As a loyal Radio World reader you are entitled to something more than the mere rantings of a third-tier ex-disc jockey. Thus I’m going to share with you the coolest Christmas event we ever ran during my so-called radio career. Feel free to steal it!
Today, many stations might be tempted to tie this promotion in with some politically correct charity such as the free shoes program for underprivileged Albanians. Some stations will try to share it with the other 300 stations in their chain and together give away one trip to watch Leonardo DiCaprio’s jet spew carbon emissions all over the world. None of that is necessary. The beauty of this idea is its simplicity.
In the ’60s and ’70s you may remember an inexpensive device called a color organ. You could buy one in kit form from Radio Shack for about $12. The basic part was a frequency splitter, though it was often installed inside a speaker-like box with a fogged plastic front and multicolored lights on the inside which lit at select frequencies, creating a light show on the plastic panel.
With a little patience you could connect it to a radio under your Christmas tree and drive a string of holiday lights, watching the bulbs respond to the different frequencies in the music. In our case bass tones triggered blue lights, mid-tones caused the green lights to pulse and high notes made the red lights blink. Now I don’t know anything about this first-hand but I heard that if one were stoned this was a very special treat to watch.
Far out, man!
At WOHO(AM), Toledo, Ohio, we had a gifted engineer, Bob Sowers, who did this on a larger scale. He connected a color organ to a radio, and ran the audio into a string of 150 large outdoor display lights.
[Read: Adventures in 1970s Radio: How Desperate Was I?]
Once he got it to work, we could put our plan into action. After receiving permission from a local strip mall we erected a 40-foot blue spruce tree in its parking lot about two weeks before Christmas, and hired a cherry picker to drape our lights over the entire tree. At the base of the spruce was a locked box that contained a radio that was hard-wired to receive our station. Our air signal was sent to the lights via the color organ. We also blasted WOHO through some PA speakers near the tree. Every night we sent someone over to turn on what we dubbed “The WOHO Carol Tree” at sunset.
It was magic.
The public turned out by the thousands to sit in the dark, listen to our station on their car radios in the parking lot and watch the colorful pulsing lights with fascination. Guys took their girlfriends there to make out; parents took their kids because it was cheaper than a drive-in movie. Every evening from sundown until about midnight, for several winters in a row, ours was the hottest ticket in town.
One song in particular, “Green Tambourine” by the Lemon Pipers, had a pulsing drumbeat that was memorable to witness in living color. Our jocks were aware of this and played the song every hour because it drove the crowds wild. Even commercials were fun to “watch.”
I think the tree cost the station about $400. The crane rental and construction of the lights (which could be stored and used again) was about $450. Permission from the shopping center: free.
It was a groovy way to celebrate the season so I shout: on, Donder, on Sneezy, on Zeppo! And a free-range, gluten-free Christmas to you all!
Ken Deutsch was a DJ in the days of three Bs: bubblegum, Beach Boys and Beatles. He is now a closed-caption transcriber and advocate for the deaf/hard of hearing.
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TiVo and Xperi are entering into a happy new union, with the two companies announcing that that have agreed to combine in an all-stock merger that values at $3 billion. Together, they say they will create a “leading consumer and entertainment technology business and one of the industry’s largest intellectual property licensing platforms with a diverse portfolio of entertainment and semiconductor intellectual property.”
With this merger, TiVo is expected to provide its content aggregation, discovery and recommendation capabilities with Xperi’s product capabilities in the home, automotive and mobile device ecosystems, helping consumers enjoy content anywhere, anytime, the two sides said.
The intellectual property licensing platform that will be offered by this newly formed company will reportedly serve markets in entertainment content, consumer electronics and semiconductors, and includes more than 10,000 patents and applications between TiVo and Xperi, TiVo said.
“There is more content, and more ways to enjoy that content, than ever before,” said David Shull, CEO of TiVo. “In a rapidly expanding and fragmenting digital universe, consumers want and need to be able to easily find and enjoy the content that matters to them. TiVo has always been the company that brings entertainment together. Now, we can significantly expand our mission. With Xperi’s annual licensing of more than 100 million connected TV units, and complementary relationships with major content providers, consumer electronics manufacturers and automotive OEMs, our combined company will transform the home, car and mobile entertainment experience for the consumer.”
The new parent company will take the Xperi name but will still provide entertainment services under the TiVo brand, alongside Xperi’s DTS, HD Radio and IMAX Enhanced brands.
This merger will take the place of TiVo’s plans announced earlier this year that it was going to separate its product and IP licensing business.
Jon Kirchner, Xperi’s CEO, will take on the same role in the new parent company, with Xperi CFO Robert Andersen also serving as the parent company’s CFO. Shull is tapped with continuing as a strategic advisor to help out with the transition.
The merger has been agreed to by the board of directors of both companies and is expected to close during the second quarter of 2020, subject to regulatory approvals.
The post Xperi Announces $3B Merger With TiVo appeared first on Radio World.
SiriusXM with 360L — the “L” presumably stands for “Listening [experience]”? — is the rebranded and extended form of the satcaster’s user interface and platform. It “delivers content via both satellite and streaming” in and out of the car, SiriusXM says. (Both a Connected Access plan and a SiriusXM All Access or Select subscription are required.)
Note that dash photos do show AM and FM radio buttons.
[Read about SiriusXM’s Pandora purchase] An excerpt from a tip sheet SiriusXM created for car dealers to promote the SiriusXM with 360L rollout.“SiriusXM with 360L transforms the way we listen to audio in the car by marrying our satellite network to embedded connectivity in vehicles. This allows for significantly more channels and choices,” SiriusXM Sales and Automotive EVP Steve Cook said in a press release.
360L debuted with the 2019 Ram 1500, and is now poised to massively increase its footprint. General Motors says SiriusXM will be included in 13 Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC 2020 model year vehicles, adding up to about 1 million automobiles.
Based on the platform and app’s capabilities, it seems SiriusXM has integrated technology and know-how it gained through its 2019 Pandora acquisition. In addition to the 200+ live SiriusXM channels, 360L features on-demand programming options, content recommendations, sports play-by-play and official game broadcasts. The platform also enables “multiple drivers and passengers to customize and maintain their own presets and favorites” through individual vehicle profiles. Profiles can be tweaked in-car or using the SiriusXM app, or U.S. customers with a Remote Access Plan can designate “favorites” through apps specific to their vehicle’s make, which will then sync to the linked infotainment system.
The apps can also be used to manage SiriusXM subscriptions, and GM says it will offer a free three-month trial of SiriusXM with 360L to those who buy the equipped 2020 vehicles.
360L also appears to be the next step to increasing SiriusXM’s automotive presence after the 2018 launch of its Automatic connectivity service for car dealers.
The post General Motors Adds SiriusXM With 360L to Some 2020 Models appeared first on Radio World.
WMMS’ Cleveland Buzzard hatched 45 years ago, the product of a rebrand idea from Program Director John Gorman and Music Director Denny Sanders, executed by artist David Helton.
Helton hadn’t planned on creating this “rock star” for WMMS — he had originally sent in a complaint about the station’s programming — in the form of a cartoon. The move caught John Gorman’s attention, and the rest is history.
The Buzzard was introduced in the alternative weekly, Zeppelin, in April 1974 (shown at left). The public embraced him, and the popularity of the rock radio station skyrocketed, with the Buzzard at the helm. Over the years, the Buzzard appeared on all manner of swag, large and small: bumper stickers, shirts, glassware, mugs, and even vehicles. He represented WMMS in print and TV ads, billboards, parade floats and murals. He also had his own publication — The Buzzard News — an internal comic that tracked what was happening at the station in the 1970s.
The Buzzard is still a WMMS, and Cleveland, icon even as the station celebrated its 50th birthday in 2018. The station is currently owned by iHeartMedia.
Helton hasn’t been an employee of Malrite Communications, then owner of WMMS, since 1989, but he didn’t have to dig too deep to draw a special illustration for a feature story in the Cleveland Scene (left). The Buzzard may be older, but he’s not forgotten.
For Buzzard fans who want to get a little nostalgic, Helton is selling some of his vintage swag online. Visit www.davidheltonillustration.com.
REFERENCESLearn more by reading these articles:
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AMSTERDAM — Visitors to the main radio area of the recent IBC exhibition may have noticed a striking hand-drawn white cardboard stand in the adjacent “Future Zone.”
The hand-drawn cardboard Project MARCONI stand at IBC2019.This was the home of Project MARCONI [Multimedia and Augmented Radio Creation: Online, iNteractive, Individual] and HRadio, both funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.
The project consortium includes public broadcasters NPO in the Netherlands, and Belgium-based VRT, alongside technology companies and academic partners. Together, they aim to improve radio experiences by enabling fully interactive and personalized radio solutions, integrating broadcast radio with digital and social media.
Rik Bauwens is lead developer for VRT Innovation.PERSONALIZED RADIO SOLUTIONS
In a live demonstration at IBC, MARCONI highlighted the technologies behind the project: different software tools integrated in a dashboard, using AI-powered chatbots and content analysis. The project showed engagement with listener content by replying to messages, dragging and dropping them into the radio program, and playing their footage on a screen on the other side of the stand.
Rik Bauwens, lead developer for VRT Innovation, describes how the project came about. “MARCONI was preceded by the ICoSOLE project, which focused on user-generated content during live events. For MARCONI, we narrowed this down to music events, such as festivals, in a radio context. Together with some of the ICoSOLE partners, additional technical companies, radio software provider Pluxbox, and radio teams from VRT and NPO, we drafted the MARCONI project.”
Bauwens explains that matching novel technological solutions such as face detection and chatbots to a contemporary radio workflow was the biggest challenge for the project.
“To address this, we started by organizing co-creation workshops with both radio content producers and their listeners. Subsequently, we held observations with radio teams at VRT and NPO to get to know their current tools. We adopted an agile development process with week-long sprints and a stand-up with project partners every Monday, to continually evaluate and adjust our prototypes.”
EXPERIMENTATION
The EU funding has also been helpful, he adds. “First, it allows us to experiment next to a live radio production; it gives us the freedom to start over very quickly if needed. Second, it allows us to organize open piloting with other radio stations in Europe, to get even more feedback.”
VRT is involved in both Project MARCONI and HRadio. “The use cases are different but complement each other very well,” explains Bauwens.
“MARCONI focuses on creating tools for radio-makers to handle novel ways of interaction with their audience. HRadio offers an end-user experience for radio listeners, such as rewinding live radio, participating in polls via DAB+ using a radio webview and so on.”
The aim for MARCONI is to offer a new toolset to radio stations by the end of the project in March 2020, with open pilots taking place until then. “Possibly, MARCONI gets a sequel in the years to come,” VRT’s Bauwens says. “Aside from interaction, visualization and extensive automation would be important topics for us.”
The post Project MARCONI Brings Stations Closer to Listeners appeared first on Radio World.
Dave Burns has died.
According to an obituary on Legacy.com, Burns was 76 and died after a short illness. He is shown in the accompanying photo from his Facebook page.
Readers who were active in the industry’s equipment supply industry of the 1980s and 1990s will remember Burns from his tenure in sales and marketing.
According to earlier RW coverage, Burns began his career as a salesman for Roy Ridge at Allied Broadcast Equipment, which later was known as Harris Allied and eventually Harris Corp.’s Broadcast Division. He also worked as a consultant to several companies, and in 2002 joined Klotz Digital America as director of broadcast business development.
In retirement he remained passionate about radio in retirement and was active in online communities.
[See a photo Burns submitted in 2013 to RW in “Here’s Looking (Up) at You, WLW”]
According to Legacy.com, Burns died Tuesday at Hospice of Southwest Ohio. Condolences may be sent to the family at www.stegallberheideorr.com.
The post Dave Burns Dies, Was Retired Broadcast Tech Sales Exec appeared first on Radio World.
Broadcast engineers are often found to be obsessed with time, likely because they are surrounded by time-critical tasks. Many a radio broadcast engineer has programmed an automation system schedule built around precise time program clocks that outlines and controls the content broadcast throughout the day. Precise in this case is defined to the second, with time synchronization often provided by a trusted network program content source.
Gettyimages/maomageAnd of course the all-familiar FCC-required legal station ID during the top of the hour window. The broadcast engineer in the joint radio and TV station likely has distributed SMPTE time code throughout the broadcast facility with the intention of locking video tape recordings to a precise and consistent time reference for editing purposes or simply synchronizing control room clocks.
Precise accuracy is defined to the sub-second or video frame rate. As the broadcast facility infrastructure, whether radio or TV, has migrated to an Information Technology (IT) environment and infrastructure, precise time references such as the Internet Protocol (IP), Network Time Protocol (NTP) and the Precise Time Protocol (PTP) have emerged. Precise in terms of accuracy to 1 mS for NTP.
Time references existed long before the first broadcast stations. The sun might be considered our first time reference standard for the local community, with 12 noon defined as occurring when the sun was directly overhead.
Many communities relied on local time synchronization provided by a dominant community member. I grew up in a small east Texas town where you could count on the local “steam whistle” from the refinery to sound at 8 a.m., 12 noon and 5 p.m.
RAILROAD TIME
In the mid-1860s, Western Union utilized its nationwide telegraph system to distribute time signaling from the U.S. Navy Observatory (USNO) in Washington, D.C. The observatory used precise celestial optical observation to establish a time standard reference. This same time reference was first used to synchronize clocks in the railroad system, bringing some order to what was often described as a continuous state of confusion between “railroad” time and the local community time. The nationwide telegraph system became dedicated for time distribution just before the top of each hour.
The establishment of 24 worldwide time zones setting our familiar time zones with each referenced the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) was stated as “humanizing time.”
In some communities, one could find Western Union synchronized clocks in corporate offices, schools, banks and public venues that were connected by “clock loop circuits,” providing synchronization at the top of each hour. The time synchronization signal consisted of an established sequence of 1-click-per-second clicks of the telegraph sounder across the nationwide telegraph system a few seconds before the hour. After a pause, the final click or “mark” signal originated a local reset signal to drive a solenoid in the clock, resetting the clock time to the current top of the hour.
History indicates that this fee-based nationwide standardized clock time system remained in service into the ’70s but faded away as the telegraph as a delivery medium and Western Union faded away. Today, a Western Union railroad clock manufactured by the Self Winding Clock Company is considered a cherished technology collector’s item by many.
AT THE TONE, THE TIME IS…
And of course the broadcast engineer is familiar with the precise time and frequency information broadcast by WWV in Fort Collins, Colorado and WWVH in Kauai, Hawaii on a variety of frequencies ranging from 2.5, 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz utilizing 1/2-wave antennas. These time and frequency reference broadcasts provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) utilize multiple cesium atomic clocks for precise time and frequency accuracy. Many a broadcast engineer has utilized the precise 10 MHz WWV broadcast as a frequency reference to calibrate or verify their local frequency counter.
The legacy broadcast engineer may have had a master clock utilizing a WWV or WWVH receiver as the time reference. The military Inter-Range Instrumentation Group (IRIG) type H time code format broadcast by WWV or WWVH was the only openly available time reference standard before Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) were available. WWVB, also in Colorado and adjacent to the WWV stations, broadcasts a 1 bit-per-second time code on 60 kHz that is responsible for keeping an estimated 50,000,000 consumer timepieces automatically synchronized. That $19.95 “atomic” clock on your kitchen wall relies on WWVB for its time synchronization.
Today, a GNSS-based time master clock is an integral component of the broadcast technical plant. The Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite constellation operated by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) is one of several worldwide GNSS systems in operation. GPS utilizes multiple Cesium Beam or Hydrogen Maser atomic clock references provided by the USNO.
Whereas the system was primarily developed for navigation applications, the system can be used to provide a precise reference to a disciplined oscillator in the local master clocks by reception of several GPS satellite time signals providing facility time and system timing information.
GPS system accuracy is often quoted in terms of location accuracy such as a minimum of 4 meters for civilian applications which receive a coarse-acquisition (C/A) code on 1575.42 MHz. Military GPS (referred to as PPS) uses the civilian frequency plus a second signal on 1227.60 MHz to reduce radio path degradation caused by atmospheric disturbances. With regards to a time reference, accurate time information can be determined to the microsecond level.
The GPS-based master clock references in a broadcast facility are capable of supplying time references in several formats ranging from the SMPTE time code, to NTP and PTP, and to several General Purpose Output (GPO) interfaces. These GPO output interfaces are typically Transistor-Transistor-Logic (TTL) based signals in formats including one pulse per second (1PPS) and top-of-hour (TOH) pulse.
Facility distribution allows a single reference to supply time information to a variety of devices throughout the facility in lieu of each device containing its own time standard based reference. In addition, a 10 MHz frequency reference is often provided by these references and is useful to check calibration of the stations frequency-measuring devices.
The 1PPS and TOH outputs have been used to synchronize other devices in the broadcast plant such as early automation systems. The GPS-based master clocks provide time in the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) format. UTC may also be referred to as solar time.
SMPTE time code, known as SMPTE 12M-2, can be found in two formats: Longitudinal (LTC) or Vertical-Interval (VITC). Time is presented in the format of hours:minutes:seconds:frame or HH:MM:SS:FF and is represented by 32-bit binary coded decimal (BCD) number identifying an individual frame of video.
In order to correct for the 29.97 frames per second rate of color NTSC, drop-frame (DF) time code is commonly used. It is typically represented as HH;MM;SS;FF with the semicolon indicating the drop-frame mode. The name is often misleading, as no frames of video are actually dropped. Instead a few time codes are dropped in order to match up the timecode with clock time.
The broadcast facility today likely relies on NTP for time synchronization among a diversity of IP-based host devices. NTP is defined as time synchronization over a packet-switched network or today’s common IP network. Now in version 4 (NTPv4) as defined by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Request for Comments (RFC) 5905 provides accuracy to 1 mS. NTP is considered one of the core IP protocols and utilizes TCP/UDP port 123 as assigned by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and an IPv4 multicast address of 224.0.1.1.
A NEW AND ECONOMICAL OPTION
For many, NTP is an excellent (and now economically implemented) approach to time sync devices in the broadcast plant, such as an automation system components, network content sources, the control room clock and of course all IT-oriented devices. Development of improvements continues today with enhancements specifically in the area of network security.
NTP was developed as a client-server application utilizing a complex algorithm to determine a precise time reference accounting for variable packet network time delays. The client on a host device calculates a time offset and the round-trip-delay from one or more time reference sources.
A peer-to-peer mode is also supported where a peer node can consider another peer node as a time reference.
The NTP client utilizes the familiar Bellman-Ford shortest path spanning tree algorithm to calculate and in turn minimize the delay to the reference time server. NTP clients have been developed for all mainstream computer operating systems, and thus are available for a wide range of host devices. In the Unix/Linux environment, the client is implemented as the daemon “ntpd,” and as a service in the Windows operating system. The Simple Network Time Protocol (SNTP) defined by RFC 2030 was developed as a simplified version of NTP and is often found in embedded systems where less demanding time synchronization is required.
NTP is based upon a hierarchical or layered scheme of time references described as a Stratum level ranging from 1–16. A Stratum 0 clock is defined as a high-precision reference clock and is not connected to the network as it only serves as a reference. It is simply a high-precision reference standard.
A Stratum 1 clock is directly connected (wired or RF path) to a Stratum 0 reference and is in turn utilized to synchronize lower level clocks. A Stratum 16 clock is considered an unsynchronized clock as is often a clock that has lost network connectivity to its reference source.
The Stratum n description refers to the device distance from the reference source rather than an indication of an actual time accuracy. In reality a Stratum 3 clock may be the most accurate, as this level can be synchronized with multiple Stratum 2 clocks which are referenced to multiple Stratum 1 clocks, as shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1: Stratum LevelsNTP utilizes the Unix time epoch. The Unix epoch, also known as POSIX time or Unix time, is based upon the number of seconds occurring since January 1, 1970 as each day consists as 86,400 seconds. Unix time is represented by a signed 32-bit numerical integer string such as “1560862759.”
The Internet provides ample time conversion utilities. The current Unix integer time string can be found at https://time.is/Unix_time_now. However, NTP utilizes a modified method of storing the time integer value. Sixty-four bits are used to create an NTP timestamp by assigning 32 bits for the second storage and 32 bits for the fractional second.
A DIFFERENT “Y2K” BUG?
Looking ahead, the use of a signed 32-bit time storage unit creates a problem upon reaching Jan. 19, 2038, as an integer overflow occurs and the time becomes a negative integer and begins counting backwards. This often is referred to as the “Y2K38” problem. Most if not all operating systems have corrected for this problem by adopting a 64-bit storage registers.
NTP has a similar roll-over issue occurring in February 2036. However, the impact is not felt to be as severe since NTP time determination is based upon time-stamp differences rather than an absolute value. Future NTP versions will likely extend the timestamp value to 128-bits. Today, it is not clear as to what the final recommended solution(s) may be.
Yet another enhancement to NTP is PTP. Maybe not found in the radio station environment today, it is worth being aware of. PTP is defined under the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 1588 standard now implemented in version 2 or IEEE-1588-2008. PTP is master-slave architecture similar to NTP, but provides accuracy in the sub-second range.
IEEE 1588 is used in utilized in network applications where accuracy is required beyond the capabilities of NTP such as industrial automation and financial transaction markets. It has become commonplace in IP-based TV networks such as the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE) ST-2110 standard. PTP is designed for local area networks requiring accuracy in the sub-nanosecond range.
PTP utilizes a synchronization master as the root time reference referred to as the “grandmaster” clock. The grandmaster derives its reference from a Stratum 0 source such as the GPS satellite constellation. A “slave” clock in turn derives a time reference from the grandmaster. Boundary clocks may be present, which in turn relay time information to other segments of a network.
The PTP standard utilizes UDP messages to convey time reference information between devices on the network with IPv4 multicast addresses 224.0.0.129 and 224.0.0.107 registered for message exchange. Master clocks can be obtained that serve as both NTP and PTP time references.
A common challenge in many broadcast facilities is providing NTP time services across multiple isolated IP networks or subnets in the facility. These individual isolated networks are often built with Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) segments and utilize private IP address space. The multiple subnets are used to segment or isolate critical broadcast network functions into layers or zones.
NTP time information can be shared across multiple networks by a sometimes elaborate means of static Network Address Translation (NAT) and Access Control Lists (ACL) in a Layer 3 router to control inter-subnet interoperability from a cybersecurity standpoint. The use of an ACL allows only NTP packets to be exchanged between the individual subnets.
I have found that a better approach is to use an individual NTP time server for each network subnet. This approach is now feasible from an economic standpoint as a NTP server can be purchased for less than $300 such as the TimeMachines TM1000A GPS NTP Network Time Server. A single outdoor GPS antenna and multi-port signal splitter provide a GPS antenna connection to each time server. The more industrious engineer can roll his own time server with an OEM GPS receiver, a Raspberry Pi, and some open-source software. Each time server is configured for each network subnet required such as shown in Fig. 2.
Fig. 2: Example of multiple time servers for dedicated subnets sharing a common antenna (note the lower right combination NTP / PTP time server).No wonder the broadcast engineer is often obsessed with time when his or her day is often defined in terms of seconds, frames, milliseconds and even microseconds. The broadcast engineer’s Apple “iWatch” as shown in Fig. 3 is considered a Stratum 2 reference, as Apple maintains a network of fifteen (15) Stratum 1 time servers worldwide.
Fig. 3: The iWatch is a Stratum 2 Reference Clock.By the way, you did ask what time it is. This column was submitted to the editor at precisely 1568613600 prior to the deadline of 1569412740.
Wayne M. Pecena, CPBE, 8-VSB, AMD, DRB, CBNE is associate director, Educational Broadcast Services at Texas A&M University and director of engineering at KAMU TV and FM. He also is president of the Society of Broadcast Engineers and a past recipient of the Radio World Excellence in Engineering Award.
The post Do You Know What Time It Is? appeared first on Radio World.
It’s a New Year’s tradition: the arrival of a new Radio World Source Book & Directory!
Some folks have asked me why Radio World still creates a printed and online directory. Well, even as we head into the third decade of the 21st century, it turns out that equipment buyers and sellers
still want to find one another, and that buyers are always looking for ways to streamline the process of researching equipment and buying it. Although you or I can find any website with a quick Google search, there’s something both simple and effective about having a directory, particularly a hard copy, right at hand — especially if it gives a succinct summary of what that company does and how to contact them, something not all websites do well.
So here’s your latest resource for professionals working in the U.S. radio broadcasting industry. The companies listed here are those that responded to our solicitations toward the end of 2019. You’ll find respondents listed alphabetically in the Vendor & Product Directory section starting on page 15.
Companies also tell us the type of hardware or service they offer; find those categories in the Supplier Cross Index starting on page 12.
On pages 4–11, sponsors highlight key products in the Profiles in Excellence section. Starting on page 33 are sponsored reprints of product stories that originally appeared in Radio World in recent months.
Radio World believes in the importance of a vibrant technology supplier marketplace. We appreciate all of the companies listed, and in particular those that advertise in Radio World, because they make it possible for us to continue to serve you. I hope you’ll find this directory of companies useful throughout the coming year.
The post 2020 Radio World Source Book and Directory appeared first on Radio World.
Pirate radio, console trends, MaxxKonnect Wireless … as usual, we bring you tons of great stuff in your new issue. And a special feature for history lovers: As the radio industry gets ready to celebrate stations that have been around for 100 years, John Schneider explains why KJR Seattle may deserve top billing.
RADIO LISTENINGFor less than $90, here’s a top-of-the-line radio receiver for that “special someone.”
TECHNOLOGYSoundware Norway offered an unusual demo using the car’s web browser.
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
The post Inside the Dec.18. Issue of Radio World appeared first on Radio World.
COLUMBIA, Md. — By his own admission, Richard Tell has climbed lots of broadcast towers, gotten himself exposed to some really intense radio frequency fields, suffered RF burns and on occasion has even (accidentally) burned out “some fancy test equipment,” but “never to my knowledge experienced a health effect from my work in RF fields, except for the burns.”
Tell, now 75, and an industry expert in the effects of RF radiation on the human body, shared some of his experiences and deep knowledge of the subject at an RF safety seminar put together by the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore SBE chapters under the auspices of Fred Williard, an officer of the D.C. chapter, and hosted by Rohde & Schwarz at their North American headquarters and training facility.
Tell’s presentation—“Staying Safe in RF Fields”—was tailored to provide broadcast engineering personnel and others involved in RF work with the knowledge they need to stay safe and prevent injury. The free day-long course attracted transmitter operators, station and broadcast group personnel, consulting engineers, network employees, two-way radio service technicians, government and military employees, amateur radio operators and even a SiriusXM satellite radio representative from as far away as New York and Richmond, Va.
Richard TellTell, an IEEE Life Fellow and chair of RF safety-related committees within IEEE, spent some 20 years with the federal government, working for the Center for Devices and Radiological Health, and later serving as chief of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Electromagnetics Branch, and providing technical support to the FCC when that agency was setting new rules for human exposure to RF fields.
His 52-year-long career not only includes laboratory work and computer modeling, but also plenty of “hands-on” experience—including purposefully subjecting himself to RF currents—that makes him uniquely qualified to impart knowledge and field inquiries into this sometimes rather gray area of radio and TV station operations.
WHERE THE DANGER LIESIn setting the stage for the “practical” portion of his presentation, Tell provided a definition of “MPE,” or Maximum Permissible Exposure (“according to the FCC, this is the amount of field exposure outside the body that is considered safe”), and “SAR,” or Specific Absorption Rate (“the rate at which RF is absorbed in the body, and which is the basis for our safety standards”).
He also distinguished between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation—terms that confuse many lay people and even some professionals. Ionizing radiation occurs when there’s sufficient energy to remove electrons from an atom typically associated with very penetrating radiations, such as x-ray and gamma; non-ionizing refers to any other type of electromagnetic radiation, including the radio frequency spectrum.
“Radio waves do not have sufficient energy to ionize atoms,” said Tell, assuring course attendees that this was not something they had to worry about. “RF fields are not the same as ionizing radiation. They cannot ionize tissue, and unlike ionizing radiation, the biological effects are not cumulative.”
Tell explained that aside from burns suffered from contacting RF-energized conductors, the greatest effect of radio waves on living organisms was heating of tissues, noting that 60 years of research on the effects of RF exposure has established, among other things, that when RF levels fall below a certain threshold, there is no measurable effect on human bodies. Such research has also established a useful “threshold” for what constitutes an excessive RF level.
“The most sensitive and reliable indicator of an established and potentially adverse biological effect of RF radiation exposure has been behavioral disruption of a learned task in laboratory animals,” said Tell. “Their performance ‘slacks off’ because they are ‘warming up’ and less inclined to do what they were trained to do.”
[Strickland Taught the Industry About RF Safety]He noted that the threshold for such behavior modification began at a SAR of about 4W per kilogram of body weight, and that this exposure level had been extrapolated to humans and adopted by the FCC in its regulations limiting exposure. Tell stated that a safety factor of 10 is used to constitute what is considered “safe,” with 50 times less exposure being “safer than safe.”
Tell said that in calculating what a “0.4W/kg safe” exposure would be for a 180-pound individual, it amounts to 33W distributed within the tissues. He noted that the normal metabolic rate for humans at rest is about 105W.
Some 40 individuals from radio and television operations, government agencies, consulting firms, and other enterprises involving exposure to RF radiation traveled from as far away as New York to the Washington, D.C./Baltimore suburb of Columbia, Md. to learn more about safeguarding themselves at transmitter sites.“When RF energy is delivered to a lossy material such as body tissue, it produces heating of those tissues,” he said. “Elimination of heating of the body is the primary objective of most safety regulations today.”
Tell observed that the effects of RF on the body are not uniform, with some areas being heated more than others, and that this heating is frequency-dependent, as humans resonate at around 65 MHz.
About 40 people from radio and television operations, government agencies, consulting firms, and other enterprises working in RF attended the day-long seminar.
About 40 people from radio and television operations, government agencies, consulting firms, and other enterprises working in RF attended the day-long seminar.
“FCC exposure limits are based on limiting the rate at which RF energy is absorbed in terms of watts per kilogram of body mass so that you don’t warm up,” said Tell. “A hazardous level of exposure is reached when you begin to warm up from the RF energy impinging on your body.
“The ‘take-home’ here is that if you feel warmer than you suspect would be normal, back off and ensure that your exposure is within the accepted limits.”
PROTECTIVE MEASURESTell noted that portable “clip-on” RF monitors, while not necessarily precise indicators, do provide “early warning” information that is useful in flagging what may lead to excessive exposure in RF environments. He also provided some tips for proper use of such monitoring devices, as well as suggestions for mitigating one’s exposure.
“Always wear an RF monitor on the front of your shirt; it should face the antennas generating the radiation you’ll be exposed to,” said Tell. “The difference between front and back can amount to a factor of 16 at 100 MHz. If the monitor sounds only occasionally that’s not a problem. If it’s steady, then it’s time to get out of the area.
“If you have to work close to a high-power antenna, use a personal monitor to determine if the area is below the exposure level; if not, the transmitter must be shut down and locked/tagged out, especially if it’s remotely operated. Take the lockout key with you until all work is completed and the system can be returned to normal operation.”
Other tips include staying behind directional antennas when doing tower work and exercising care when working around non-directional radiators.
“You cannot hide behind an omnidirectional antenna like you can a dish, a Yagi or a panel antenna,” Tell said.
He observed that there were some cases where broadcast operations could not be interrupted and doing work around such transmission sites called for operating with reduced power or wearing a protective body suit and hood designed to attenuate RF exposure to the body.
“Such a suit greatly reduces RF exposure,” said Tell. “But always remember that the suit does not make you into Superman.”
The post Staying Safe Around RF: An Industry Expert Tells All appeared first on Radio World.
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