With the promise of a large, demographically diverse audience, the Games of the XXXII Olympiad — the pandemic-delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics — are forecast to bring in record-high advertising revenue.
In fact, Kantar believes the ad dollars will be more than 20% higher than the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
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There will be no blackouts of Spongebob, CBS2 News or BET fare for subscribers of Charter Communications’ Spectrum MVPD services across the U.S. — including New York and Los Angeles.
The continued carriage of ViacomCBS’ portfolio of broadcast, entertainment, news and sports networks on Charter Communications’ Spectrum systems is now assured.
The freshly signed deal between Charter and ViacomCBS, announced Thursday morning, also includes licensing ViacomCBS’s Paramount+, Pluto TV, BET+ and Noggin for future distribution to Spectrum customers.
“We are pleased to have reached a new deal to deliver ViacomCBS’ expansive portfolio of popular brands and premium programming for Spectrum audiences to enjoy, plus greater choice in how they consume our content,” said Ray Hopkins, President of U.S. Network Distribution at ViacomCBS. “Charter is a valued partner, and we look forward to deepening our long-standing relationship.”
Added Tom Montemagno, EVP of Programming Acquisition for Charter, “These comprehensive agreements with ViacomCBS recognize the fast-changing pace of the subscription video business and provide us the flexibilities to adapt for the benefit of our customers while also furthering our strategic interests in the advanced advertising realm and aggregated video store concept with the addition of the streaming apps.”ViacomCBS and Charter also will expand their existing collaboration around addressable media and advanced advertising.
Others terms of the agreements were not disclosed.
Rob Atkinson, K5UJ, is an engineer out of Saint Charles, Ill., and one of the many readers who enjoy the DIY projects we feature from time to time in Workbench.
Fig. 1, a spectral picture at 0.00% illumination.He writes in to say that he admires Frank Hertel’s ingenuity in home-brewing the LED dimmer circuit that we told you about in the May 26 issue. However, as a ham Rob is concerned about the RFI that variable square waves cause and that there was no mention of RFI mitigation measures in Frank’s submission.
Rob points out that any kind of control circuit based on square waves can be a terrible spectrum polluter, especially if the leads to the device being controlled are long and unshielded. His concern is that these ideas often end up on the internet, where they are repurposed by unsuspecting shortwave or medium-wave hobbyists.
Frank Hertel responded: “Since hams sometimes work with receiving weak signals” — which, by the way, Frank does when measuring distant AM and FM signals — “I can relate to Mr. Atkinson’s concerns.”
Frank says Rob is right. See Fig. 1, the dimmer schematic. The 555 Timer IC does produce a fairly square wave output, so filtering is important. However, the 6.8K resistor that is in a series with the 555’s output to the MPF102 MOSFET’s gate is bypassed to ground with a 1 MFD (nonpolarized) capacitor and does a pretty good job of turning the square wave into a semi-sine wave (non-symmetrical shaping).
Fig. 3 (left), ’scope showing 0.00% illumination. Fig. 4 (right), output at 20% illumination. Note the non-symmetrical sine wave, shaped by the filter caps.Finally, an additional damping filter capacitor, the 100 MFD capacitor at the D718 emitter to ground that connects to the LED light fixture, does a bit more filtering.
Frank realizes that he could have fabricated a more sophisticated output filter network, but he found that any emissions from the dimmer circuit were consistent with the emissions of commercial dimmers and commercial dimmable LED lamps, so that is where he decided to leave it, as you see in the schematic.
Fig. 5 (left), ’scope measurement at 70% illumination. Fig. 6 (right), spectrum at 100% illumination.In these scope photos and spectrum analyzer shots, the probe is connected across the 555 output/LED fixture at different LED intensities.
The Enemy of LEDs
San Francisco contract and project engineer Bill Ruck was interested in Frank’s dimmer circuit interesting, but even more so in the super-flexible silicone wire used. At Amazon.com, type “B07K9R9LBV” in the search field to find this 22-awg silicone electrical wire. Frank used 22 gauge but other gauges are available.
Bill inquired because most of the “zip” red/black cables that he has seen are relatively stiff. He points out that most LED fixtures have a built-in regulated current switching supply. If the fixture just had a current limiting resistor, it would dim gradually.
Bill related a personal experience in which he replaced his circular kitchen “dome” fixture with LEDs. It turns out the two round “Circline” fluorescent bulbs are no longer manufactured by GE, so Bill bought a “2600 Lumen 30W Super Bright Cool White LED” from MJPA (Item #31327 OP at mjpa.com) with the appropriate power supply. He then used the fixture can to build a LED-based lamp.
The lamp worked great for about six months, then failed. This time, he spaced the LED assembly below the ceiling with an extension box. This, too, failed in time. The repair saw Bill adding heat sinks around the LEDs.
The moral to the story? Heat is the enemy of long-life LEDs! Next time, Bill will rebuild the fixture and put the heat sinks on the outside of the can to better dissipate the heat.
John Bisset, CPBE, has 50 years in the broadcasting industry including 31 years writing Workbench. 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 for SBE recertification. Email johnpbisset@gmail.com.
The post Workbench: Capacitors Damp Square Wave Output appeared first on Radio World.
Studio Float is offering IsoRafts, a new line of wood and silicone vibration isolation products.
Intended to be an inexpensive sound-absorbing solution, the line is centered around simple “blocks” constructed from wood and silicone, which reportedly provide accurate predictive acoustic performance. The line is geared towards studio designers and builders for private or commercial production/performance venue projects.
According to Studio Float, IsoRafts are intended to make a space more acoustically efficient, and are to prevent sound from leaking into adjacent areas, in turn isolating a facility from the outside world.
[Check Out More Products at Radio World’s Products Section]
During a facility’s construction phase, the IsoRafts get attached directly to the side of studs and joists using standard fastening techniques. The aim is to decouple floors, walls and ceilings from a main structure, effectively “floating” them and preventing sound transfer between spaces.
Three types are available: Deck IsoRafts (for floors) are available in three sizes ( 2-inch, 3-inch, 4-inch) and height options of low 1-1/4-inch height profile or high 2-1/4-inch profile for handling underfloor cabling. Meanwhile, Wall IsoRafts feature a 1/4-inch offset to provide an air gap, and Ceiling IsoRafts are available for use with hanging acoustical panels or with a threaded rod insert. The Wall IsoRaft may also be use in a ceiling application.
All IsoRaft products are designed and built in Hanover, Mass., and tested at Riverlab Acoustical Laboratories in Illinois. Prices per IsoRaft range from $7.65 to $11.70.
Send your new equipment news to radioworld@futurenet.com.
Info: https://studio-float.com
The post Studio Float Launches IsoRafts appeared first on Radio World.
To facilitate regulatory approvals for its approximately $2.825 billion purchase of Meredith Local Media, announced on May 3, Gray Television agreed to divest an ABC affiliate “to an independent third-party no later than the closing of the Meredith acquisition.”
At the time, RBR+TVBR asked if it was Allen Media Group.
It is now known that this guess was the correct one.
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Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting Corporation, the owner and operator of Adult Alternative WYEP-FM and NPR Member station WESA-FM, has appointed a Vice President of Broadcasting.
It’s an individual who has been associated with the stations for nearly two decades: Mike Sauter.
Terry O’Reilly, President/CEO of Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting, commented, “WYEP and WESA share a common goal: to be leaders in the service they provide in music and journalism, respectively. We’re thrilled to take this next important step for our organization, by placing Mike at the helm of our broadcast operations and programming.”
Sauter joined Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting in 2004 as WYEP’s Program Director. He was promoted to station manager in 2019. He began his career in 1984 in Ithaca, N.Y., and his career includes a run as an air personality at WHTG-FM in Monmouth-Ocean, N.J.
MESA, ARIZ. — As the first market in the U.S. to experience NEXTGEN TV when it launched in 2018, audiences in the Phoenix area have been among the first to experience the next generation of digital TV broadcasting.
Now, there is an expanded roster of stations using the ATSC 3.0 digital broadcast TV standard available for viewing.
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The national news program from Sinclair Broadcast Group has announced who will be seated in the anchor chairs come September 27 for its late newscasts.
One individual is returning to Sinclair to become a co-anchor. The other is a Sunshine State veteran who left broadcast TV in March 2018.
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It has quietly become one of the biggest media companies serving Spanish-speaking audiences across the Southeast. Now, Norsan Media is growing by bringing one of the region’s fastest-growing markets an Estrella TV affiliate.
To do so, it is buying a low-power digital TV facility in this locale, the nation’s biggest city by square miles.
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One reportedly impacted Cox Media Group‘s TV and radio properties’ streaming capabilities for weeks. Other companies including Audacy, Urban One and Max Media also had their share of headaches because of similar instances.
Ransomware attacks have been particularly vicious to broadcast media companies.
The Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Committee that oversees the FCC is putting a microscope on these attacks.
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