Industry News

The BBC World Service tweet announcing the new shortwave broadcasts to Russia and Ukraine.

The BBC World Service is turning to shortwave radio to deliver trustworthy news to Russians, now that the Kremlin is blocking Western media websites’ reporting on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

There is apparently a hunger for alternatives to Putin’s propaganda among Russian-speakers. According to a March 2, 2022, BBC media release, “The audience for the BBC’s Russian language news website more than tripled its year-to-date weekly average, with a record reach of 10.7 million people in the last week (compared to 3.1 million). In English, bbc.com visitors in Russia were up 252% to 423,000 last week.” [The week cited by the BBC was Feb. 21–27, 2022; Russia troops entered Ukraine on Feb. 24. —eds.]

To help satisfy this hunger, the BBCWS announced it is broadcasting four hours of English news daily on two shortwave frequencies, both of which “can be received clearly in Kyiv and parts of Russia,” said a BBC media release. The additional shortwave frequencies are on 15735 kHz operating from 1400 to 1600 UTC and on 5875 kHz from 2000 to 2200 UTC. Eastern European Standard Time, where Kyiv is located, is two hours ahead of UTC; for reference, U.S. Eastern Standard Time is five hours behind UTC.

The BBCWS ended its Russian-language shortwave broadcasts in 2011. At that time, U.K. government budget cuts forced the BBCWS to eliminate five language services and focus seven others, including Ukrainian and Russian, on online, mobile, and television platforms.

In addition to BBCWS’s new service to Russia and Ukraine, Ö1, the main news channel for Austrian public service broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk has expanded distribution of morning, midday, and evening news programs to shortwave. “Ö1-Morgenjournal” can be heard on 6155 kHz at 0600 UTC, “Ö1 Mittagsjournal” on 13730 kHz at 1100 UTC and “Ö1 Abendjournal” on 5940 kHz at 1700 UTC.

“With this additional service, the Ö1 radio journals can be received easily by German-speaking listeners throughout Europe, including in Ukraine,” stated ORF Radio Director Ingrid Thurnher in a press release announcing the change.

Still, at least the BBCWS is back on shortwave to Russia and Ukraine. Other trusted Western Cold War powerhouses such as Radio Canada International are gone from the shortwave airwaves, their antennas torn down and their transmitters turned off.

“RCI was dismantled because of a lack of vision on how well and important an international service is,” said Gilles Letourneau, co-host of the “International Radio Report” program on CKUT-FM in Montreal and owner of the OfficialSWLchannel on YouTube. “Although Voice of America is still on air, it has changed its focus to Africa and Asia. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is still transmitting, but mostly using medium-wave frequencies rather than shortwave.”

When asked if VOA intends to revive shortwave broadcasts to Ukraine and Russia, a VOA public affairs officer replied, “That is a decision for our programming division.”

It remains unclear how effective the new BBCWS shortwave broadcasts will actually be, given the decline of shortwave radio ownership/listening in the Internet Age. But Russians who still have shortwave receivers should be able to tune in.

“I noted that the new frequencies for BBCWS are making it quite well here in North America,” said Letourneau. “They should be quite good and easy to receive on small shortwave portable radios in Ukraine and Russia.”

“It is sad that BBCWS abandoned its Russian language service,” he added. “That would definitely be useful right now, especially as Russia dismantled all of its shortwave jamming transmitters in the 1990s.”

Russia may have diminished its ability to block shortwave broadcasts, but on Mar. 4 Roskomnadzor, the Russian government’s media supervision agency, announced it had blocked the websites of BBC, VOA, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Deutsche Welle and other foreign media outlets, according to Reuters.

In response, the BBC has promoted the use of VPNs, apps such as Telegram and Viber, and the privacy-focused Tor platform as ways to circumvent Roskomnadzor’s filters.

T. Carter Ross contributed to this story.

James Careless is an award-winning freelance journalist with experience in radio/TV broadcasting as well as A/V equipment, system design and integration. He has written for Radio World, TV Tech, Systems Contractor News and AV Technology, among others. Broadcast credits include CBC Radio, NPR and NBC News. He co-produces/co-hosts the “CDR Radio podcast” and is a two-time winner of the PBI Media Award for Excellence.

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The iOS App Store launched in 2008 with 500 apps, according to the Business of Apps website, which says that today, the App Store has 1.85 million different apps available to download, while Android users have 2.56 million on the Google Play Store.

We asked a few Radio World readers and contributors to name their favorite apps.

1. Camera

Perhaps the most useful app of all, and easily overlooked is your phone’s camera.

“I constantly document wiring and changes with it so I can update drawings,” said RW contributor Dan Slentz. “Also, when working on gear or a transmitter, I tend to snap a lot of pics just in case I ‘misplace’ a wire or component so I remember where it went.”

Workbench readers know that columnist John Bisset has long preached often about the usefulness of your phone’s camera in troubleshooting and educating your boss about the work you do.

2. SatFinder Lite

Randy Williams, chief engineer at Learfield, recommends SatFinder Lite from , free for Apple and Android users, as a tool to help in setup and alignment of a satellite dish or antenna.

“A user can program the satellite name or orbital slot from the list of satellites provided, and save to your settings. Then the app syncs to your phone’s internal GPS, compass and camera features, allowing you to point the camera of the phone toward the horizon. And it will display the satellite arc and the location of the satellite you are looking for by look angle.”

Williams says the app isn’t a precision instrument but will get you 95% of the way there in tuning your satellite antenna by giving you azimuth/elevation data from the camera lens to get a dish in the reception ballpark.

The app works for DirectTV, DishNetwork and C-Band satellite locations.

3. Luci Live Lite

Engineers like Greg Dahl of Second Opinion Communications and Tony Peterle of WorldCast Systems useCi various versions of Luci Live for audio streaming over IP. It’s made by Technica del Arte, which offers wideband codec apps for iPhone and Android.

“These are considered among broadcasters to be the easiest-to-use and best performing apps on the market,” writes Comrex in a tech note. There’s info on the Technica del Arte website about how to connect their apps to studio codecs from Comrex, Telos, Orban and other manufacturers.

“Even the SE version has everything I need,” says Tony Peterle. “Bidirectional stereo audio streaming with a variety of algorithms from which to choose. Very useful when trying to diagnose why a particular stream isn’t arriving at a particular site. Put Luci Live in the middle and find out which end has the blockage. Hint: It’s usually the receiving end, where public traffic has to transit a firewall, but it’s nice to be able to confirm and show that to others.”

4. Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client

“Using a VPN for remote access to your facility’s network is critical to maintaining security and protecting against external attacks,” says Shane Toven, senior broadcast engineer for Educational Media Foundation.

“Depending on your network infrastructure, you may have a manufacturer specific client, or you may be able to use the client built into your phone’s operating system.”

5. Microsoft Remote Desktop Client

“Microsoft Remote Desktop Services is a common means of accessing Windows systems remotely, and is built into most versions of Windows,” says Shane Toven. “It can be used in conjunction with a VPN client, or configured with a gateway server for external access.”

Use Microsoft Remote Desktop for iOS or Android to connect to a remote PC or virtual apps and desktops made available by the admin of your organization.

6. Angry IP Scanner

“This app will scan the currently connected subnet, or any other reachable subnet, for active hosts,” says Paul Thurst, principal/owner of Data Wave. “It can also be used to find open ports. I like this particular IP scanner because there is also a PC version that operates the same way.”

This is free, open-source software written by Anton Keks, co-founder of Codeborne. It runs on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.

“Angry IP scanner simply pings each IP address to check if it’s alive, then optionally it is resolving its hostname, determines the MAC address, scans ports, etc. The amount of gathered data about each host can be extended with plugins,” according to its website https://angryip.org/. It has additional features, like NetBIOS information — computer name, workgroup name, and currently logged in Windows user — favorite IP address ranges, web server detection and customizable openers.

7. Electrodoc Pro

Paul Thurst likes this app, formerly called Electrodroid, for its many useful collection of electronics tools and references including Ohm’s law, resistor color code, filers, voltage divider, reactance/resonance, resistor series/parallel, capacitor series/parallel, NE555 calculator and more, as well as converters including dB to Watt, frequency, and analog to digital. It also has an extensive list of pinouts.

8. Units Plus Converter

“This is what it sounds like, a converter for almost any unit into any like unit,” says Paul Thurst.

The app, developed by Alan Mrvica, includes tools to convert area, computer data, fuel mileage, length, power, pressure, speed, temperature, time zones, volumes dry and wet, and weight/mass. It also can convert 155+ world currencies.

9. Datadog

Another app recommended by Shane Toven of EMF. “This service allows you to create custom dashboards to monitor all of the systems and applications within your infrastructure at a glance. Its companion app makes those dashboards readily available on your smartphone or tablet.”

Datadog is a monitoring and security platform for cloud applications. It integrates and automates infrastructure monitoring, application performance monitoring and log management.

What’s your fave? Tell us your favorite app and why. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

 

The post What’s Your Favorite App? appeared first on Radio World.

The Federal Communications Commission has published a list of a dozen radio stations in Connecticut and Massachusetts that are at risk of losing their licenses if they don’t hurry a renewal application to the FCC.

The stations are listed at the bottom of this story. Six of the 12 are LPFMs.

Dec. 1, 2021 was the deadline for broadcasters in New England to file for license renewal for terms expiring on April 1, 2022. Broadcasters in Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont faced the same deadline but none made the list.

In Connecticut:

• WPRX(AM), Bristol — Nievezquez Productions
• WWBW(LP), Higganum — Connecticut River Educational Radio
• WCSE(LP), Ledyard — Calvary Chapel of Southeastern Connecticut
• WNLN(LP), Niantic — New Haven Educational Radio Corp.
• WWEB(FM), Wallingford — Choate Rosemary Hall Foundation
• WCFC(LP), Willimantic — Calvary Fellowship of Willimantic

In Massachusetts:

• WJXP(FM), Fitchburg — Horizon Christian Fellowship
• WHHB(FM), Holliston — Holliston High School
• WREA(LP), Holyoke — Radio Redentor
• WYOB(LP), Oak Bluffs — M&M Community Development
• WMWM(FM), Salem — Salem State College Board of Trustees
• WYAJ(FM), Sudbury — Sudbury Valley Broadcasting Foundation

The post 12 Stations in New England Risk License Expiration appeared first on Radio World.

According to a LinkedIn post by Wedel Software CEO Raoul Wedel, the Netherlands-based company is halting its operations in Russia immediately.

“Today’s news out of Tsjernihiv and Borodyanka is heartbreaking and are war crimes. No company, person or organization should financially support a regime deliberately killing innocent civilians,” he wrote.

According to Reuters, 47 people were killed in Russian airstrikes on Tsjernihiv, also transliterated as Chernihiv, on Thursday, Mar. 3. According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, civilian areas in Borodyanka were hit by Russian airstrikes and artillery shells the same day.

Reached via email, Wedel said that the software company, which develops traffic, billing, sales, and other back-office tools for media companies, has had a portion of its R&D efforts in Russia for the past eight year and before that those efforts were in Ukraine for five years. In his post, Wedel noted that the company has “20 or so” employees in Russia.

“We have employees in Donetsk, Rostov-on-Don, Moscow and St. Petersburg,” stated Wedel. “None of them support this war, and they are just trying to provide for their families.”

Wedel said the company does not expect any short-term problems from pulling out of Russia, but it will need to regroup its R&D efforts in the near future. “Even if the war would end soon, the country will remain unstable and sanctioned as long as Putin is in power,” Wedel said.

“The decision was on one hand heartbreaking; on the other hand, I feel we have no choice, and people must unite against these war crimes,” wrote Wedel. “I hope this story will make more companies consider cutting all their ties with Russia.”

Wedel Software is headquartered in The Hauge, Netherlands, and has offices in New York, San Francisco, Mexico City, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The post Wedel Software Suspends Operations in Russia appeared first on Radio World.

AEQ has released an application note about its Talent codec, which was introduced last year. It said users who update their firmware can enable fresh applications for this desktop stereo IP device.

For combining voice delivery with external audio, a user can use the codec’s Bluetooth connection and/or line-in to connect it to a smartphone or PC and mix audio from files, streaming, voice notes and pre-recorded clips. The audio from the mic is mixed with the phone or external audio before transmission. Local program audio can also be sent to the phone, PC or audio device for recording and mixing.

For live interviews, a user can call by phone and remotely interview another person while sending the program to the studio. “Thanks to the Bluetooth connection, Talent can be connected to a smartphone and make live interviews by GSM telephony or through applications such as Skype, WhatsApp, Zoom and others, which give a higher quality to the interviewee’s voice,” according to the company.

The voice of the interviewee is mixed with the Talent microphone and sent compressed by IP to the studio console. Simultaneously the mic connected to Talent “is sent clean to the phone to keep the conversation going, although the interviewee can also be given feedback from the studio.”

And for audio at events such as sports, commentary can be sent from the microphone and mixed with the PA audio of the event using the Bluetooth connection or an auxiliary input. “With the help of apps, you can even use your phone as an external microphone for an interview or binaurally capture ambient sound.”

The post AEQ Notes Applications for Talent appeared first on Radio World.

Online presentations can be a drag. But you can change that, says “Zoom expert” and veteran public relations executive Rosemary Ravinal.

“How you open can make a huge difference in your ability to hold attention and make your content memorable,” she says. “Your opening can determine how much interest the audience will show later. The first few sentences you speak must capture their attention and arouse enthusiasm and curiosity. You need to make them understand that what you are about to say is important to them because at the heart of any audience is their own self-interest.”

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Genelec expanded its Smart IP line of installation loudspeaker systems with the compact 4410 model and a new Smart IP Controller app.

“The 4410 joins the existing 4420 and 4430 Smart IP models to cater to an even wider range of applications and room sizes, while the free Controller app provides the end user with instant and intuitive control of key loudspeaker system functions including mute, volume control and power on/off, plus overall zone control,” the company stated.

The Smart IP loudspeaker range operates off a CAT cable and is compatible with Dante and AES67; power is provided via PoE and PoE+ Power-over-Ethernet formats.

[Check Out More Products at Radio World’s Products Section]

The active two-way 4410 is intended for smaller spaces. It supports up to eight audio channels in a stream with sample rates of 32–96 kHz and 16–24-bit resolution and delivers a frequency response of 67 Hz–40 kHz. It is available in black or white, with a line of mounting accessories.

The RJ45 connector provides access to the Smart IP Manager downloadable software tool for Windows 10 that allows the installer to configure rooms, zones, loudspeakers and audio channels.

Users can then download the free Smart IP Controller app onto their phone or tablet for control of mute, volume control and power on/off. The app discovers the loudspeakers on the network; varying levels of access to some or all of the zones can be assigned.

Send your new equipment news to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Genelec Expands Smart IP Family appeared first on Radio World.

If there was any doubt that Entravision Communications’ revenue is, today, being driven by its digital assets, it has officially been erased thanks to the company’s just-released Q4 2021 earnings report.

The company’s digital business, now global in scale, fueled growth in the final three months of 2021 and for the entire fiscal year. In fact, it comprises 73% of Entravision’s net revenue.

How did the company’s radio and television divisions, which superserve U.S. Hispanics consumers, perform?

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That’s a question MMTC’s President Emeritus and Senior Advisor David Honig, President/CEO Robert Branson and Tech and Telecom Policy Counsel Danielle Davis asked, among others pertaining to Equal Employment Opportunity, during a March 1 Zoom call with members of the FCC.

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A 3kw Class A FM serving the Fort Walton Beach and Destin areas of Northwest Florida is being sold by its court-appointed receiver.

The station is presently a part of “The Ticket Sports Network.”

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