Industry News

WASHINGTON, D.C. — PILOT, the innovation initiative of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), has announced two winners of the 2021 PILOT Innovation Challenge. Winners will receive relevant mentorship, feedback, travel support and exhibit space at the 2021 NAB Show, held October 9-13 in Las Vegas.

Individuals, companies, academic institutions and nonprofit organizations submitted applications to address the challenge focus areas which included edge technologies, broadcast journalism and in-vehicle technologies.

This year’s winners are as follows:

BeamOn – Beam Dynamics. BeamOn is a cloud-based product intelligence platform for broadcast stations. The platform bridges the communication barrier between product owners and manufacturers to help broadcast studios reduce costly downtime on set and extend equipment life cycles.

Reinventing Local TV News: Prioritizing Animation and Graphics – Northeastern University. Researchers at Northeastern have shown that animation and advanced graphics are effective ways to enhance broadcast journalism. Northeastern University’s team provides research data, a roadmap, expertise and ready-to-use templates for animations and graphics.

“We are delighted by this year’s Innovation Challenge submissions offering creative proposals for the broadcast industry,” said PILOT Executive Director John Clark. “The winning entries offered solutions that broadcast stations can immediately act upon and put into use right now. We look forward to bringing these award winners to Las Vegas and showcasing their innovative ideas at NAB Show.”

The Innovation Challenge is one in a series of PILOT initiatives that each support a facet of the full innovation cycle, including the ideation, validation and incubation of media and technology-focused ideas.

Cleanfeed, a collaboration tool for high definition, live audio and recording in a browser, is now offering enhanced studio tools to the marketplace.

The U.K.-based company says this amounts to improving the service for podcasters and broadcasters on a global level.

Cleanfeed’s products fulfill the need to broadcast or record in high-definition audio, straight from a browser.

There are enhancements to the existing Clips feature, and a new Player for longer cuts of audio.

The tools give podcasters and broadcasters the functionality of a professional radio studio, straight out of their laptop. Features now give users the opportunity to give their listeners and guests a finished production experience, including the ability to play intro and background music, host a panel show or quiz with sound effects, review music, have guests comment on interviews or even play voxes from the public.

Marc Bakos, co-founder of Cleanfeed, comments, “As business owners we are continually striving to take feedback directly from our users, as well as industry professionals, to ensure we are servicing our community with the best user experience possible. The new enhanced tools really reinforce that creativity is only ever limited by our imagination and we are excited about the possibilities that these features open for everyone who uses them.”

— RBR+TVBR European News Desk, in Kaiserslautern, Germany.

Blonder Tongue Laboratories, a designer and manufacturer of telecommunications, fiber optic, video and data delivery technologies, has unveiled the updated Aircaster AQT8 series of transmodulators – including the Aircaster AQT8-QAM/IP and Aircaster AQT8-IP.

The company calls them “a comprehensive and flexible toolset to create custom IP and QAM channel lineups from any ATSC 1.0 off-air or QAM content source.”

The solution, it says, “is ideal for facilities looking to incorporate off-air video programming without paying additional retransmission fees for local cable or satellite services.”

Ted Grauch, President and CEO of Blonder Tongue Laboratories, notes, “Until now, off-air to digital rebroadcasting equipment have been single use or only offer one-to-one signal conversion. Creating new channel lineups as well as correcting channel metadata to be fully standards compliant has required a labyrinth of converters, splitters, amplifiers and more The Aircaster AQT8 reimagines what off-air rebroadcasting equipment can do in a single compact unit, enabling custom lineups of up to 64 channels, accessible to thousands of residential homes in the case of service operators, or hundreds of rooms and TV sets for hospitality, institutional and SMB use cases. It effortlessly creates and multiplexes a complete digital media service, while eliminating unnecessary fees and equipment.”

The Aircaster AQT8 transmodulators are ideal for any fiber optic or cable service operator as well as video integrators with small- and medium-sized business (SMBs) customers. Requiring 1 RU, the device can accept up to 8 ATSC 1.0 off-air or QAM sources, and simultaneously output a series of either Single Program Transport Streams (SPTS) and/or Multi-Program Transport Stream (MPTS), creating both a custom IP feed and/or QAM transmissions.

Featuring an internal active splitter, the Aircaster AQT8 enables users to create a full lineup of up to 64 channels and distribute them across a facility, eliminating the need for countless digital converters, external splitters, and legacy one-to-one solutions.

Additionally, Aircaster AQT8 includes the following features:

· Pass Through Mode, which directly maps the demodulated RF port content in MPTS format to IP output

· Encrypted QAM input and IP/QAM output allows for MPTS or SPTS formats while preserving the source MPEG tables (PAT, PMT, PSIP, VCT, and MGT)

· Virtual channel mapping via a simple interface, where users can change the packet identifier (PID), program number short name, major/minor channel (PSIP) and overall channel lineup

· Signal testing and GUI-based remote monitoring and control via any web browser can greatly improve quality while drastically reducing truck rolls

· Emergency Alert System (EAS) control to override standard inputs and distribute an alert signal to an entire MDU facility

For more information, please visit: https://www.blondertongue.com/.

The U.S.-based NGO Developing Radio Partners is playing a crucial role in socioeconomic development in several African countries by using local radio to address their communities’ greatest needs.

In Malawi, DRP is closing the knowledge and information gap on sexual reproductive health with a project that helps young people know their health rights. The project, supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development, has trained more than 400 young people ages 14 to 19 to produce weekly radio programs on diverse topics related to reproductive health.

The project is aimed at making sure boys and girls understand their health rights and are aware of the reproductive health services that are available to them. DRP’s project includes partnerships with nine community-based radio stations that are focusing their weekly radio programs and public service announcements (PSAs) on topics aimed at ending child marriage and reducing rates of teen pregnancy, HIV infections and COVID-19.

The programs also encourage girls and boys to stay in school and complete their education.

In Burkina Faso, DRP trained community health workers and radio reporters to produce a weekly program that was broadcast by a community-based radio station. They believed that if local health workers delivered messages about COVID-19, the communities would pay attention and take preventive measures.

Charles Rice, DRP president and chief executive officer, says radio is how most people in Malawi and Burkina Faso get their news and information.

Internet is often nonexistent or very limited in rural areas, and television can be expensive and require electricity. Radio, on the other hand, is relatively inexpensive, and a radio set can be powered by batteries or by solar.

“We have found radio to be the best option to reach a lot of people all at once. In Malawi, for instance, our potential listening audience among the nine radio stations we work with is about 6.5 million people,” Rice said.

“We work with community radio stations because they are part of the community; they are operated by the community. They are often trusted, and the stations we work with often focus on stories that affect the community – whether it’s related to farming, public health or the environment.”

Chiko Moyo, DRP’s coordinator and trainer in Malawi, works directly with the mentors, the youth reporters and the radio listening clubs at the nine partner radio stations.

“Just as an example, the youth are taught how to hold public officers accountable and they see the fruits that come out of such actions; public funds for SRH (sexual and reproductive health) are put to good use, youth arise to monitor how officers are conducting youth friendly health services, and many other things that help communities to be served better,” Moyo explains.

DRP conducts trainings on a monthly basis and sends weekly tip sheets to help youth reporters focus on specific topics for their weekly programs and PSAs. The Weekly Bulletin is researched, written and fact-checked in Malawi; it provides background on specific issues as well as questions for the reporters to use in their programs and contact details for people to interview.

“Station partners have told us that they rely on these bulletins because they are accurate and timely — and we believe this is why their weekly radio programs are popular. Listeners know that the information they are hearing is accurate” said Mercy Malikwa, who writes the Weekly Bulletin.

DRP has been producing the Weekly Bulletin on sexual reproductive health since May 2017. It started a special weekly bulletin on COVID-19 in March 2020 and it is still being produced.

The radio programs, both in Malawi and Burkina Faso, have proven to be popular with listeners as well as health officials.

“The project has tremendously improved youth reproductive health awareness and rights in the sense that we have better information dissemination through radio, and that has improved the lives of youth and changed their behavior,” said Jossein Chazala, the Youth Friendly Health Services Coordinator in Malawi’s Nkhotakota District.

In Burkina Faso, the radio program led to the creation of a health association covering 16 villages in the listening area; it comprises community leaders and local health workers who work closely with villagers to ensure everyone gets regular health checks and observes COVID-19 preventive measures.

The Malawi stations often use peer-to-peer storytelling to change behavior, and that was dramatically illustrative for Florence Deusi, who was a child bride at 16 but says the weekly youth program on her local station (Mudzi Wathu Community Radio in Mchinji in central Malawi) helped her escape her illegal marriage to a much older man.

“Whenever I was alone I could tune in to the youth program and that’s where I gathered courage to get out of the mess that I was in.”

Now 19, Florence has told her story on the program, “and I encourage girls who are in situations like me to get out of such marriages and go back to school.”

The Malawi stations have other notable successes, including a yearlong campaign by youth reporters at Chirundu Community Radio in Nkhata Bay to have an abandoned hospital converted into a vocational school teaching such skills as bricklaying, welding, and plumbing.

Also, data tracked by DRP and the stations suggests that programs and PSAs at the Mchinji station from January to March 2021 led to an eight-fold increase in the number of young people seeking HIV testing and counseling services. The station manager launched the programs after noticing a huge drop in visits related to HIV testing between October and December 2020.

After Gaka FM in Nsanje in southern Malawi began partnering with DRP in January 2021, visits to the local youth health clinic climbed 81% between January and March compared to figures from July-December 2020.

Data from the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare also suggest that there is correlation between the reduction in child marriages and the radio programs and PSAs produced by DRP-partner stations.

“Based on the data, we believe the radio programs are having a significant impact by reducing child marriages in the districts where we work and increasing the number of COVID-19 vaccinations in those districts where DRP is operating” Rice said.

The author, a public policy analyst, has served as a consultant with the United Nations and the World Bank. He has authored and coauthored numerous books and is a TEDx fellow.

The post Developing Radio Partners Makes a Difference in Africa appeared first on Radio World.

For our readers in the northern hemisphere, fall community sporting events are about to find their way onto many stations.

Here’s a neat project put together by Frank Hertel, principal with Newman-Kees RF Measurements and Engineering, ideal for your remote broadcasts.

When you are broadcasting from a crowded playing field or stadium, crowd noise may make it hard for your listeners to hear the announcer. What you need is an inexpensive and easy way to attenuate the crowd noise.

[Check Out More of Workbench Here]

Frank’s noise-canceling mic is a good solution. By connecting two mics out of phase and using a modified mating connector, you cancel out crowd noise picked up by both mics, which are 180 degrees opposed. The talent mic is clear, with the crowd noise greatly attenuated.

Frank’s idea was the result of a conversation with fellow engineer Phil Bailey around their workbench, preparing for the Evansville Fall Festival Parade, rumored to be only second in size and attendance to Mardi Gras.

The parade was less than a week away and the engineers needed a fix to control the crowd noise. Although they had tried several “noise canceling” microphones, the noise was still distracting.

As they talked, Phil recalled an incident that happened during the taping of a TV show. An intern had wired up a new microphone cable out of phase, with Pins 2 and 3 reversed on one end of the new cable.

Three guests were sitting alongside one another. A microphone, properly phased, was placed between the first and second guest. The out-of-phase mic was placed between the second and third guests. As a result, the guest in the middle was picked up by both mics.

But with one of them out of phase, the audio of the middle guest was subtracted from the combined mix. In this situation, noise cancellation was undesired, so they had to stop taping to fix the problem.

But the TV show’s wiring mistake became the fall festival’s crowd noise solution.

In use, Frank selected two Electro-Voice 635A omnidirectional mics. Imagine your reporter holding the top microphone within about 2 or 3 inches of their mouth, while the bottom microphone is pointing away from the mouth. Crowd noise is picked up equally by each 635A mic, thus the crowd noise is suppressed — virtually canceled!

You can experiment with pattern types; Frank finds that it works best with identical omnidirectionals, and the 635As are inexpensive, under $150 each.

The first photo shows the parts you’ll need to construct this project. Once you’ve gathered them, follow Frank’s step-by-step instructions.

Email me to let our readers know how well this works out for you during the upcoming sports season.

John Bisset, CPBE, has more than 50 years of broadcast engineering experience. He handles western U.S. radio sales for the Telos Alliance and is a past recipient of the SBE’s Educator of the Year Award.
Workbench submissions are encouraged and qualify toward SBE recertification. Email johnpbisset@gmail.com. 

The post Workbench: A Noise-Canceling Mic for Sports Remotes appeared first on Radio World.

“Just as the introduction of digital radio improved usage of RDS, the introduction of hybrid radio will lead to better usage by broadcasters of digital radio in general, and metadata in particular.”

That’s the opinion of David Layer, the vice president of advanced engineering at the National Association of Broadcasters.

Writing in Radio World’s ebook “Trends in Digital Radio 2021,” Layer says the technologies of hybrid radio and its cousin, audio streaming to computers, smartphones and tablets, are poised to bring new features and functionality to radio, just as digital radio did back in the 2000s. 

“Interactivity, non-linear (on-demand) content and rich metadata are going to be what consumers will learn to expect.”

He thinks newer products and services developed to support hybrid radio will support digital radio as well, and that broadcasters will take advantage of this dual capability. 

“As has happened before, consumer expectations will once again be raised (this time by hybrid radio) and as broadcasters respond they will again, or maybe for the first time, recognize the value digital radio can bring to their services.”

Layer believes the stakes are higher than ever for radio broadcasters, as the proliferation of mobile broadband has increased consumer choice in audio services. 

“It’s important for all broadcasters to embrace the use of metadata so that as consumers scan the terrestrial radio dial, what they see is as useful and compelling as when they scan their favorite streaming audio service or satellite radio,” he concluded. 

“Today that is not the case; but if history repeats itself, the introduction of hybrid radio will result not just in support by broadcasters for hybrid services, but better support for digital radio, too.”

Our ebook provides other opinions about the state of global digital radio from thought leaders at organizations like WorldDAB, Digital Radio Mondiale, RadioDNS, Commercial Radio Australia, the European Broadcasting Union, the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, Audi, Xperi, 2wcom, Digital Radio UK and Nautel.

Read it for free at radioworld.com/ebooks.

The post Will the History of RDS Repeat Itself for Digital Radio? appeared first on Radio World.

iHeartMedia Panama City, located in the Florida Panhandle, is no stranger to hurricane goings-on.

Sympathizing with the people of New Orleans, the broadcast cluster set about on Operation Storm Relief to collect needed items, along with some money in the wake of Hurricane Ida.

[Read: Big Louisiana Radio Tower Comes Down in Ida]

When all is collected, the denizens of the Crescent City will receive three truckloads, the semi variety, of goods, food and water.

Items requested, other than nonperishable food, include everything from shampoo, to hand-operated can openers, baby products and bedding. Clothing is frowned upon though underwear and socks are requested.

iHeartMedia Panama City includes WEBZ(FM), WFLA(FM), WFSY(FM) and WPAP(FM).

The post iHeart Panama City Responds to Hurricane Ida appeared first on Radio World.

This is one in a series of interviews with companies planning to exhibit at the 2021 NAB Show in October.

Gregory Mercier is director, product marketing and pre/post sales support for WorldCast Group.

Radio World: What will be your top news or theme?

Gregory Mercier: We are glad to share many exciting developments this year. Our strategy since the pandemic is to support our customers and the industry to adapt to this new environment.

KYBIO, our monitoring and control software, has been improved with the launch the V4. Available on-premises or as a SaaS option, KYBIO is now fully agnostic for all communication protocols used within the media industry. Users also benefit from Dynamic Diagram enhancements, which have moved beyond the previous site level representation to now also include views at the root, site and equipment level.

On the broadcasting side, SmartFM is our innovative technology for Ecreso FM transmitters; it enables broadcasters to reduce their consumption by up to 40%. SmartFM has seen a huge increase of users worldwide, including big national FM networks. This year, we launch the V2 to increase the potential savings and to better meet broadcaster’s requirements on the field.

Our monitoring range has improved with what is probably the most powerful Audemat FM Probe. Still on the Audemat range, we also provide a new RDS Server that gathers any data source and feeds RDS encoders to improve radio datacasting and revenues. This solution is compatible with the new and fully digital Audemat RDS Encoder.

The migration to IP and less hardware remains on our priority list, with two new APT technologies: APTmpX, a unique algorithm to transport MPX over IP with low quantity of data and huge signal transparency; and SynchroStream, the most accurate technology to transport synchronous Audio or MPX over IP. These two technologies are also compatible with our existing ScriptEasy for advanced monitoring and control, and SureStream for always-on redundancy.

RW: What is your FM-SFN Solution and what is different about it?
Mercier: With our range of advanced broadcast products, technologies and services, we centralize all the expertise needed for synchronous FM: Ecreso FM transmitters with digital modulator and perfect control of the signal, APT IP codecs for transparent and reliable transport over IP, and SynchroStream to synchronize the content over multiple transmitter sites.

The solution can also include Drive Tests during the deployment phase thanks to the Audemat FM MC5, and Kybio to monitor the entire broadcasting network operation 24/7. This level of integration from a single supplier and the highest synchronization accuracy available on the market are key for several broadcasters to increase their audience and revenues.

RW: How has the pandemic affected your business?

Mercier: Since last year, and like most companies, our first concern was to ensure the safety of our teams in Europe, Asia and the U.S. while having to reorganize our business operations to meet multiple, new challenges.

Thanks to the agility and determination of our teams, we managed to keep our workflow as seamless as possible, and remain available for our customers who, like us, are impacted by COVID-19.

Added to the pandemic we are also dealing with a global component crisis. However, with the help of our dealers and partners, we anticipate purchasing and production needs to keep delivering our customers worldwide.

We also saw an increase of WorldCast sales in the first half of 2021, both from new customers and existing ones. It is positive from a market point of view but we are especially grateful for all the renewed confidence.

RW: In what way will your company’s booth plans or customer interactions differ because of the pandemic?

Mercier: It’s quite difficult to anticipate how NAB will be this year, but we remain positive and ready to adapt ourselves to make it. As I speak in mid-August, we don’t know if the borders will be open to foreign nationals during NAB, which would of course affect the number of visitors and limit our team on the booth. In such a scenario, we would keep the opportunity to meet our customers, remotely for those who couldn’t attend, and in Vegas with our U.S. staff from WorldCast Systems and Connect. Of course, teams will be reinforced if conditions allow.

The post WorldCast Builds on KYBIO appeared first on Radio World.

This interview is excerpted from the ebook “Automation: The Next Phase.”

The “pandemic year” put new demands on automation and other software-based media management systems that serve radio. Most of these systems were well equipped to meet the challenge, yet there are lessons to be learned from the experiences of the past year and a half.

RCS is all about broadcast software — from its well-known Selector music scheduling system, introduced in 1979, to its 2GO browser-based extensions for mobile devices such as laptops, smartphones and tablets. 

Philippe Generali is president/CEO of RCS.

Radio World: How has the pandemic changed things?

Philippe Generali: The first thing engineers had to do was figure out a simple, easy setup that they could ship to the show host. We’ve seen different choices in various countries depending on what’s available locally, but essentially engineers started shipping a little mixing console and a microphone that sounded decent — whatever the talent needed to talk remotely and sound like they were in the studio. 

And clients that work with RCS software knew that Zetta2GO was an option. It’s built to operate remotely on any type of computer — tablets, PC, Mac or even phones, so there was no need to ship a computer for the host, no need to have a special IT setup, just a decent internet connection. 

RW: Will we go back to what it was before? What’s the new workflow going to be?

Generali: It’s funny, the 2GO browser-based extension — of our traffic software Aquira, of our music scheduling software Selector, of our automation system Zetta — was seen as a bit of a gadget before. People said, “Yeah, that’s nice but I don’t really see myself operating the automation system on a tablet from a remote location.” 

But suddenly it became mission-critical. Tech support calls went through the roof here and in Europe and in Asia as people started to work from home. Many were asking about “that 2GO thing.” Our support people were being asked, “Can you help me set it up? How do I operate it remotely?”

This has changed the way engineers perceive working remotely as well as how good it can sound. 

Some of the talent will say, “I’m happy to work from home.” This was done before of course, but only for megastars like Rush Limbaugh, big syndicated personalities who were able to have their own studio at home. This will now be accessible to pretty much anybody who works at a radio station.

But there’s more. If you have a talented program director who is joining your operation but he doesn’t want to move, he can work with Selector2GO from wherever he is.

When I was a program director and on-air guy, somebody told me, “Be ready to be move around a lot.” I asked why. He said, “Because if you’re successful, you’re going to be hired in a bigger market. And, if you’re not successful, you’re going to be fired and have to move to a lower market. So, you’ll move no matter what.” But those days might be over.

RW: How do you keep radio live and local if more people are remote from the community of license? 

Generali: There’s a lot on social media that will allow you to monitor the situation in your home town. And what I call the “utilities,” traffic and weather — now you can have them anywhere you want. Services like Waze and weather services provide local information.

But you may not necessarily have to be far away from the studio. You could just work from home in the same town, if you want to. It doesn’t mean that you’re necessarily on the other side of the planet or are in a different time zone. The beauty of work-from-home means that, the days you want to come in, you can; the days you don’t want to come, you don’t. You can still know the local life and what’s going on locally.

RW: What are potential buyers of systems asking for these days?

Generali: “Can we have a metered service? We don’t want to build capacity for things that we use only once in a while.” So we discuss with them about whether they operate on premises or whether they operate remotely from the cloud.

We’re going to be very active in the cloud, particularly on the international side. 

We also get questions about how to protect stations from cyberattacks, a new plague that engineers have to worry about. When you speak with an engineer who’s had ransomware infect his network, you know this is a terrible thing.

We offer Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery, which allows the operation to run safely from the cloud. For instance, if you need to turn off all the machines hosting your on-premises software, the program will allow you to still run your voice tracks, which were uploaded a few minutes earlier, your commercials, your songs. They make the station sound like it’s still there and working fine. Meanwhile, you can repair your network locally without any problems. 

RW: When someone asks whether they should be in the cloud, what is your dialogue? 

Generali: Some people say, “Oh, you have to be a multi-city operator to be on the cloud.” However, we have companies that are very small, and some that are very big, considering cloud-based operation. 

As an engineer, you have to talk with management, you have to see how it’s going to change the operation of your stations. 

When you go onto the cloud, you’re going to trade cap-ex for op-ex. Instead of buying a big machine or set of machines that you’ll put on the balance sheet and depreciate, which is not going to impact your EBITDA, now you’re going to go with monthly fees, your cloud costs, bandwidth and software licenses. These costs have to be integrated into the way the station works. 

Do you need a different footprint on real estate? Do you have different staffing needs? Do some people go part-time to adapt for a cloud environment? It’s a profound change. 

You can’t go to the cloud just for the sake of going cloud. It’s not as simple as, “Should you buy an Exchange server for email or should you put the staff on Office 365?” 

RW: Do you find resistance to the idea of recurring costs that go with software as a service?

Generali: Yes, though we have found that the international community is more open to it.
Sometimes there are needs for a cloud-based environment, sometimes for a more hybrid system. But the cloud is a means to an end. It’s not a thing in itself.

Prospective customers ask things like, “Can we have a Christmas channel that would start on Dec. 1, run for one month at the end of the year, and only pay for that month?” Or they would like to do a special internet channel in the memory of rapper DMX for a week, so that they can play all his songs but without having to buy a separate machine or set up anything.

The flexibility of metered service is appealing to content creators. Right now you could go on a metered service within minutes, just the time it takes to put a few hours of logs together, and then you’re on the internet.

RW: One engineer told me he wishes there was more joint development between automation and network infrastructure companies. He actually said, “I’d love to see an automation company put the whole console surface right into the automation system and make it one product.”

Generali: I would gladly invite him to one of our booths at shows. We’ve been demonstrating such technology for the past few years in Europe and in Asia.

For example we presented a fully integrated demo on a gigantic 42- or 50-inch touchscreen. With the HTML Zetta2GO interface, you can operate a virtual console from Wheatstone or Axia on a flatscreen monitor. Zetta2GO is browser-based and everything is HTML. It is the ultimate virtual setup. 

You put a DJ on one of those integrated systems, which has the automation and the console and everything on one gigantic flat surface — tilted 20 to 30 degrees so it is easy to work with. It’s easy to start and stop the music, put pots up and down, cut voice tracks and do everything on one integrated system. 

This is made possible because the software is developed using APIs. The end of the big monolithic design of software applications is here. You cannot afford nowadays to have one big EXE and a few DLLs. All of the modules have to be independent and talking to each other by API. 

It allows features that talk to each other. It allows remote control of every module independently with a light software client like a browser. That, of course, allows moving the software to the cloud, which will be a must for any manufacturer. 

And to your point, having APIs everywhere allows easier communication between vendors for better system integration.

RW: What else should we know about where this class of products is headed?

Generali: API, API, API, the three rules of building software for a solid solution. Your products should be able to interact with anybody’s, including your competitors.

I believe in open architecture, whether you are running in the cloud or on-premises. By design, software in the cloud is based on micro-services and pieces of software that are containerized and able to talk to each other. But having that structure with on-prem software allows various vendors to interact with each other.

We at RCS like to be insulated from that; that’s why we offer music, scheduling, automation, traffic all in one. You only have one phone call to place in case of a problem. But we still build our software with APIs.

And I think we have to mention tech support. Tech support is more important than ever in an environment that can be decentralized for operations. Engineers aren’t always on hand to answer questions. So who do you call?

Tech support is really one of our fortés. It has been for the past 30 years. It’s so important to have this personal touch. Every one of our engineers picking up the phone and answering is being graded by the people they talk to. We cover 24 hours, seven days a week. Even on Christmas morning, you can call us.

Having that touch with the user is more important than ever in a remote work environment.

The post The Three Rules of Software: API, API, API appeared first on Radio World.

The Federal Communications Commission recently issued two Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeitures to two secondary-class stations for the same violations — though the commission, as it has many times in recent weeks, reduced the penalty significantly because these stations provide a secondary service.

In the case of station WRIA(LP), a low-power FM station in Jacksonville, Fla., the Media Bureau found that the licensee — SCLC Jacksonville Florida — willfully violated FCC Rules by failing to file a license renewal application on time and violated the Communications Act by operating the station without authorization.

The details are similar in the case of Katahdin Communications, a permittee looking for a license for FM translator station W273DJ in Millinocket, Maine. Katahdin, too, was notified that it had apparently failed to file a license application on time and also repeatedly violated the Communications Act by operating the translator after its permit had expired.

[Read: Expired Licenses Lead to $7,000 Forfeiture for FM Translator]

In both cases, the Media Bureau concluded that the applicant would be liable for a monetary forfeiture in the amount of $3,500 — a figure that’s a good deal smaller than the base amount of $3,000 for failing to file the required form and another $10,000 for operating without authorization.

In the case of SCLC, its license renewal application was expected to be filed by Oct. 1, 2019, which would have been four months prior to the station’s license expiration date. The Media Bureau notified SCLC that the station’s license would expire if no renewal application was filed by Feb. 1, 2020. When the licensee did file the application on Feb. 25, 2020, it gave no explanation as to the untimely filing — though it did send a letter asking the commission to accept the late-filed application without a penalty. But the formal avenues were not followed, namely that SCLC seek a waiver of the renewal filing deadline. The licensee also failed to request special temporary authority to operate the station after the license expired.

The bureau tentatively found that a $7,000 forfeiture would be appropriate: a $3,000 forfeiture for failing to file on time and a reduced forfeiture of $4,000 for operating without authorization. The bureau adjusted that figure again to $3,500 to include a base amount of $1,500 for filing late and $2,000 for unauthorized operation because as an LPFM the station is providing a secondary service.

The language and methodology used to calculate the forfeiture for Katahdin was similar. The permittee failed to file a covering license application and continued to operate the translator when its license expired on Jan. 8, 2021. Katahdin also failed to request special temporary authority and engaged in unauthorized operation for nearly three months before filing the appropriate paperwork.

The base forfeiture amounts are the same for Katahdin as they were for SCLC: $3,000 for failing to file a required form and another $10,000 for operating without authorization. The bureau also dropped Katahdin’s forfeiture to $7,000 and then again to $3,500, citing the translator’s secondary service nature.

Both SCLC and Katahdin have 30 days to pay the full amount or submit a written statement asking for future reduction or cancellation.

The post Two East Coast Operators Penalized for Late Filing appeared first on Radio World.