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Community Broadcaster: Tips for Better Home Recordings
The author is membership program director of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. NFCB commentaries are featured regularly at www.radioworld.com.
The coronavirus pandemic has had a tremendous impact on local media. You need only turn on commercial radio or television to catch rebroadcasts, Skype interviews and replacement programming. At many community radio stations, the situation is no different.
With worries about infection, plenty of community stations have opted to send volunteers home. In several cases, volunteers are encouraged produce their shows remotely. The catch? Stations are largely letting volunteers figure out this stuff on their own.
[Read: Community Broadcaster: Salute to Stations Fighting On]
So, if you are a community radio producer or DJ, how exactly do you create your weekly radio show without a studio and minimal technology?
These suggestions are by no means complete for everyone, but here is an overview for any community radio volunteer.
It cannot be overstated that where you record is literally more important what you record and what you record it with. As the National Federation of Community Broadcasters notes in its free guidance for stations, the two primary issues volunteers must be aware of are the areas they will record and then the microphones they use.
Your first task is selecting where you will record your voiceovers. Rooms with high ceilings, open floor plans, hard surfaces and rooms likely to pick up ambient/white noise should not be used to record a program. This means living rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms and garages are out. Veteran journalist Ron Gonyea presents extensive insights in Current on what to look out for as well. Vents, street noise and pillows are among the items on your checklist.
Now, test out your sound deadening tactics. If you are not satisfied, vocal booth boxes and microphone sound shields are available online for under $50 and will vastly improve sound. For an even more extensive dive into acoustics, NPR Training provides diagrams that help you think about your space.
Next, for the thing everyone focuses on first: your microphone.
Do not use your mobile phone’s or laptop’s built-in microphones to record a full program. You’ll likely not get the sound you aspire to have. Quality microphones are available for under $50 from music equipment stores and online. These include the Rode, Audio-Technica, Samson and Shure lines of USB microphones. YouTube features many products tests. If you can’t test a microphone out, skim those tests to choose the right device for your vocal delivery.
If you’re worried about a microphone working with your sound card and input, or that your desktop or laptop is too old to work with a USB microphone, there are many lines of handheld recorders available. With these, you can record your spots directly there, then move the recorded files for production. Affordable brands used for media production include Tascam and Zoom (not to be mistaken for the video platform).
And finally, there are a range of software audio editing packages that volunteers can use, including Audacity, which is free, and Adobe Audition, which is part of Adobe Creative Cloud. Again, YouTube is a go-to. You’ll find beginner to advanced techniques for your software of choice.
At-home production may ramp up the switch to digital, especially for music DJs dependent on records, compact discs or cassettes. Additionally, the remote production road is sure to be bumpy for those new to it. However, during COVID-19, such program creation is required. And it could be just the kind of learning experience you didn’t know you needed.
The post Community Broadcaster: Tips for Better Home Recordings appeared first on Radio World.
New Sine Control PowerClamp Series Available
Sine Control Technology, maker of PowerClamp Surge Protective Devices, has introduced the new Series 200 PowerClamp models. It describes the AC power line surge suppressor as ideal for broadcast transmitter sites or any other installations that require clean and reliable AC power.
[Check Out More Products at Radio World’s Products Section]
The new Series 200 PowerClamp units are rated at 200,000 amps-per-phase of surge suppression capacity, and will be available for single-/split-phase and three-phase WYE electrical service in all standard voltages. The Series 200 units will suppress short-term power line surges to within a few volts of the sine wave, thus protecting transmitters from AC spikes that cause serious damage and unreliable operation. This new design also features internal LEDs to indicate if a fuse needs replacement, and remote status monitoring that can be interfaced to any transmitter remote control system.
Solid-state transmitters with switching power supplies are especially vulnerable to power line spikes and surges. These AC power disturbances often cause irreparable damage to power supply components. The new Series 200 PowerClamp surge suppressors will greatly reduce the chances of damage and keep the transmitter reliably on the air.
Series 200 PowerClamp units are housed in a NEMA-rated enclosure with all critical components hermetically sealed to prevent degradation. They are installed in parallel with the transmitter electrical service. Load-matching is not required, and power to the transmitter is not interrupted even if a PowerClamp fuse opens.
Info: https://henryeng.com/powerclamp
The post New Sine Control PowerClamp Series Available appeared first on Radio World.
AEQ Enters the Atrium
For on-air audio radio and television production with high-demand operational requirements and workflows. Its X-Core engine can manage up to 1,024 audio channels of local content or AoIP that can be controlled using one or several control surfaces. Each control surface can have more than 90 motorized faders with pages for snapshots or memories.
Atrium offers simplicity of operation through a set of touchscreens, encoders, indicators and keys, all of which can be preconfigured and dynamically adapt their function to the operational context. This avoids unnecessary steps in workflows, maintaining the precise information visible and simple operation.
[Check Out More Products at Radio World’s Products Section]
Each Atrium control surface and its individual controls can be customized for most any operation. Thus, classic workflows can be implemented. Users can also configure mix or very special workflows with flexible programming of keys to act on the routing of the console, maybe controlling external equipment such as routers, audio codecs, telephony broadcasting systems, broadcast automation, or IP intercom systems.
Atrium’s simplicity of configuration and integration within a system is not only restricted to the local production center, but reaches outside. It allows connecting with external events and remote production centers, enabling the creation of a multichannel audio network as extensive as the user application may require.
X-Core is a broadcast IP audio mixing, processing and distributing matrix. It can work as an audio matrix, intercom matrix or a combination. X-Core also can work as the audio engine of an Atrium console or set of consoles. Native IP (Dante, Ravenna, AES67, SMPTE ST 2110-30, SMPTE ST 2110-31).
Info: www.aeqbroadcast.com
The post AEQ Enters the Atrium appeared first on Radio World.
A Better Way to Revitalize All U.S. Radio
The FCC has said it declined to reconsider the selection of HD Radio as the U.S. digital radio standard. But Alan Hughes, a broadcast technical writer in Australia, believes the industry should not convert to all-digital HD Radio on the AM band but should consider Digital Radio Mondiale in the 47–88 MHz band, which he notes has been “virtually vacated by TV.” He says available DRM channels are more than enough to cover existing AM and FM stations, plus new entrants.
The following is from comments he filed to the FCC about proposal to allow the MA3 all-digital mode of HD Radio for AM stations in the United States. It has been lightly edited for style and clarity.
Currently, radio in the USA is in an interference-fueled mess.
VHF Band 2 (FM band) — According to the FCC database, there are nearly 14,000 FM broadcasters with over 10,000 translators, causing this band to be overcrowded and getting worse, particularly with the addition of FM translators for AM broadcasters, and FM/digital HD Radio sharing half of the channels either side of them which are used by other broadcasters. Digital power is 4–10% of their FM power to prevent digital interference to their own signal and others. This substantially restricts the coverage area before the receiver goes back to FM or, if it is HD2–HD4, drops out altogether.
There are no pure digital HD broadcasters in VHF Band 2.
Medium Frequency (“AM band”) — In the FCC database there are 4,616 AM broadcasters in North America; 240 are authorized for HD operation but this does not include broadcasters who have switched off HD.
Interference from electrical disturbances is caused by electrical switch mode power supplies, which are in virtually everything electrically powered including LED lighting, and electric cars when charging and moving. Petrol-powered engines can cause interference. Electric power line insulators also can cause considerable interference.
[Real-World Tests Make Business Case for MA3]On AM this causes annoying static but also unreliable digital reception, particularly for AM/HD where the digital signal is only 1% of the carrier power.
Interference between broadcasters is caused by AM broadcasters sharing half of their channels used by other broadcasters; this also occurs with HD Radio and is worse in its mode AM/digital mode. This is why many AM broadcasters have stopped broadcasting digital at night.
There are no high-powered pure digital HD broadcasts in the MF band. There is only WWFD, a city-wide station, on air.
Vehicle manufacturers have stopped using long telescopic antennas, which gather more signal for this band than the “Shark Fin” type, which is just too short. The “Shark Fin” antenna contains an amplifier that overloads on strong interference and will then affect the reliability of reception.
The FCC needs to do an independent survey to determine what proportion of the population actually listen to HD Radio. Since the HD standard has existed for 19 years some radios will have died. One would have expected that analog AM and FM should have been superseded by now.
OPTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENTHybrid Digital (HD) Radio is not feasible because the digital signal has to be so weak and because listeners have to remember whether it is AM or FM, the frequency and if it is HD1–HD4. This approach seems to have not been able to produce a national conversion to digital.
Pure digital HD Radio in VHF Band 2 in this mode still requires 400 kHz (two FM channels) to transmit one broadcaster’s programs. Interference will continue when all broadcasts are pure digital in Band 2. In the medium-frequency band a signal can fit in a non-interfering channel but the sound quality is poor and it lacks the ability to carry data information, alternatively the wider channel will cause interference to broadcasters in the adjacent channels.
DAB+ is in widespread use outside of North America but cannot be used because TV is using nearly all the available DAB+ channels.
DRM in VHF low band (TV Channels 2–6) in this mode only requires 100 kHz. Thus four DRM transmitters can replace a pure digital HD signal in Band 2. Each of these DRM transmitters can carry three sound programs. DRM has not been trialled in North America. It does not use any of the existing bands used by broadcast radio. This means it can be broadcast in addition to any existing broadcasts without interference with existing services and also without power limitations caused by existing broadcasters. There is no sharing with adjacent channels.
See the accompanying graphic (Fig. 1).
66–72 MHz provides 59 channels that can be used around the locations of the above TV transmitters with the exception of TV Channel 4. Where radio broadcasters are near the seven medium-power TV transmitters they can use 47.1–49.9 and 76.1–77.9 MHz.
The FCC needs to allocate DRM frequencies to all broadcasters in groups of six consecutive channels, allowing broadcasters to share transmitters, antennas and towers. DRM can use the same frequency over the whole license area including repeaters in black spots. There are enough channels for both AM and FM broadcasters, leaving the medium-frequency band for low population density areas such as Alaska and Arizona.
Fig. 1: VHF band 1 uses from the FCC. High power is to cover a region, medium a district, low a city and LPX a village. CONCLUSIONIn 1998, when Australia was selecting which system to use for digital television, our Communications Lab did a side-by-side performance tests (see http://tinyurl.com/rw-hughes) between DVB-T and the Advanced Television System Committee’s systems.
As a result the only countries to take roll out ATSC were the USA, Canada, Mexico and South Korea. The rest of the world use DVB-T, its upgrade DVB-T2 and a later Japanese IDSB.
The FCC should follow this example and do the same trials for radio. There are two United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union standards for digital radio, DRM and DAB+, which should be adopted in North America to make receivers cheap for all, just like AM/FM. This will enable a rapid rollout of an interference-free system.
I have no commercial interest in the outcome of your decision.
The author is a broadcast technical author from Australia and has spent a lifetime in training technicians. Radio World welcomes opinion and points of view on important radio broadcast industry issues.
The post A Better Way to Revitalize All U.S. Radio appeared first on Radio World.
Nominations Close April 17 for Special Edition Best of Show Awards
Nominations will close April 17 for the Special Edition Best of Show Awards program, an initiative of our parent company Future plc to showcase new, innovative products introduced this spring for specialized technology users.
Companies can nominate products for awards presented by the following publications and sites: TV Technology, TVBEurope, Digital Video, Government Video, Video Edge, Radio World, Pro Sound News, Sound & Video Contractor, B+C and Next TV.
Companies seeking guidance about which brand to enter for can find guidance here.
Winners will be selected by panels of professional users, technical experts and editors based on descriptions provided by companies via the official nomination form.
Companies pay a fee to enter; not all products are selected as winners. All nominees and winners will be featured in a Program Guide sent to readers this spring.
For more information about the Special Edition of the Best of Show Awards visit the official Best of Show website.
The post Nominations Close April 17 for Special Edition Best of Show Awards appeared first on Radio World.
Media Bureau Provides TV Stations Limited Waiver to Air Local Community Events to Support Social Distancing
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FCC Seeks Comment on Geo-Targeting for Radio Stations
Could geo-targeted programming for over-the-air radio broadcasters be on the horizon?
The Federal Communications Commission is exploring that idea by requesting comments on a requested rule change that would permit radio broadcasters to air geo-targeted programming — such as emergency alerts, news and advertising — on a voluntary basis.
The request was formally made in March by GeoBroadcast Solutions, a Chicago-based technology company whose ZoneCasting technology uses FM boosters to distribute locally targeted content. According to the company, the rule change would be similar to the 2017 FCC decision that allowed TV broadcasters to use the next gen ATSC 3.0 standard to distribute geo-targeted programming.
[Read: Tech Company Asks FCC to Allow Geo-Targeted Radio Programming]
According to GeoBroadcast in its petition, “The commission could bring some of these same benefits to the radio industry by permitting radio broadcasters to use single-frequency network technology to provide one of the main consumer and broadcaster benefits inherent in ATSC 3.0: hyperlocal programming, emergency alerting and advertising.”
Specifically, the ZoneCasting model uses a single-frequency network to originate programming separately from the booster’s primary FM station. (This technology uses lower-power and lower-height FM transmitters operating on the same frequency and within the service contour as the primary FM station transmitter.) To achieve this, however, the FCC would need to amend part of the FM booster rule that currently requires an FM broadcast booster station to retransmit only the signals of its primary station.
According to GeoBroadcasting, this type of zoned broadcast coverage technology would allow radio broadcasters to provide hyperlocalized content, such as geo-targeted weather, targeted emergency alerts and hyperlocal news, the company said. Zoned broadcast coverage also would enable radio broadcasters to air geo-targeted traffic information, second language programming and local advertisements.
Zoned broadcast coverage could make the medium attractive to new kinds of advertisers, the company said, as it allows radio to reach their target audience much more efficiently. The company pointed to February 2020 BIA Advisory Services study that found that more than 90% of local retailers indicated that they would spend more on broadcast radio advertising if zoned advertising were available.
Comments on the issue can be left in the ECFS database using proceeding number RM-11854.
The post FCC Seeks Comment on Geo-Targeting for Radio Stations appeared first on Radio World.