Category Archives: Meetings

Local News, Meetings

May 18 Meeting: RTS and Dante

By now, you’ve likely heard about the audio-over-IP protocol called Dante. It’s low-latency so that you can use it with live audio, and can pass through most data switches. Many of the largest broadcast suppliers have adopted it. RTS, the intercom company that has been around since the 1970s, will come to town and explain why their latest generation of products is knee-deep into Dante.telex-rts-logo

They can answer a few questions you might have:

  • What data rates are used?
  • What is the packet structure?
  • Does it play well in my network?
  • How many audio channels can fit at a time?
  • What is its latency? Will my air staff hear an echo?
  • When should I favor analog audio, if at all?
  • Are there phone apps that work with intercom systems now?

Jeff Shorsher of RTS/Telex will sort out these topics and more in a meeting Wednesday, May 18 at 12 noon at KFMB Stations, 7677 Engineer Road in Kearny Mesa. Join us for a lunch provided by RTS, then a general meeting and presentation. Members and guests are all welcome.

About the Presenters

Jeff Shorsher is new to RTS, but has a long history in broadcast engineering, most recently as sales representative for Commscope. He worked as engineer at KTTY (now Fox 5), Paramount Pictures, and National Mobile Television. He has math and computer science degrees from UCSD and broadcast engineering training from Palomar College.

Calvin Ogawa has served as Field Support Engineer for RTS since 2011, but has served many broadcast engineering roles in southern California, including those for Fox Sports West, ABC Network News, Paramount Studios, KCET-TV, and NPR.

Local News, Meetings

March 16th Meeting – Cobalt Digital

Some of what’s going on in TV broadcasting would have been impossible just a few years ago. For example, stations are now converting their news or event ticker text to speech on a secondary audio channel for the visually impaired, bringing them information never before heard. We can now normalize audio levels within an MPEG transport stream.

Cobalt started as a video accessories company in the analog broadcast era, but has taken on serial digital and now transport stream processing. Come see what solutions they have to offer. Cobalt Digital visits Chapter 36 Wednesday, March 16 at 12 o’clock noon at KGTV, 4600 Air Way, San Diego to discuss these technologies and more. Cobalt will provide lunch.

About the Presenter

In his role as Cobalt Digital’s Director of Product and Business Development, Jesse Foster helps to develop new products, does technical sales, marketing, and customer support. He is also a fiber optics and compression product specialist. Before joining Cobalt nearly four years ago, Foster spent eight years at Evertz, two in customer service and six in a senior technical sales position. Foster is a certified fiber-optic technician well-versed in large video-routing systems, multiviewers, video and audio processing, fiber optics, RF, streaming media/compression, live production, postproduction, and broadcast.

Meetings

February Meeting: Wheatstone

Lukas Hurwitz, West Coast Sales Engineer for Wheatstone, will present on Advancements in AoIP Networking.

The presentation will cover the latest developments in audio networking with WheatNet-IP. Additionally, Lukas will go over the major benefits for Radio and TV broadcasters and provide examples of the integrated software and hardware tools currently available.

Join us Wednesday, February 10, 2016 at 12 noon at iHeartMedia, 9660 Granite Ridge Drive, San Diego. Wheatstone buys lunch. Members and guests welcome. Continue reading February Meeting: Wheatstone →

Meetings

January Meeting – DVEO, Local Company with Cool Tools

Outfitting a TV channel with playout automation can be a real challenge. “Channel-in-a-box” solutions turn out to be more expensive than advertised because you end up buying a dizzying array of modules and licenses to get EAS, graphics layers, dynamic content, satellite network sources, and ASI inputs and outputs. Your vendor can make your product ownership experience frustrating because support is overseas or you have to pay for a big contract.

Local supplier DVEO is gaining traction with some interesting solutions for broadcasters of all kinds, whether a cable station, LPTV station, government channel, or a subchannel at your major affiliate TV station. DVEO will appear this month to show us modern tools for inserting commercials, network and local media, graphics layers, and even EAS into an SDI or ASI stream.

We’ll also get a look at a 4K resolution brand spanking new H.265 HEVC encoder and decoder pair. While you may not think of 4K as a practical format for broadcast yet, you can still use this codec for transmission of conventional HD video at about half the bandwidth of H.264.

Join us Wednesday, January 20 at 12 noon at KFMB, 7677 Engineer Road in Kearny Mesa, San Diego. DVEO will buy us lunch.

Meetings

Holiday Luncheon Planned at Casa Machado

Once again Chapter 36 will meet to simply talk shop, share some cheer, and toast to a great coming year.

Our past meeting place, Cozymel’s at UTC, is now rubble, so we’ll gather at Casa Machado, 3750 John J. Montgomery Drive, on the south side of the runways at Montgomery Field in Kearny Mesa, San Diego. Date is Wednesday, December 16, 2015. The meeting time is a bit earlier, at 11:30AM. 

Whether you’re a member, a guest, or just came to town, you’re welcome. Expect to spend about $15 – 20 for lunch and a tip.

If you would like to donate a gift for an exchange, let us know and bring it with you.