As stations reduce staff and engineers are responsible for more sites, modern techniques such as IP connectivity and monitoring permit better remote supervision, control and diagnostics even on web-enabled smart phones. We examine how up to half the trips to a remote site can be saved while at the same time, knowing the transmitter is operating properly, and knowing more about its operation than we could previously understand even standing in front of the unit. Software today also allows remote monitoring of many parameters whereas previously personnel and expensive discrete test equipment were required at the site.

Join us Wednesday, October 12 at noon at TV Magic, 8112 Engineer Road in San Diego as Nautel makes a presentation about the modern broadcast radio transmitter. Lunch is provided by Nautel. As always, members and guests are welcome. Expect the meeting to last until about 1:30 PM.

About the Presenter

Ellis Terry has been doing RF sales in the West Region of the US since 1998. Prior to joining Nautel, Ellis worked at Harris and BE (Broadcast Electronics) in the same capacity.

Ellis also has an engineering background of 30 plus years having worked as staff engineer, chief engineer and director of engineering in Chicago, Washington DC, Houston, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco markets.

Ellis is also SBE certified as a Broadcast Technologist and is a graduate of DeVry Institute, and holds a MBA from Chadwick University.

This month Chapter 36 explores low cost MPEG compression solutions for TV. Visionary Solutions, Inc. (VSI) of Santa Barbara specializes in lower cost encoding and decoding hardware for ENG, backhaul, confidence monitoring, and news source sharing. “With declining budgets,  broadcasters seek suppliers that offer outstanding picture quality, rock solid stability and save money over traditional broadcast equipment.  Steve Lee will show live HD video over a private IP network, a webcast of live TV and highlight a wireless HD ENG pack used at a major network.” Steve Lee is National Sales Manager for IPTV products at VSI. Steve has been in computer hardware, enterprise software, cloud computing, mobile application and IPTV sales, marketing and business development positions for 25 years.

Join us for our regular monthly meeting September 21 at noon at TV Magic, 8112 Engineer Road, in Kearny Mesa, San Diego. VSI is providing lunch. As always, members and guests are welcome.

This being 2011, hopefully you’re not bound to videotape or spinning discs any longer. The options for portable production and ENG recording are rich. Our August presenter, Focus, will show us a solution with full HD resolution recording with lots of recording time and all the bells and whistles and none of the polyester.

Mark D’Addio, VP of Business Development, will update us on the capable media recorder and its associated workflow advantages, encoding options, and much more. He has more than 20 years of experience in broadcasting technologies, and works as an applications engineer interfacing with camcorder manufacturers.

Join us Wednesday, August 17 at noon at TV Magic, 8112 Engineer Road in Kearny Mesa. Focus will provide a lunch. As always, members and guests are welcome.

Even if surround sound origination isn’t on your short-term horizon, you would be wise to learn more about it. Our July 20 meeting presenter, Calrec, has been installing 5.1 channel audio consoles for a while and can teach us a thing or two.

“The goal is to take a look at some of the common misconceptions about 5.1 starting with some fundamentals about the difference between the Sub-Woofer and LFE channel. We progress to understanding the basic principles of downmixing and upmixing. Particular attention is paid the understanding the difference in Lt/Rt and Lo/Ro downmixes. We also look at how very basic upmixing can be achieved on a surround capable console.

“This then leads us to the thorny topic of Dialnorm, its uses and understanding its relationship to loudness and the A/85 ATSC Recommended Practice. We also take a look at what broadcasters need to do to keep a watchful eye on the loudness of the program.”

The presentation will be made by Dave Letson who is the regional director of sales for the western U.S. and Canada. Dave was integral in developing Calrec’s close relationship with Sky as well as its market in the Middle East and Eastern Europe when he worked as a sales manager for the company in the United Kingdom from 2001 to 2008. Letson has a thorough background in live and pre-recorded audio production.

Join us July 20 at noon at TV Magic, 8112 Engineer Road, San Diego. Calrec buys lunch. As always, members and guest are welcome. Meeting should adjourn by 1:30.

Daniel Loeffer of Mayah presents “The technology and implementation of Audio over IP using  N/ACIP/SIP for real time audio broadcast radio/ENG for multi-codex vendors. ( Telos, Comrex, Tieline, etc.).”

”Unlike ISDN, which was very simple and reliable, IP however, raises new issues for reliable and quality audio over IP transmission for radio and ENG. (ISDN is fading from the market gradually due to costs and availability).  Factors that influence effective Audio over IP that will be discussed as follows:”

1. CODEC and compression algorithms: latency, quality and bit rates
2. N/ACIP and SIP protocol for connectively to all codecs including Telos, Comrex, Tieline and others)
3. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), RTP  and Voice-over-IP
4. ADSL vs. SDSL QOS (Quality of Service) for internet transmission
5. Remote audio over IP: 3G/4G, WLAN, BGAN.

Join us Wednesday, May 11, from noon to 1:30PM at TV Magic, 8112 Engineer Road, in Kearny Mesa, San Diego. Mayah Communications will graciously provide a lunch. As always, members and guests are welcome.