TWiRT 151 - CALM with Tim Carroll

On December 13th, 2012, the rules of CALM went into effect, and the FCC began enforcing them. In its simplest terms, this means over-the-air (OTA) broadcasters, cable operators, satellite television providers, and multichannel video program distributors must ensure that commercials have the same average loudness as the programs they accompany.

More specifically, it means applying the ATSC A/85 Recommended Practice – a set of methods to measure and control the loudness of digital audio – to commercial advertisements delivered to viewers.

Tim Carroll, President of Linear Acoustic, discusses some history of film and television program loudness, then brings us to a better understanding of loudness management. One goal is to keep TV viewers happy, and not give them any reason to complain about jarring volume changes.

Here’s an FAQ about the CALM Act.

Chris Tobin, and Kirk Harnack are your hosts.

This Week In Radio Tech is sponsored by:

Telos and the ProSTREAM audio streaming encoder with built-in Omnia audio processing. Visit http://telos-systems.com/prostream/

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TWiRT 151 - CALM with Tim Carroll

TWiRT 150 - War Stories with Mark Mueller

Every tenth TWiRT show is devoted to “War Stories” – tales from the trenches of broadcast engineering. Our guest, Mark Mueller, tells us about working with AM Directional transmission systems, and describes some of the things that go wrong. Chris Tarr and Chris Tobin have their own experiences to share, too.

You may know of Mark Mueller’s work from his famous (among radio engineers) T2535SA Subaudible Tone Decoder. It’s the one product that actually worked well under a variety of program and tone levels to help automate syndicated radio programs before digitally-fired closures came along. The manual and schematic diagram of the T2535A is here.

Chris Tarr, Chris Tobin, and Kirk Harnack are your hosts.

This Week In Radio Tech is sponsored by:

Axia and the range of studio accessories and intercoms for Axia IP-Audio consoles.

TWiRT 150 - War Stories with Mark Mueller

TWiRT 149 - DGPS with Gary Galbraith

The radio frequencies below the AM broadcast band have found several interesting uses over the past century. A modern-day use of these low frequencies is to disseminate data to correct GPS readings, especially for ships, boats and barges.

Gary Galbraith works with Nautel, a provider of DGPS transmitters to the US Government. We look at a DGPS transmission site in Mississippi and discuss this technology. We also discuss other “radio navigation aids” in the modern world.

Chris Tarr and Kirk Harnack are your hosts.

This Week In Radio Tech is sponsored by Axia and the range of studio accessories and intercoms for Axia IP-Audio consoles. Visit http://www.axiaaudio.com for more information.

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TWiRT 149 - DGPS with Gary Galbraith

TWiRT 148 - Mark Humphrey

AM stations transmitting on FM, too?  Some organizations owning hundreds of FM licenses?  And the FCC is sitting on thousands of FM license applications because they're mutually exclusive?  Welcome to the wacky world of FM translators.  Mark Humphrey is a consulting engineer and expert on the proper and prudent use of FM translators.  He discusses the history and current state of FM translator application and licensing, and hints at what we might see in the next few years regarding granting of licenses. 

Plus, we discuss how radio/TV towers and revolving restaurants are really good for each other. 

TWiRT is sponsored by the Telos iQ6 telephone talkshow system.  

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TWiRT 148 - Mark Humphrey

TWiRT 147 - Stream Processing

We focus on a tutorial of setting up a multiband audio processor for making Internet audio streams sound great.  Kirk explains the various stages of the Omnia A/XE audio processor and the TWiRT team discusses their own experiences with optimizing the sound of streaming audio.  

Plus, Chris Tarr describes his trials with installing an FM translator at a location that already has another FM translator. Neighbors have to play nice and not cause each other interference.  

TWiRT is sponsored by the Telos iQ6 and Telos Hx6 telephone talkshow systems.  

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TWiRT 147 - Stream Processing