Industry News

ViacomCBS’s BET unit has formally launched BET Studios, with a pledge of offering equity ownership for Black content creators.

The principal partners are Kenya Barris, Rashida Jones and Aaron Rahsaan Thomas.

Barris is an award-winning writer, producer, and director who created the “ish” multiseries franchise (Black-ish, Grown-ish and Mixed-ish). Jones is an actress, director, writer, and filmmaker, known for her appearances on “The Office” and in the 2010 feature film “The Social Network.”

Thomas is a television, film screenwriter and producer who has worked on numerous CBS TV series.

“The demand for premium content from Black creators has accelerated dramatically as a result of both the rapidly changing media and social landscapes. BET, with our 40-year legacy of celebrating Black culture, and the full power of the ViacomCBS ecosystem—is uniquely positioned to service this demand,” said BET President Scott Mills. “As a company with its origin in Black entrepreneurship, we are incredibly excited to create the first major studio to provide Black creators with ownership, creative freedom and the unparalleled partnership and support of BET.”

BET Studios will be headed by Aisha Summers Burke, who was recently appointed EVP/GM of the new venture.

Audacy and Cumulus Media struck a content distribution partnership.

They said Cumulus’s 413 radio stations and family of podcasts will be available on the Audacy digital platform.

The announcement was made by Larry Linietsky, senior vice president of digital operations and business development and Cumulus, and Corey Podolsky, VP of business development for Audacy.

Podolsky said the addition of Cumulus radio stations “enhances and bolsters Audacy’s position as the fastest growing digital platform for radio listeners” and that Audacy “looks forward to building on this initial partnership with Cumulus.”

The Audacy app has about 2,000 stations including Audacy’s own 230 or so, plus podcasts and other programming.

The post Cumulus Stations Join Audacy App appeared first on Radio World.

Barix introduced the first in a new set of Exstreamer products, the Exstreamer M400 IP audio decoder.

It says the existing line of Exstreamer AoIP codecs are popular for radio broadcast applications including studio-to-transmitter links, studio-to-studio links and remote contribution, and that the new hardware offers a more modern, extensible version with more support for current standards.

The announcement was made by Product Manager Davide Nossa, who said the platform provides “more processing power, enhanced security features and greater extensibility, alongside expanded support for audio formats and technology standards including Opus and AES67.”

Features include stereo, line-level, analog audio output with RCA-type connections. It can decode streams in MP3, AAC-HE, FLAC, PCM, Opus and Ogg Vorbis formats.

AES67 support enables the decoder to be configured as a dedicated AES67 receiver and decoder, enabling integration into AES67-based AoIP networks and interoperability with Dante-compatible devices.

“The Exstreamer M400 incorporates the full AES67 interoperability guidelines including RTP audio delivery, multicast addressing and PTP-based synchronization with a separate master clock device,” Barix said.

“Supported discovery methods include SAP (Session Announcement Protocol), mDNS (multicast DNS) and RTSP, enabling the decoder to automatically identify and list available streams from Dante, Ravenna and other audio over IP solutions that use these protocols. SDP (Session Description Protocol) information can also be manually inserted for interoperability with third-party solutions that do not support these standards.”

It said the Linux-based IPAM 400 audio module provides significantly higher processing power and a more programmable, software-driven architecture that allows easier expansion, prototyping and customization. “A larger buffer size and advanced buffer management technology can be configured to further bolster the Exstreamer M400’s resilience to network performance disruptions in applications where minimizing latency is not critical.”

It also cited expanded support for IT security standards, IPV6 and internal audio file storage with externally triggered playback.

The post Barix Has New Exstreamer M400 IP Audio Decoder appeared first on Radio World.

With the decision on Sept. 15 by the National Association of Broadcasters to cancel the 2021 NAB Show, RBR+TVBR welcomes vendors who planned on hosting exhibit booths to share their product announcements with us for publication in RBR.com and our Weekly Tech Roundup.

Exstreamer audio over IP codecs from Barix are widely considering for radio broadcasters’ technical infrastructures, with its applications ranging from studio-to-transmitter (STL) and studio-to-studio (SSL) links to remote contribution from the field.

Now, Barix has launched the Exstreamer M400 IP audio decoder, the first model in a new generation of Exstreamer solutions.

“Radio broadcasters large and small have long depended on the robust reliability, outstanding audio quality, and rich feature set of our previous Exstreamer products for their critical audio transport requirements,” said Davide Nossa, Product Manager at Barix. “The Exstreamer M400 delivers these benefits on a next-generation hardware platform with more processing power, enhanced security features, and greater extensibility, alongside expanded support for audio formats and technology standards including Opus and AES67.”

The Exstreamer M400 features stereo, line-level, analog audio output with RCA-type connections and can decode streams in MP3, AAC-HE, FLAC, PCM, Opus, and Ogg Vorbis formats. Newly added AES67 support enables the Exstreamer M400 to instead be configured as a dedicated AES67 receiver and decoder, enabling seamless integration into AES67-based audio-over-IP networks plus interoperability with Dante-compatible devices. The Exstreamer M400 incorporates the full AES67 interoperability guidelines including RTP audio delivery, multicast addressing, and PTP-based synchronization with a separate master clock device. Supported discovery methods include SAP (Session Announcement Protocol), mDNS (multicast DNS), and RTSP, enabling the decoder to automatically identify and list available streams from Dante, Ravenna, and other audio over IP solutions that use these protocols. SDP (Session Description Protocol) information can also be manually inserted for interoperability with third-party solutions that do not support these standards.

Powered by Barix’s high-performance, Linux-based IPAM 400 audio module, the Exstreamer M400 features significantly higher processing power than earlier Exstreamer models and a more programmable, software-driven architecture that enables easier expansion, rapid prototyping, and greater customization. A larger buffer size and advanced buffer management technology can be configured to further bolster the Exstreamer M400’s resilience to network performance disruptions in applications where minimizing latency is not critical.

Expanded support for IT security standards includes HTTPS: support for audio streams and the web-based management interface, plus secure, encrypted SIP communication links using TLS and SRTP. Other new features relative to earlier Exstreamer models include IPV6 support and internal audio file storage with externally triggered playback.

The Exstreamer M400’s Linux-based architecture enables extensive upgradability, supporting Barix’s mission of continually enhancing its products while enabling Barix engineers to quickly customize functionality to meet specific customer project requirements. A modern API is planned for future release for developers, replacing previous Exstreamer models’ older CGI control specification as part of Barix’s commitment to support the latest technology standards.

The Exstreamer M400 with AES67 support is now shipping.

Brad Smith, the Founder/CEO of Simplecast, is the new Head of Podcast Products for SiriusXM.

Simplecast was acquired by SiriusXM in 2020.

In the newly created role, Smith and his team will be responsible for SiriusXM’s podcast product strategy across all of its owned platforms – including SiriusXM, Pandora, and Stitcher — for both creators and listeners.

The Audio Engineering Society has cancelled its AES Vegas 2021 event.

“Due to the evolving realities of the COVID pandemic, the NAB announced its decision to cancel the upcoming in-person Las Vegas convention,” it stated in an announcement.

“The AES convention was collocated with the NAB Show, and following the NAB announcement, the AES will regrettably cancel the in-person AES Show Las Vegas 2021, planned for October 10–13.

“The AES Fall Online program will proceed, with events taking place online between October 16–31, including a broadly focused technical program October 20–23. … Further information is forthcoming for those who have registered for the in-person convention, including converting that registration to experience the online program.”

AES apologized for the change “but we hope you understand that it was not feasible to continue as planned.”

The post AES Show 2021 Is Off After Cancellation of NAB Show appeared first on Radio World.

A female client in Colombia, a senior insurance executive, recently told veteran PR executive and virtual meeting expert Rosemary Ravinal that she wears her favorite pearl necklace and a silk blouse every time she fires up her video to join a meeting.

Another mid-level manager in healthcare with a dozen direct reports throughout Latin America said she dresses from head to toe for Zoom as if she were back at the office.

A male CEO in fintech wears a shirt and tie without fail to every Teams call.

“All three recognize that what they wear brings their confidence and executive presence to another level,” Ravinal notes in this column. “Large numbers of office workers continue to work remotely with video conferencing at the heart of the workday.  So, the image you project can be critical to your success.”

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With all eyes set on a big Q4 and 2022, Netflix Inc. has revealed when it will post its third quarter 2021 results and business outlook on its investor relations website.

With its shares trading close to $583 per share, Netflix is trading at near record-levels — still. And, that’s not likely to slow down.

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Nexstar Digital has given birth to a proprietary data-driven audience platform that gives advertisers “the ability to seamlessly purchase digital and linear advertising across Nexstar’s network of 199 owned or operated television stations, 120 local web sites and 284 local news and weather mobile apps.”

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MIAMI — A subscription streaming service that lets you watch live and on-demand TV from 85+ top networks has just added Univision, UniMás and Galavisión to its lineup — giving it a huge boost in its appeal to Spanish-speaking TV consumers.

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