|
|
Issue: May 15, 2008
Top Stories
Investors ‘Seem Happy’ With Clear Channel News
Shareholders “are likely not to squabble about the sale price,” Forbes reports about this week’s Clear Channel deal.
It quotes James B. Boyle of C.L. King & Associates saying the lower offer should be justifiable given the sluggishness in the radio business sector. The buyout still requires shareholder approval.
The company and private-equity firms Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital agreed to a lower sale price of $17.9 billion, or $36 per share. The price was lower than had been finalized in 2006, thanks to subsequent changes in credit markets and declines in radio profits in general. The original price was $39.20.
The broadcaster expects the deal to close by the end of the third quarter, the Associated Press reported.
AP reported the agreement reduces the deal’s value to $17.9 billion from $19.5 billion.
Clear Channel and its buyers had sued a consortium of banks; this week’s agreement settles those lawsuits.
CBS to Buy CNet Networks
CBS is going to buy CNet Networks.
Associated Press reported CBS agreed to buy the online technology news and entertainment company for about $1.75 billion. The deal is seen as helping CBS expanding access to the Internet ad market.
CNet's Web sites include News.com, TV.com, Mp3.com, MySimon and GameSpot. CBS' own sites include CBS.com, CBSSports.com and CBSNews.com.
The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter; the company said it would make CBS one of the 10 most popular U.S. Internet companies with 54 million unique visitors a month and approximately 200 million users worldwide, AP quoted it as saying.
Broadcasters Say Multicast Diversity Is Growing
A “next generation” of HD2 programming has rolled out on stations and online, broadcasters say.
Member stations of the HD Digital Radio Alliance say they are providing airtime to local and unsigned acts, bringing back former stations or formats and offering programming relevance for various demographics.
The alliance promotes HD-R to consumers; it consists of radio owners Beasley, Bonneville, CBS, Citadel/ABC, Clear Channel, Emmis, Entercom, Greater Media and WBEB(FM) in Philadelphia.
Multicast programming has been derided by critics as mirroring what is found on the main FM dial and often automated without an investment of personality. But the alliance says you’ll hear much more than that on HD2.
If you want to hear a local, unsigned band, the nearest coffeehouse isn’t the only option anymore, according to the group. Stations on HD2 are playing global and unsigned acts, and some are allowing bands to become involved with the ability to upload their music online for possible airplay.
Indie formats being highlighted by the alliance include “iChannel,” aired by Bonneville in Chicago, Washington, St. Louis and Salt Lake City; “Radio You Boston,” Greater Media in Boston; and “Local 107-Local Artists,” Emmis in Austin.
Some formats that have been flipped away on main channel FMs are finding life on HD2 including “Haney’s Big House 96.1 HD2” by Beasley in Ft. Myers-Naples-Marco Island, Fla., which was featured in RW’s April 23 issue, page 25; “Live Rock-WMMR Archives” by Greater Media in Philadelphia; and “80s-Based Adult Hits” from CBS Radio in Las Vegas, New York and McAllen-Brownsville-Harlingen, Texas.
HD2 formats that speak to various demographics include “Old Skool Hip Hop” (Clear Channel/Boston); “Country/Southern Rock” (Citadel/Atlanta); “Oldies” (Buckley/Hartford-New Britain-Middletown, Conn.) and “Solid Gold 106” (Beasley/Ft. Myers-Naples-Marco Island, Fla.)
All stations using HD Radio need to drive listeners to HD2 and HD3 channels and market the new programming, stated Peter Ferrara, president and CEO of the alliance. That programming also must entice listeners to buy HD Radios, he said.
Telos Systems Completes Acquisition of TV Processing Firm
Linear Acoustic is now part of the Telos Systems group.
The companies had announced that intention a year ago and they finalized the deal in April. Telos Systems group includes Omnia, Axia and Telos.
The acquisition is an expansion into television audio processing for Omnia, which has been primarily focused on the radio broadcast market and its online offshoots, dating to founder Frank Foti’s background in radio engineering.
Tim Carroll is president and founder of Linear Acoustic.
The companies said the merger of Linear Acoustic into Telos expands the latter’s offering of advanced audio processing solutions to include technologies for multichannel DTV audio processing.
GSS Expands Its Base Into South Florida
Global Security Systems said Broward and Miami-Dade Counties are the first two counties in Florida to have access to its FM radio-based emergency alert and messaging system.
WRTO at 98.3 MHz, WLRN at 91.3 and WAMR at 107.5 are participating in southern Florida.
The company’s Matt Straeb stated that residents in those counties will be able to receive emergency information from local emergency operation centers where the system is being tested, as well as National Weather Service severe weather warnings and Federal Emergency Management Agency alerts through portable Alert FM receivers.
The company is working with an organization called America’s Emergency Network; the organizations hope to create a comprehensive national emergency communication system. AEN was designed by CBS News Hurricane Analyst Bryan Norcross and former National Hurricane Director Max Mayfield.
GSS pitches the FM infrastructure of its system as a big benefit. “The reliability and redundancy of Alert FM lies in its use of a pre-existing network of FM towers, which in turn provides overlapping coverage of an area. The Alert FM receivers automatically tune themselves to the strongest FM signal in their current locations,” GSS says.
Separately, AEN this week is showing a working version of its proprietary technology at the Florida Governor’s Hurricane Conference, aiming to pitch emergency managers and other public officials on the ability to send video news briefings and text messages to the public and the media during emergencies using streaming video and a central database.
Satellite Industry Now Claims 18 Million Subscribers
Sirius and XM’s combined subscriber total is just under 18 million now. That compares to 14.4 million at this time a year ago.
The companies together reported revenue in the first quarter of $578.4 million.
The two want to merge, of course, but as of now they continue to report separate financial results, which they did this week.
XM’s first-quarter losses grew despite increased penetration via car sales.
XM reported first-quarter revenue of $308 million, an increase of about 17 percent over the first quarter of 2007. Yet its net losses increased more than 5% to $129 million.
Its first-quarter adjusted operating loss was $30.7 million, compared to a loss of $27 million in first quarter 2007. The adjusted operating loss includes $3.5 million of merger-related expenses, compared to $9.2 million in first quarter 2007.
XM ended the quarter with 9.33 million subscribers, an 18 percent increase, compared to 7.91 million subscribers a year ago. The satcaster said a 49 percent year-over-year increase in the number of gross additions through its automotive channel drove that growth. It said its OEM partners produced 1 million new XM-equipped vehicles in the first quarter alone; OEM gross additions were 802,000, compared to 537,000 in first quarter 2007.
President/CEO Nate Davis said the company marked its fourth consecutive quarter of record OEM gross additions. First-quarter 2008 churn was 1.77 percent, compared to first quarter 2007 churn of 1.78 percent.
At Sirius, total revenue for the quarter increased to $270.4 million, up 33% from the quarter a year ago. The satcaster reported a first-quarter net loss of $104.1 million, an improvement of 28% over first quarter 2007 net loss of $144.7 million.
Sirius ended first quarter 2008 with about 8.6 million subscribers, up 31% from 6.5 million. The bulk of the increase came from OEM sales, with those subscriptions increasing 72% to 3.9 million, the company said.
First quarter 2008 average customer churn was 2.7%.
Technology
Ibiquity Digital Licenses Host Micro, User-Interface Design Software Firms
Ibiquity Digital has signed software development agreements with Samboo Info Tech Limited, Analog & Digital Soft Company Limited, and KRS Electronics Company Limited.
Company COO Jeff Jury said including software partners as licensees “will make it easier for receiver manufacturers to create compelling products, with effective user interfaces.”
Ibiquity will provide software development support on the host micro and user-interface design as well as advanced feature integration prototyping. Seoul, Korea–based Analog & Digital Soft Company and KRS Electronics of Kyonggi-Do, Korea, will focus on software development for automotive head units and Personal Navigation Devices. Samboo IT, based in Shenzhen, China, will focus on supporting home products in various form factors including iPod docks, table top radios, mini shelf systems, and AV receivers.
All three of these companies can now begin developing the expertise to integrate into products advanced features such as iTunes tagging, store and replay, conditional access, and real-time traffic, Ibiquity said.
First Trans-Atlantic Broadcast Is Among Newest Entrants of Recording Registry
A rare, complete radio broadcast of the 1920s across the Atlantic. Fibber McGee’s closet, opening for the first time. Mayor LaGuardia reading the comics. A thousand of the Gipper’s radio broadcasts.
These milestones are now part of the National Recording Registry.
The Librarian of Congress this week named 25 additions; the library identifies such a list each year, by law, to help preserve the country’s aural history.
It also is identifying and preserving existing versions to be housed in the library’s big new preservation facility in Culpeper, Va., which we told you about here when it opened.
Librarian James H. Billington said in the announcement, “Audio preservation constitutes a critical challenge. Much has already been lost, particularly in the field of radio.”
Also included are a number of seminal musical recordings, from Kitty Wells to Michael Jackson; the “Sounds of Earth” disc prepared for the Voyager spacecraft; and other notable audio. You can nominate suggestions for next year’s list at the NRPB Web site (www.loc.gov/nrpb/).
The 1925 orchestral broadcast was considered a “technological breakthrough.” According to the library, it originated in London, traveled by land line to station 5XX in Chelmsford, crossed the Atlantic where it was picked up by an RCA transmitter in Maine, and was relayed to stations WJZ in New York and WRC in Washington, D.C. The 37-minute broadcast survives on discs in the collections of the University of Maryland’s Library of American Broadcasting.
Here’s the list:
- “The First Trans-Atlantic Broadcast (March 14, 1925)
- “Allons a Lafayette,” Joseph Falcon (1928)
- “Casta Diva,” from Bellini’s “Norma”; Rosa Ponselle, accompanied by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Giulio Setti. (December 31, 1928 and January 30, 1929)
- “If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again,” Thomas A. Dorsey (1934)
- “Sweet Lorraine,” Art Tatum (February 22, 1940)
- Fibber’s Closet Opens for the First Time, “Fibber McGee and Molly” radio program (March 4, 1940)
- Wings Over Jordan, Wings Over Jordan (1941)
- Fiorello LaGuardia reading the comics (1945)
- “Call it Stormy Monday but Tuesday is Just As Bad,” T-Bone Walker (1947)
- Harry S. Truman speech at the 1948 Democratic National Convention (July 15, 1948)
- “The Jazz Scene,” various artists (1949)
- “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,” Kitty Wells (May 30, 1952)
- “My Fair Lady,” original cast recording (1956)
- Navajo Shootingway Ceremony Field Recordings, recorded by David McAllester (1957-1958)
- “‘Freight Train,’ and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes,” Elizabeth Cotten (1959)
- Marine Band Concert Album to Help Benefit the National Cultural Center (1963)
- “Oh, Pretty Woman,” Roy Orbison (1964)
- “Tracks of My Tears,” Smokey Robinson and the Miracles (1965)
- “You’ll Sing a Song and I’ll Sing a Song,” Ella Jenkins (1966)
- Music from the Morning of the World,” various artists; recorded by David Lewiston (1966)
- “For the Roses,” Joni Mitchell (1972)
- “Headhunters,” Herbie Hancock (1973)
- Ronald Reagan Radio Broadcasts (1976-1979)
- “The Sounds of Earth,” disc prepared for the Voyager spacecraft (1977)
- “Thriller,” Michael Jackson (1982)
LG, Samsung Agree to Develop, Promote U.S. Mobile TV Standard
Two of the major competitors for a U.S. broadcast mobile TV service have teamed up to propose a jointly developed standard.
TV Technology magazine reported LG Electronics and Samsung announced the agreement in advance of the first field tests for the ATSC M/H mobile TV standard, which was expected to be delivered to the Advanced Television Systems Committee this week.
The results, derived from the “Independent Demonstration of Viability” tests conducted this year, will help the ATSC determine the final standard. It hopes to roll out an M/H mobile TV standard in time for the analog full-power shutoff in February 2009.
The tests were conducted by the Open Mobile Video Coalition, a consortium of broadcasters and manufacturers promoting a mobile TV standard for U.S. broadcasters.
The agreement, signed in Seoul, South Korea, home to the two consumer electronics giants, called for the companies to cooperate in order to assure rapid adoption by the ATSC. The companies said that the technology for the jointly proposed system will reflect the findings of the IDOV.
We’ve reported that LG has teamed up with Harris Corp. to develop a standard it calls MPH; Samsung has partnered with Rohde & Schwarz on its own standard, A-VSB. The OMVC included a third standard proposal from Micronas and Thomson in the IDOV.
LG and Samsung are leaders in digital TV and mobile communications, said LG President and Chief Technology Officer Woo Paik. “Through this collaboration, we also have an opportunity to lead the North American mobile TV market.”
ATSC President Mark Richer said that the organization’s final decision will weigh heavily on what its specialist group determines is the best technology, regardless of proposal.
“Samsung and LG have not announced their joint technical strategy for the ATSC standard, they just announced that they have one,” Richer said. “I think [LG and Samsung’s] decisions will be based on the IDOV report and the conversations with our specialist group.”
Philly’s Wi-Fi Project Will Shut Down
“It was a great idea a few years ago ... but it’s an idea that simply didn’t make it.”
That’s the CEO of EarthLink, commenting this week to the Associated Press as the company said it is shutting down its wireless high-speed Internet network in Philadelphia.
The story is here.
Tech Talk: IEEE Wants to Hear From You
The IEEE Broadcast Technology Society has issued a call for papers to be presented at its 58th annual broadcast symposium, scheduled this year for Oct. 15–17 in Alexandria, Va.
The organization is seeking papers in:
- Technical issues associated with the termination of analog television broadcasting
- Repurposing of analog transmission transmitters
- Digital radio and television systems
- Streaming, IPTV, VoIP, VOD, mobile TV wireless multimedia
- Wireless broadband networks
- Transmission, propagation, reception, re-distribution of broadcast signals
Abstracts should be limited to 500 words and are to be sent to the organization’s e-mail address, bts@ieee.org. They are due by May 23. The deadline for submission of full papers is Aug. 29.
— TV Technology
FCC/Regulatory
Anti-Performance Tax Resolution Introduced
A resolution was introduced in the Senate this week opposing a performance royalty to be paid by terrestrial analog and digital radio stations to record labels each time a song is aired.
Sens. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss., introduced the measure, which is similar to a House resolution introduced last year by Reps. Gene Green, D-Texas and Mike Conaway, R-Texas.
The National Association of Broadcasters says the House version has more than 200 supporters. S. Con. Res. 82 recognizes the promotional value of free radio airplay, said NAB.
“Congress should not impose any new performance fee, tax, royalty or other charge relating to the public performance of sound recordings on a local radio station for broadcasting sound recordings over the air, or on any business for such public performance of sound recordings,” reads the measure.
The MusicFirst Coalition, which represents record labels and their artists, supports opposing bills on the issue, the “Performance Rights Act of 2007,” which it says would close a “corporate radio loophole” in the copyright law that exempts terrestrial radio from a performance fee.
Radio argues that it already pays ASCAP, BMI and SESAC for the right to air music and that airplay benefits anyone associated with a song and their labels.
The RIAA argues that radio doesn’t pay enough and that broadcasters should pony up just like satellite radio, cable radio and Internet broadcasters. The labels say creation of a fair performance right would compensate the lead performer, background singers, studio musicians and copyright holders when their songs are broadcast on AM and FM radio.
Clear Channel, meanwhile, supports the resolution opposing what it termed a “record company bailout.”
Andy Levin, executive vice president of law and government affairs & chief legal officer for Clear Channel Radio, stated: “This issue is not about fair compensation — far from it. It is a blatant attempt by the record companies to pump up their failing business model by getting Congress to redistribute income from our industry to theirs.”
Business
HD-R Station Guide Available to Station Web Sites
Seeking to make it easier for consumers to find digital stations, the HD Digital Radio Alliance is giving its members some marketing support in the form of a station guide that can be featured on station Web sites.
Hundreds of alliance sites are using the guide, it said, to allow listeners to find new formats in their markets or to print a list and take to new cities to explore stations there.
The alliance is providing three different standard-sized Web buttons and a station guide for each market that can be automatically updated daily through the Ibiquity database, according to the alliance site. A station in Daytona Beach, for instance, can use the code provided to insert the Daytona Beach Station Guide into its Web site.
You can see what the marketing package looks like here.
JVC, Kenwood a Step Closer to Merging
Two prominent Japanese consumer electronics companies formally have agreed to merge, establishing a joint holding company through a share transfer on Oct. 1.
Victor Company of Japan — known to most folks as JVC — and Kenwood plan shareholder meetings in late June. Shareholders will need to approve the deal. We reported last summer a deal was in the works.
The companies believe that together they can better compete against new rivals from South Korea, Taiwan and China, and deal with “increasingly fierce battles over market share and heightened price competition” in the global market.
Management plans to establish four business segments as profit centers accounting for 90% of the merged company’s sales by fiscal year 2011. The segments are home and mobile electronics, car electronics, professional systems and entertainment.
The companies estimate the holding company would have $830 million in net sales and an operating profit ratio of 4.7% for fiscal 2011. This assumes a conversion rate of 100 yen to the U.S. dollar.
If approved by shareholders, the deal would go through in October and “JVC Kenwood Holdings” would be established. Among those already approving the transfer is JVC’s largest shareholder, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.
Cumulus to Remain a Public Company
Cumulus Media, the second-largest radio group based on station count at 339 stations, is not going private.
The broadcaster this week terminated its $1.3 billion merger agreement with the investor group led by Cumulus Chairman, President and CEO Lew Dickey and an affiliate of Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity.
The investor group told the company that, after exploring alternatives, it couldn’t agree on terms on which they could proceed with the deal, which had been announced last July.
“Our business remains fundamentally sound and we intend to continue to operate it aggressively and explore opportunities to create and deliver value for our shareholders,” Dickey stated.
The investor group agreed to pay Cumulus a termination fee of $15 million.
Cumulus said its board will explore the possible implementation of a new stock repurchase plan for stockholders.
Harris Might Sell Itself
Harris Corp. is considering selling the company, the Wall Street Journal reported late last week.
According to sources familiar with the process, the Melbourne-Fla.-based company, which has a market capitalization of $7.3 billion, is only in the exploratory stages and that the company could decide not to sell. Potential suitors listed in the Journal article include Raytheon, BAE Systems and Northrup Grumman.
The article speculated that the company thinks its growth potential in the defense industry is “less attractive” than anytime since Sept. 11, 2001. Harris has about 16,000 employees and reported $5.1 billion in revenues and net income of $410 million over the last 12 months, ending March 28, 2008.
The Broadcast Communications segment of Harris Corp. posted revenue of $159 million in the third quarter of its 2008 fiscal year (ending March 28), an increase of 14 percent compared to the prior-year quarter.
— TV Technology
People News
Paul Sakrison Is Now at KLAA
Paul Sakrison has a new gig; he’s now director of operations and engineering for KLAA(AM) in Orange/Los Angeles.
“This is an unusual opportunity to develop a station that has never tapped the potential of its 50,000 watt day/20,000 watt night signal,” he told Radio World.
“The station is now owned by the principals of the Los Angeles Angels and is in its first season of English Angels play-by-play broadcasts. We have started morning and afternoon sports talk shows and more will come in time,” he said.
Sakrison, 51, will handle broadcast activities including program coordination, board ops, remotes and commercial production, studio and transmitter maintenance and repair to the Web site and streaming audio to the Angels Radio Network. He will report to Dennis Kuhl, president of the radio station and the Los Angeles Angels baseball club.
He was chief for six years for CBS Radio’s KNX and KFWB news stations in Los Angeles; with his engineering team, he designed and built a $5 million studio/office facility on Wilshire Boulevard in 2005, transitioning operations from legacy analog to digital facilities. He also spent 18 years as director of operations and engineering for the Astor Broadcast Group.
Sakrison tells RW he had a high-school internship at KNAC(FM) when he was 15 and his first full-time radio gig was production manager/station engineer at KROQ.
Radio World is the leading source for radio broadcast industry personnel news. Tell us about your job change or hire. Write to radioworld@nbmedia.com.
Joe Stack Joins DSI RF Systems
DSI RF Systems added William “Joe” Stack to its staff as senior engineer.
He had been an engineer at Modulation Science, and brings experience in product design and RF engineering to the position.
Stack attended Ohio University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. He attained his P.E. license in 1992, and began his career as engineering supervisor at Ohio University Telecommunications Center while teaching students “Technical Basis of Telecommunications.”
He later served as assistant director of engineering for four years at Capital Cities/ABC Inc. in New York, eventually taking the position of acting DOE.
Three New Members Named to NAB Radio Board
The National Association of Broadcasters appointed three new members and five incumbents to eight designated seats on its Radio Board of Directors.
Newly appointed to the board are Ed Atsinger, president/CEO, Salem Communications; Sally Brown, vice president of radio–Indiana, Schurz Communications; and Gary Stone, president and COO, Univision Radio.
Re-appointed to the board are: Susan Davenport Austin, senior vice president and CFO, Sheridan Broadcasting Corp.; Ed Christian, president/CEO, Saga Communications; Jessica Marventano, SVP, government affairs, Clear Channel Communications; Susan Patrick, executive vice president and co-owner, Legend Communications; and Charles Warfield, president and COO, ICBC Broadcast Holdings.
The two-year terms become effective at the NAB Board meeting in June.
Digidesign Names Kevin McLaughlin VP, Engineering
Digidesign appointed Kevin McLaughlin to the position of vice president of engineering, overseeing the development of its audio software and hardware line.
For several years he was vice president of engineering at Cisco Systems’ Desktop Switching Business Unit, where he led a team of 500 people, overseeing the development of system hardware and software.
He also has held executive positions at Silicon Graphics and Cray Research.
Programming
Capt. Kirk in the Studio
 Bill Shatner visited “Good Morning America Radio.”
Hilarie Barsky hosted the good captain, who was talking up his new book “Up Till Now: The Autobiography.”
IOC’s Income From the Games Reported
The International Olympic Committee will receive $2.5 billion from broadcasters between 2005 and 2008, according to an analysis by the Reuters news agency cited by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union.
Sportbusiness.com reports the amount is in addition to the $866 million the IOC is expected to receive from top sponsors, plus money from tickets and licensed programs.
The committee is also set to gain $1 billion from local Chinese marketing contracts for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Figures are in U.S. dollars.
The figures would place the Olympic Games above football’s World Cup in terms of financial success, according to the report.
Income from broadcasting and new media rights for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games and London 2012 Olympics has risen nearly 40 percent from the previous two-Games package of Beijing and Turin, and will be in excess of $3 billion, the report said.
The IOC estimates this figure to reach about $3.3 billion. It has said some 15 percent of that will come from new media including the Internet and mobile phones.
NYS Broadcasters Plan Exec Conference in Lake George
Empire State television and radio decision-makers will convene in the Adirondack Mountains June 23–24 for the New York State Broadcasters Association’s 47th annual Executive Conference.
It will be held at the Sagamore Resort Hotel in Bolton Landing. The event includes the Charlie Bivins Memorial Softball Tournament, “Sagamore Surf & Turf Under the Stars” dinner and fireworks display over Lake George.
Among those speaking will be Jeff Haley, president and CEO of the Radio Advertising Bureau, on “A New Case for Radio.” David Rehr, president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, will talk, as will Gordon Medenica, director of the New York Lottery, the state’s largest advertiser.
Sessions will include a discussion titled “Growing Business in a Multi-Platform World.” Panelists including Jason Gould, Inergize Digital; Peter Zollman, Classified Intelligence/Advanced Interactive Media Group; and Rich Lobel, CBS Radio will debate short-term Web revenue opportunities. Stephen Warley, founder of LocalBroadcastSales.com, serves as moderator.
Who's Buying What
BBC Retains Prism for SADiE Support
The BBC has signed Prism Sound to a contract to maintain its SADiE workstations.
Prism recently acquired the business and intellectual property rights of SADiE, which had been owned by Studio Audio and Video Ltd., as we reported. Now Prism says it has signed a three-year contract with the corporation to maintain the broadcaster’s SADiE PC-based digital audio workstation products.
The BBC has more than 800 SADiE systems, most of them in Portland Place and Bush House in London, with others in regional U.K. offices.
Prism Sound said with this arrangement, the BBC has “re-affirmed its longstanding commitment to SADiE digital audio workstations and LRX2 digital audio mixers.”
Wheatstone, Dealers Sign Contracts in Alberta and Arizona
Peace River Broadcasting in Alberta signed with Ron and Ted Paley of Ron Paley Broadcast for a package of Wheatstone equipment.
The sale is for four Evolution 5 Digital Control Surfaces with four E-SAT I/O frames, an ENET-8 switch, system prewire with documentation and factory system configuration for new studios in Peace River, AB.
Any of the four studios can be assigned to go to air. CKKX and CKYL’s audio will be networked allowing any studio to access any audio source or mix within the network.
Terry Babiy is general manager; Micheal Mathews is chief engineer.
Separately, Wheatstone said it will supply dealer SCMS with three Evolution 6 control surfaces, seven E-Sat I/O frames, two MicroSAT I/O frames and one Ethernet XY Controller for a project at KDUS(AM)/KUPD(FM) in Tempe, Ariz.
The stations provide local programming in addition to network content from the Sporting News Radio Network. KDUS is the radio flagship of several regional pro sports organizations.
2 Million Downloads for Orban/CRL Plug-in
Orban/CRL said its Windows Media Plug-in for the Coding Technologies HE-AAC/aacPlus v2 audio codec surpassed 2 million downloads in less than two years.
The company’s Greg Ogonowski says the biggest users are in emerging IP markets where bandwidth is limited, like Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, though North American use is on the rise because of increased reliability.
“The plug-in has been credited with helping to improve sales for Orban’s PC Product Division and has succeeded in putting Orban’s name on desktops all over the world,” the company stated in its announcement.
The plug-in is a free Microsoft DirectShow component. It enables AAC/HE-AAC/aacPlus audio files and streams within Windows Media Player.
“Standardized as MPEG4 HE-AAC v2, aacPlus v2 is a superset of the AAC codec. HE-AAC v2 uses Coding Technologies’ Spectral Band Replication (SBR) and Parametric Stereo (PS) audio compression technologies to provide CD-quality audio in a footprint four to six times smaller than content encoded with MP3 (MPEG Layer-3) technology.”
Products
ATC Labs Introduces AutoAudioDenoizer
ATC Labs is announcing the AutoAudioDenoizer. It is targeted at broadcast engineers as well as sound field recording, audio restoration and forensic audio engineers.
The software can perform real-time, on-the-fly automatic noise reduction.
The AutoAudioDenoizer will preserve the main signal characteristics of audio even while substantial noise removal is applied, ATC says. It incorporates tracking algorithms, enabling live recordings to filter out noise automatically.
The product will be sold through ATC Labs and will be introduced at the Audio Engineering Society convention in Amsterdam.
ARC Labs is an audio and speech technology development and services firm headed by former Bell Labs chief audio codec researcher Dr. Deepen Sinha.
A trial version is available.
M6 Nearfield Monitor Available Self-Powered
Bag End Loudspeaker Systems debuted the PM6, a self-powered version of its M6 nearfield monitor, saying it is suitable for broadcast and post-production monitoring applications.
The PM6 is a compact package, weighing 18 1/2 pounds. It measures 14 inches high by 9 high and deep. Self-powered operation comes from a 100 watt internal amplifier. It has a 6 inch coaxial driver with a 1 inch coaxially mounted neodymium magnet and soft-dome tweeter.
“Designed to be used in the nearfield, the flat response in both the frequency and time domain of the PM6 insure accurate reproduction of the audio signal to the listener position,” said James P. Wischmeyer, president of Bag End. “It gives the mixing engineer an uncompromising window into the actual content of the recording.”
Highlights include frequency response of 60 Hz to 20 kHz +/-3 dB; and an MSRP of $898.
Fanfare Plans Summer Delivery of FP-TRO
Fanfare says it expects to have production units starting this summer on its new FP-TRO.
The company said the receiver/translator combo system is capable of translating an airable signal into areas that might have been considered difficult to impossible. It was shown for the first time during the spring NAB convention.
Marv Southcott stated that attendees “saw a fully locked HD-R signal at less than 30 dBµV inside a building that, figuratively, could have floated on the RF alone.” He said the unit has been observed in the lab to resolve a locked HD-R, multi-channel signal with less than 15 dBµV at the antenna terminals.
Fanfare says the unit also is notable the ability to reject interference from first- and second-adjacent stations. “It offers selectivity up to 60 dB and 90 dB (first and second adjacent respectively). That is with the TRO in ‘HD Radio’ configuration. However, configured for analog only, those figures rise even higher.”
The company designed the product with Omega Reception Technologies Inc. using the latter company’s NTP technology.
“The TRO represents a totally new approach to the reception of radio signals of all types through the use of proprietary interface techniques referred to broadly as ‘linearization,’” Fanfare stated. “This process culminates in the elimination of most noise where it might typically occur in designs based on contemporary superhet technology.”
He said the system offers a test for the noise floor of contemporary lab test gear.
For info, e-mail msouthcott@fanfarefm.com.
|
|
