Kean said the booster developed by Harris is cost-effective and has built-in digital signal processing.
• The FCC may process so-called “singleton” FM translator applications, pending from 2003, by the third or fourth quarter of this year. That’s according to Margaret Miller of law firm Dow Lohnes. Singletons are applications that have no competitors for the same allocation. She gave attendees the skinny on the FCC’s recent decisions regarding how the agency will process applications for new FM translators and low-power FMs stations with an eye towards creating enough spectrum for both services.
• NPR listeners are in the car a lot and tend to be early tech adopters. That’s one reason NPR and Ford in January launched a partnership to bring NPR to Ford Sync. “In cars, you only have a handful of apps” that make it onto the car platform early, said Rick Ennis, NPR Digital Services, who said the network is working on deals with other automakers as well.
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APRE members
honored Mike Starling, right, of NPR Labs, with the Meritorious Service Award
for his work leading NPR Labs’ HD Radio multicasting efforts. Photo by Leslie
Stimson
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• NPR Public Radio Satellite System personnel discussed NPR’s upcoming move from its location on Massachusetts Avenue to North Capitol Street in Washington. The satellite system is building a new operations center now, which will be moved to the new location; the move is slated for April of 2013. Planning has been in the works for five years.
• APRE members are talking about holding a mini-event this fall in advance of the RAB-NAB Radio Show in Dallas.
At the dinner capping the conference, APRE members honored Mike Starling, vice president, Technology Research Center & NPR Labs, Public Radio Satellite System, as the recipient of the 2012 Meritorious Service Award. APRE cited Starling’s work leading NPR Labs’ HD Radio multicasting channel efforts. Starling is also a founder of APRE.
“Mike is and always has been passionate about radio, a firm and steady advocate for the technology, for the medium, and for stations,” stated APRE members in the nomination. “His commitment to technical excellence, innovation and service are outstanding.”
During his acceptance speech, Starling said his first radio job was at WBMD, an AM daytimer in Baltimore. Starling drew chuckles when he described buying a used transmitter from a station in Washington “that had been through a site fire” for WKYY, a commercial AM in Amherst, Va. he founded in 1976 and managed until 1980.
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