This Week In Radio Tech (TWiRT)

John Lyons was a not only a fixture, but a force, in the New York City RF scene. His tireless work - especially after 9/11 - has gotten and kept radio and TV broadcasters on-the-air with excellent engineering, optimized coverage, and reliable operation. With John's recent passing, today's TWiRT features Chris Tobin and Tom Ray - both of whom worked with John extensively. We'll also enjoy John's presentation about Building the Advanced RF Transmission System at One World Trade Center.

Audio over IP technology and standards are well-settled and widely understood among broadcast engineers. Control & Monitoring over IP is more unsettled, with competing - and incompatible - standards. Anthony Kuzub, Sr. Systems Designer at CBC/Radio-Canada, introduces AES70, NMOS, MQTT, MIDI over IP, and even a proposal for Emoji Description Protocol (EDP?). Plus a useful hack of Google Chrome browser to record WebRTC audio.

WWFD in Frederick, Maryland, is the only all-digital AM station in the USA. Switching to HD Radio’s MA3 mode, there’s no longer an analog AM carrier; the signal is only digital, and any AM-band HD radio can decode it. Dave Kolesar is the energetic engineer who has driven this switch to an all-digital AM transmission. He and Mike Raide with Xperi join us from the WWFD transmitter site - and bring us a “first ever” surprise at the end of our show!

Wisconsin Public Radio was just going to replace a few audio consoles - until they met with one bad surprise after another! Britny Williams is DoO and DoE at WPR’s main studios in Madison, WI. She’s overseeing and coordinating several teams as WPR’s upgrade project developed into soup to nuts replacement - all while keeping all programming going. Britny joins Chris Tobin and Kirk Harnack on this episode.

The Midwest Technology & Multimedia Broadcast Conference (MBMTC) just wrapped up in Columbus, Ohio. For the first time, this year’s conference consolidated engineering sessions from Kentucky and Indiana broadcast associations, making for a well-attended event with 14 total engineering sessions packed into one day. John Takach joins us on the “curvy couch” along with Josh Bohn and Matt Levin, plus Chris Tobin from New York City.

We’re on-site at WPOZ in Orlando, Florida, where we found a prototype of the famous Texar Audio Prism. Audio processing expert, Brian Kerkan, joins us to show off some old analog audio processors, including the CBS Audimax and Volumax. Then we turn to one of 16 Texar prototypes. We finish with a discussion of interfacing AES192 FM multiplex info a switcher and IP-STL system.

Every two weeks, John Bisset brings practical engineering advice in his “Workbench” column in Radio World magazine and Radio World online. This week, John brings us the best and most timely of his tips and techniques for effective broadcast engineering. While taking in John’s advice, be thinking of time- and trouble-saving practices that you use in your own engineering work. Submit your ideas to [email protected], and you could see yours in print and online.

And by “hacking” we mean “using to the best effect, even in non-traditional ways.” Chris Tobin has engineered hundreds of live broadcasts, outside of traditional studios. As 4G LTE mobile data services have matured, Chris and other engineers are working to guarantee reliable wireless data by understanding the options. Full signal bars doesn’t mean ideal bandwidth; and knowing where the best LTE access points are can result in more reliable service.

After a whole day of broadcast engineering learning, we’re live from Day 1 of the Broadcasters Clinic in Madison, Wisconsin. Engineers from 29 states are traveling to be here for radio and TV engineering sessions. Chris Tobin and Kirk Harnack talk with Mark Persons, Chuck Kelly, Bill Gould, Linda Baun, Michelle Vetterkind, Cathy Orosz, David Layer, John Poray, and Wayne Pecena.

Ready to discover the intelligence behind some new, high-quality audio product designs? Michael Goodman, Founder and CEO of CEntrance, designed audio products at Shure, and consults with audio manufacturers around the world. Now his company is taking it passion for transparent audio and rugged designs to make compact pro audio devices for broadcasters and podcasters.