Industry News

The author is sales and business development manager for Ampegon Power Electronics AG.

TURGI, Switzerland—Following this year’s IBC exhibition in Amsterdam in September it became clear that, despite our best efforts, many in the radio community are still in the dark about what has recently happened at Ampegon; a long-term supplier of transmitters and equipment to shortwave and medium-wave broadcasters worldwide.

Simon Keens

Rumors have abounded regarding the health of the company and we hope today to clarify the situation here

Late in 2018, Ampegon’s former investment capital owners decided to sell Ampegon. This had been planned since 2012 when they acquired the company following the restructuring of the Thomson group. Since you never completely fuel a car that you’re just about to sell, Ampegon was instructed to minimize further unnecessary investment in marketing, which is why customer visits and conference attendance fell to a historic low. This left the company to focus solely on completing projects prior to transfer of ownership.

In the end, the process of selling the company took longer than anticipated, meaning that some projects were delayed and left unfinished at the point of sale. Additionally, the former owners proceeded to sell the four parts of Ampegon separately: The shortwave transmitter, power supply and control system section in Switzerland, the antenna division in Ludwigshafen, the former Transradio medium-wave transmitter factory based in Berlin, and the industrial pulsed power supply specialists in Dortmund, all in Germany. This necessitated a break-up of the group, with assets from each company being sold off individually. It inevitably caused disruption to normal operations.

The shortwave transmitter business, along with the staff, tools, and stock material has now been bought by a new Swiss company: Ampegon Power Electronics AG. This company was formed specifically to complete the transaction with Ampegon AG, and took over all IP and technology rights, branding (including the name and logo of Ampegon), website and contact details.

Telephone numbers and email addresses for contacts in sales, engineering and purchasing are essentially unchanged. Today (at time of writing) we understand that Ampegon AG exists only as a company on paper, with practically all staff moved over to Ampegon Power Electronics AG. Similarly, staff and assets from Ampegon Antenna Systems GmbH and AM Broadcast GmbH have been sold to Cestron International and now continue their respective businesses under the name Elsyscom.

We hope that Ampegon Power Electronics and Cestron/Elsyscom work closely moving forward, once the necessary agreements are in place; providing the integrated transmitter/antenna systems that have been so successful in the past. Research Instruments has acquired the industrial pulsed power team in Dortmund, although this is not considered significant to the broadcast community.

A 4/4 rotatable directional antenna supplied by former Ampegon Antenna Systems GmbH of Ludwigshafen, Germany.

Unfortunately, a number of Ampegon’s customers were left with partially completed projects when our former owners withdrew their support in preparation for selling the company.

The company’s former staff — who remained in post even though they went unpaid for some months — regret the inconvenience caused, but are currently working hard under Ampegon Power Electronics to resolve the issues arising from being a new company, and not the legal successor of Ampegon AG. This has meant that contracts must be transf

erred, warranties reviewed and all other previous agreements with our customers and colleagues in the community must be annulled and renewed.

Looking ahead, however, the core skills of Ampegon remain in place to support the broadcast community over the coming years and decades. By and large Ampegon’s engineers and employees are the same people in the same place doing the same thing, but now with an industrial group behind them rather than a capital investment company. We are looking forward to continuing work with our friends and colleagues in the community as we look at new revolutions in broadcasting such as Digital Radio Mondiale, data communications and energy efficiency in the future.

Development of Ampegon’s second-generation Class A/B solid-state transmitters is practically complete, with production of 1.5 kW – 25 kW versions, capable of broadcasting between 3 MHz to 30 MHz, ramping up. A third-generation solution offering significantly greater energy efficiency is approaching prototype stage.

A shortwave transmitter supplied by Ampegon, now Ampegon Power Electronics AG, of Switzerland.

[Read: Solving the Medium-Wave Problem]

Simultaneously, Ampegon has developed control system upgrades to support users of older-generation tube transmitters having difficulty sourcing spares, and also to provide opportunities to retrofit older systems with new digital DRM broadcast capabilities. Of course, with touchscreen technology and innovative controls, such an upgrade makes these transmitters easier to use, simpler to maintain and safer than ever before. Of course, we are complimented by the requests to support over 20-year-old transmitters, since this is testimony to their reliability and value.

It is Ampegon’s hope to continue serving shortwave broadcasting long into the future. We see the unique capabilities of the technique, and the significant future opportunities presented by digital broadcasting with DRM. And who knows what other technologies may benefit from use of shortwave? Time will tell, and Ampegon intends to be there to support it.

For information, please see:

https://ampegon.com/download/pr_sale_assets_of_ampegon_ag_-_immediate_release.pdf

https://cestron.de/News

https://research-instruments.de/news-events/news-detail/13

 

 

The post What Exactly Happened to Ampegon? appeared first on Radio World.

As he gratefully accepted an award from New York State Broadcasters Association, Federal Communications Commissioner Michael O’Rielly noted — wryly — the irony of the moment.

The award, for New Yorker of the Year, was being bestowed, he said, on a government bureaucrat “who never spent one day working at a broadcast station; who has never been closer to the news industry than when he had a paper route.” Those were some of the remarks made by O’Rielly — undoubtedly to laughs from the room full of broadcasters — during a luncheon with the NYSBA during its Broadcast Leadership and Hall Of Fame Luncheon on Oct. 17 in New York City.

[Read: O’Rielly: First Amendment Rights Worthy of Strongest Defenses]

“You should know that, when David [Donovan, president of NYSBA] called to congratulate me for being selected as New York Broadcasters New Yorker of the Year, I suggested he was way off base,” O’Rielly told the crowd. “In my mind, I stand before you as someone completely unworthy of this honor. Let’s face it: you are looking at a short, overweight, government bureaucrat … whose claim to FCC fame includes successfully allowing broadcast stations to close up shop,” (albeit, he said, as part of the much-lauded elimination of the FCC’s long-standing Main Studio Rule).

“[While] there are far more deserving individuals from this amazing state,” he said. “But…not being on the selection committee myself, I happily accept this award.”

O’Rielly, a native New Yorker from the western part of the state, said broadcasting provided a “wonderful foundation of fulsome life experiences” that have been enormously valuable throughout his professional career. He was born and raised in a small city on the Erie Canal just outside Buffalo, N.Y., which is home to hearty, hardworking individuals that — as he said in his confirmation hearing back in 2013 — “accept the hard winter weather and lack of sun as a badge of honor.” All across the State of New York, O’Rielly said, people are smart, gritty realists who tend to tell it as it is. “Throw into that mix some challenging weather from time to time, and you have the formula for some really unique individuals that tend to do well in our fairly complex society,” he said.

Local broadcasting was a key part of his early education, he said, as local news, sports coverage and children’s programming fed some of his earliest interests. During his six-year-long tenure at the commission, O’Rielly said he has attempted to distinguish himself as someone who listens attentively to the problems and issues facing broadcasters and tries to find workable solutions, from local ones pirate radio to broader ones like the seismic shift in the video marketplace.

“Part of my focus has been to reduce the overall regulatory burden on broadcasters, as is demanded by the FCC,” he said. “This means eliminating any and all unnecessary requirements that impinge on broadcasters’ ability to serve their local communities. Your government should not mandate obligations that impose undue costs and require inordinate time to comply when a regulation has far outlived its usefulness in the modern marketplace.”

O’Rielly told the organization that the good news for the broadcast industry is that there are important and vibrant opportunities ahead. “While the competitive marketplace may change around you and technology may continue to present challenges, you provide real value to the American public,” he said.

For local radio in particular, “your role in the community has never been more important, especially with the demise of so many newspapers.”

He touched on personal tragedy during the event by saying that a recent death in his family of his brother-in-law put a somber note on his appearance at the event.

But he closed by saying that this award would only serve to make him “work harder, smarter and longer to ensure that the American people are getting their money’s worth from the FCC.”

As president of the NYSBA, Donovan said that O’Rielly stands apart as one of the outstanding commissioners in the history of the FCC.  “He studies an issue in depth and then makes a principled decision,” Donovan said, saying O’Rielly has been a leader on a number of issues affecting New York broadcasters, including his championing of increased enforcement against illegal pirate radio operations.

Prior to being nominated by Pres. Barack Obama in 2013, O’Rielly served in key positions in the U.S. Senate, including as policy advisor in the Office of the Senate Republican Whip and as a professional staff member on the Committee on Energy and Commerce for the House.

 

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On Oct. 17 Pakistan Broadcasting Corp. began DRM for FM test transmissions on a consumer receiver.

According to the DRM consortium, the public broadcaster is sending the DRM signal from its headquarters in Islamabad using a low power of 75 W. The signal reportedly reaches an area of between 5–10 kilometers around the city.

Pictured from left to right are Ghulam Mujaddid (PBC), Roman Afroz (HEDRA), Peter Timmons (GatesAir), Kamran Saeed and Nauman Jarral (PBC).

Broadcasting on 101.6 MHz and pushing from a single FM transmitter, the receiver auto tunes into three services — FM101 (entertainment), Dhanak (music) and Saut-ul-quran (religious). Additional text information including Journaline is also available.

For the trial, the PBC is using a GatesAir 1 kW Flexiva transmitter and Exgine card; an RF Mondial DRM Content Server and DRM+ professional receiver; a Label Italy Bay antenna system; and a Gospell consumer DRM receiver.

“The Gospell receiver, which originally worked on AM is now working on FM too,” noted DRM Chair Ruxandra Obreja. “This is a great step forward as it shows there can also be a commercial solution for DRM in FM. A similar test, which started this summer and continues in St. Petersburg, Russia, is also using a Gospell receiver.”

[Read: Solving the Medium-Wave Problem]

Hedra Technology, Fraunhofer IIS and the DRM international Consortium are collaborating on the project, which is managed by PBC specialists Kamran Saeed, director engineering; Ali Zia Abbasi, controller engineering and chairman DRM steering committee; Ghulam Mujaddid, engineering manager and DRM steering committee member; and Yasir Mustafa, engineering manager and DRM steering committee member.

DRM adds that in addition to Russia, Pakistan joins Indonesia and South Africa. Both of these countries have recently demonstrated DRM in the FM band as well.

 

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Technical broadcast operator BCAST has debuted a new platform that is meant to help small and medium broadcasters implement the DAB+ standard, named DABCAST.

DABCAST supports the range of functionalities needed for digital radio creation from studio to broadcasting. This is done through its Virtual Studio web app, where multimedia content can be created and managed.

The cloud application MUX processes the radio streams and converts them into the appropriate format for DAB+; while the TX transmitter, a physical device that receives signal from the cloud, modulates it for final broadcast. The signal from the air is then analyzed by the DAB+ monitoring probe.

More information about DABCAST can be found here.

 

 

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DABCAST Designed to Simplify DAB+ Implementation appeared first on Radio World.

Software developer and digital audio hardware maker Steinberg is expanding its line of portable and rackmountable digital audio interfaces with the UR-C line of USB C interfaces.

The UR-C family will initially offer two- (UR22C) and four-preamp (UR44C) models with a rackmountable eight-preamp (UR816C) model following. There’s also a “Recording Pack” bundle featuring the UR22C.

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

All models offer 32-bit/192 kHz conversion, 48V phantom power, Neutrik analog combo connectors, Hi-Z switch, MIDI I/O, and software including REV-X Reverb, Channel Strip, Guitar Amp Classics, dspMixFx, Cubase AI and Cubasis LE. All are Windows-, Mac- and iOS-compatible.

The UR816C also offers word clock ADAT I/O for those with legacy equipment.

There is also a UR22C Recording Pack bundle version featuring all of the previously listed plus the ST-M01 condenser microphone (with cable) and ST-H01 headphones along with WaveLab LE software.

UR22C: $239; UR44C: $439; UR816C: $789; and UR22C Recording Pack: $439.

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“Best of Show Up Close” is a series about participants in Radio World’s annual Best of Show at NAB Awards program.

Broadcast Partners nominated Smart Processing, a module of the company’s Smart Radio. SmartRadio is a cloud-based radio automation platform. We asked Rene van de Kolk, manager, R&D, Broadcast Partners, to explain.

Radio World: Smart Processing was a feature of your booth at NAB. For those who couldn’t attend, what is the product and what are its targeted uses?

Rene van de Kolk: Smart Processing provides three different cloud-based modulation-processing solutions: Basic, Medium and High-End. Smart Processing uses Orban back-end software solutions for this.

Smart Processing is a part of Broadcast Partners’ SmartRadio platform, and can be used in this full cloud- and web-based platform by integrating with the Smart Playout possibilities by using AoIP protocols. Smart Processing is hybrid, and thus also standalone, available outside the SmartRadio platform and can easily be connected with other existing playout services.

[Read: Best of Show Up Close: MaxxKonnect Wireless]

Smart Processing delivers excellent Orban modulation presets and a unique sound, with all of the presets that Orban has been offering the market or years.

Smart Processing is for the increasing online and digital radio market. Media companies all over the world are launching multiple subchannels as additions to their main brand. These can be for shorter periods or select certain seasonal theme such as summer, Christmas or Valentine’s Day or used for longer periods. Branded radio channels can be launched easily without investing in hardware units or upgrading server farms. So targeted users are media companies, radio stations and publishers who launch multiple online or digital (DAB+) radio stations.

RW: You describe SmartRadio as “radio as a service.” How does it differ from other offerings in this product class?

Van de Kolk: SmartRadio is 100% cloud- and web-based. All functionality can be used in a Chrome browser. Creating and producing content can be done easily, anywhere, anytime or any place. The only requirement is connectivity. SmartRadio is a beginning-to-end solution: using Smart Database with multiple metadata options that can be used for playout, cloud-based voice tracking, cloud-based multitrack editing without delay and pushed through Smart Processing to be published on multiple platforms online or digital radio, for example.

For online, the best CDN network from the Netherlands is fully integrated. In addition, the specially developed headend for DAB+ services, aXemble, is as-a-service available in SmartRadio. With these services our goal is to help existing and new media-organisations to innovate without the need of heavy investment. All services are available as-a-service with specific pricing per module. For the past two years, we developed this platform with eight developers at Broadcast Partners.

At NAB, IBC, Salon de Radio and Radiodays Europe we retrieved feedback from the market to develop customized solutions. This is possible because all services (also a full Smart Scheduler, or Smart Commercial Scheduler) are developed by thinking in micro-services terms. This means hybrid and flexible development in the most modern program code-language. Connections with other innovative parties is possible by using our API. In SmartRadio, connections with VMix, Beats Newsportal and Radio Manager are already made.

RW: What does SmartRadio cost? Is it available now?

Van de Kolk: SmartRadio is fully hybrid and can be used in all preferred setups. Licenses can be used as-a-service per month/radio channel and are customizable for one channel for one month in an existing cloud environment. This includes the Smart Database (including cloud-and web-based metadata-editor), Smart-Format Scheduler and Smart Non Stop Player (including four-channel cloud- and web-based editor). SmartRadio is available in public cloud-based environments but can also be installed in private cloud-based environments. All preferred connections and add-ons for services will increase the monthly fee.

Smart Processing, is also available. Licensing/pricing is based on an as-a-service model. For one radio station you pay the required service fee per month based on your preferences.

RW: More generally, what do you see as the most important trends or changes happening these days in how broadcasters are using the cloud?

Van de Kolk: Using AoIP solutions from companies such as Lawo, Ravenna, Telos Alliance and Dante [Audinate] but also virtualized complete productions environments. That’s also why our software-defined solutions are integrated in the different mixing console platforms, to provide a full screen-based user-experience in the future. By publishing multichannel, on different platforms, hybrid software solutions are important and are more flexible in terms of updates than ever before in the past. Relevant data from listeners is key if you want to stay relevant in the future, so collecting data and receiving clear insights is also a main trend, in my opinion.

 RW: What else should we know about this product or your company’s recent offerings?

Van de Kolk: Different modules are available. Innovation can therefore be done in different projects or trajectories. Our Smart Scheduler, is a full option format planner and can be connected to all big existing solutions when they are able to connect on API. A very impressive web-based user-experience in defining your format is possible.

The Future Best of Show Awards program honors and helps promote outstanding new products exhibited at industry conventions like the spring NAB Show. Exhibitors pay a fee to enter; not all entries win. Watch for more coverage of participating products soon. To learn about all of the nominees and winners, read the 2019 Best of Show Program Guide.

 

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Marshall’s microphone and accessories division MXL has packaged together some of its offerings into a podcasting bundle.

Called APS Podcasting Bundle, it consists of MXL’s BCD-1 dynamic broadcast microphone; its companion BCD-Stand; and the Mic Mate Pro XLR-USB digital audio interface/adaptor.

The heart of the bundle is the top-address BCD-1 microphone. It has a dynamic element, internal shockmount and tuned grille to combat unwanted noises. Its design aims to also have high side noise rejection.

The Mic Mate Pro offers gain and headphone controls with 16-bit 44.1/48 kHz conversion.

MXL Microphones Sales Director Trevor Fedele said, “In the last decade, podcasts have seen a huge surge in popularity, and our APS Podcasting Bundle provides the quality tools needed for those in this market. … With the creation of the APS Podcasting Bundle, studio-quality broadcasting technology is now within the reach of every recording enthusiast.”

 

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Eugenio Lateana, head of research and development for EuroDAB Italia (left); Federica Gentile, RTL 102.5 presenter (center); and Mary Hockaday, controller of BBC World Service English, announce the Italian launch of BBC World Service on the EuroDAB Italia multiplex.

MILAN — BBC World Service and EuroDAB Italia have entered into an agreement to broadcast the global network’s rich mix of BBC News, documentaries, business, sports, arts and science programs as a new service included in EuroDAB Italia’s DAB+ multiplex.

On Oct 9, Mary Hockaday, controller of BBC World Service English, and Lorenzo Suraci, president of EuroDAB Italia, officially launched the new service and presented the vision behind this agreement and their expectations for the future.

TRUSTED BRANDS

Mary Hockaday (left) and Lorenzo Suraci, EuroDAB Italia present, presented the vision behind the new agreement and their future expectations.

Although about 30% of Italians can speak some English, including a large part of the younger generation, no English-speaking service is at present broadcast in Italy on regular basis.

“We live in a world with an infinite number of information sources and making a choice among those sources often makes us feel confused,” Hockaday said. “It’s wonderful to have such a diversity, but in this surrounding noise actually many people seek trusted brands, and they seek media and information they can trust.”

According to Hockaday, trust is at the heart of what BBC and BBC World Service can offer, including “accurate and impartial means and good information.”

In a world where everyone can have on his or her smartphone a multitude of headlines and news from all over the world and from as many different sources, Hockaday emphasized how hard the BBC World Service works to provide their listeners with a rich editorial mix with news but also information on business, sports, culture, technology, politics and stories.

DIGITAL CAPABILITY

The BBC World Service logo displayed on a visual-capable DAB receiver tuned to the EuroDAB Italia multiplex.

“Whenever you turn on the radio, you will always find something engaging, informing, delighting and feeding curiosity within our offer ,” she concluded.

“We are very proud that BBC World Service choose the EuroDAB digital network to broadcast its content in Italy,” added Suraci. “It improves and extends the offer of the contents of our bouquet and helps the radio, in general, in an increasingly global world.”

DAB+ broadcasts are already available to 80% of Italians and that percentage is set to grow due to the Italian legislative requirement for all radios sold in Italy from Jan. 1 2020 to have digital capability.

[Read: Does 5G Make Sense for Radio?]

In Italy, 46% of new cars are now sold with DAB+ as standard, and according to the Italian media regulator AGCOM, radio is the second most frequently used media after television, while 68% of the population listens to radio for an average of 2.5 hours per day.

 

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RW Editor in Chief Paul McLane prepares for his time in the almost-Broadway lights with his fellow actors, Robert Alvey as Mark Twain and P.J. Ochlan as Nikola Tesla. They’ll be appearing in a special performance of “An Intimate Evening with Tesla and Twain” for an AES Show audience, Wednesday.

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Would you like to get an early start on one of the industry’s biggest annual trade shows? Come along for a free webinar from Radio World International, hosted by editors Marguerite Clark and Paul McLane, on Sept. 4 at 3:30 p.m. CET.

Marguerite and Paul will provide a peek at new products they expect to create buzz; explore the newest digital radio sessions; and share what they’re hearing from our industry’s leaders about important tech developments and standards.

IBC is a huge and fabulous event, but it can also be daunting. With more than 55,000 attendees expected and more than 1,700 exhibitors covering 15 halls, the job of getting the most out of IBC2019 requires a lot of planning. Radio World International will help you learn about key pieces and products the show selected with the radio reader in mind.

The webinar was sponsored by: Comrex, Digigram, ENCO, GatesAir, Rohde & Schwarz, StreamGuys, The Telos Alliance, Veritone and Wheatstone.

NOW AVAILABLE HERE ON DEMAND

 

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