The first time I laid eyes on an Orban product was when we had moved a newly purchased FM station in Eugene, Oregon in 1977, upgrading it to stereo, raising it by 1500 feet elevation, and dropping the elevator music in favor of a new brand of FM top 40. I set the new Orban 8000 at about 5 dB of compression and walked away. That, and a set of new heads for the Revox tape decks made “K-Sound” really sparkle, even though my successor would turn up the gain to trade off some of the fidelity for loudness. He understood the business better than I did.

Orban’s chops in the broadcast radio and TV realm are certainly undisputed. The company continues to address the needs of current broadcast technology, with processors to address specific needs for digital side channels, streaming, and the new TV loudness rules. Our next meeting features two of the rock stars of broadcast audio. Orban Founder and VP of Engineering Bob Orban will discuss the workings of the new Orban Optimod-TV 8685 for Surround Sound and loudness control. Also, Orban VP of New Product Development Greg Ogonowski will discuss the latest in streaming technology offered by Orban.

This is your chance to meet Bob and Greg and ask those nagging questions you have about audio processing. Let’s give these guys a big welcome Wednesday, March 14 at noon at TV Magic, 8112 Engineer Road in Kearny Mesa, San Diego. As always, members and guests are welcome.

One detail about a project TV Magic built for a TV facility in Florida a year ago that surprised me was the ability to use the Studer Vista production audio mixer as the station AES/EBU digital audio router controlled by a conventional Evertz TV routing control system. This reused a resource often waiting between production sessions. It saved some money and “just worked.

Studer visits our SBE meeting in February to give a tour of its mobile demonstration consoles and a talk on its digital control and audio protocol. RELINK can link numerous Studer consoles in various locations of a Broadcast facility to allow audio source and control data sharing across a wide network.  Any Studer consoles can be on the RELINK network including the new OnAir1500 radio console, and absolutely no extra hardware is needed for this network setup.  In addition, Studer will discuss the new ‘Studer Vista Remote Access’ tool for managing, training, and supporting consoles securely across the internet.

Studer will have their state of the art demo truck at TV Magic February 14-16th.  Feb 14th will be an open house, 15th will be the SBE meeting, and the 16th will be registration-only factory certified training classes from Studer.  You canregister online for free and regardless of experience on the Studer homepage banner for ‘Studer Broadcast Academy’.

Studer buys lunch for SBE members and guests for the meeting Wednesday, February 15 at noon at TV Magic, 8112 Engineer Road in Kearny Mesa. Rob Lewis, Director of Studer USA will give the presentation following.

This month’s SBE meeting with guest Advanced Fiber Products explores fiberoptics in more depth than you may have explored the topic before. Depending on where you are on the learning curve, you might consider these topics to be a refresher or an introduction to lightwave transmission:

• A brief review of fiber’s virtues and why its use is growing in an HD world
• A review of some the basics of how it works, spectrum used, etc.
• Construction of various fiber types – what the various modes and “grades” mean
• Concerns of “mixing modes” and practical points of concern
• Matching cable type, grade, construction, mode, etc. to the application
• Power budgeting for a fiber system – specific factors and concerns
• CWDM multiplexing technology & schemes
• Implementing  fiber in the field – cable types, termination types (single strand, multi-strand, etc.), advantages of specific designs – expanded beam technologies, etc.
• Fiber polishing
• Care, cleaning, and tools for fiber

Join us Tuesday, January 24 at noon for a free lunch and talk at TV Magic, 8112 Engineer Road in Kearny Mesa, San Diego. Members and guests are welcome.