Local News

The SBE Ennes Workshop at the 2023 NAB Show

The SBE Ennes Workshop is the traditional kick-off for the NAB Show. In 2023, it will span two days on April 14 and 15. It will also be a stand-alone event with separate registration from the convention.

There are two separate educational tracks: RF 101 Boot Camp and NextGen Broadcast. It’s all happening at the Westgate Resort, so it’s convenient to arrive two days early and attend the SBE Ennes Workshop before the exhibits open.

Registration for two days packed with information is only $199. When you register for the SBE Ennes Workshop, you will receive a code for $150 off your NAB Show conference registration. Get all the details and register now.

The NextGen Broadcast track also serves as an ideal preparation for the SBE ATSC3 Specialist Certification exam. A special SBE ATSC3 Certification exam opportunity will be offered following the session on April 15. If you are eligible to take the SBE Specialist exam, you must also register (separately) by March 13.

Meetings

It’s Angry Audio for Our Online Meeting

We’ve noticed over the past year a lot of buzz about an entirely new product line called Chameleon.  The first audio processor that analyzes the program content to determine how to process it.  Current audio processors require a golden ear, IT competency, and a lot of time and patience to set up.  The Chameleon does all that tweaking based on the music coming in—delivering consistent program level with big sound and great presence. There are currently three models in production, with several more just around the corner.

Join us Tuesday, February 14th at 11:30 AM PST by first registering for the Zoom call here. This presentation was organized by Chapter 47, Los Angeles. 

About the Presenters

Michael Dosch is the founder and owner of Angry Audio. Known by his friends as “Catfish”, he is one of the broadcast industry’s most prolific product designers. He is probably best known for his work as founder/president of Axia (Telos) where he led the team that introduced AoIP into broadcast. Angry Audio was a side project where Catfish could create some small problem-solving products more for fun than profit. But demand was far greater than expected and he soon devoted his full-time energy to it. In 2020, Angry Audio acquired the company formerly known as Radio Systems and continues to manufacture the popular StudioHub line of products alongside the Angry Audio offerings. 

Cornelius Gould is a radio veteran, using his uniquely resonant voice on the mic for several stations in the Cleveland market, as well as many others and several streams beyond the OTA coverage area. But he’s a bit of a geek as well, and in fact, he’s a rocket enthusiast in his spare time.  That geekness led him into engineering roles at the stations, and he gravitated towards getting the most out of the signal he had to work with.  Eventually, he became part of the development team at Omnia, and was instrumental in designing the Omnia.11 and Volt products.  Taking everything he has learned over the years and programming it into a chip is his latest project.

National

Skyview Hacked

Skyview, the distribution service used by CBS Radio News, ABC Radio News, and others, failed yesterday as radio station affiliates found silence when their automation systems had expected network news insertions. Skyview posted the following announcement to stations receiving their streams through XDS receivers:

Skyview Networks experienced unauthorized access to its IT environment, resulting in interrupted technical services. Immediately upon learning of the incident, Skyview activated its comprehensive incident response plan. We have initiated advanced monitoring and threat detection across our systems and data. We have also engaged third-party forensic experts to help us contain and investigate the incident. These efforts are fully underway.

IMPORTANT:

During this undetermined period of time, it is advised NOT to reboot your XDS receiver.

Please reach out to affiliaterelations@skyviewsat.com if you have any questions.

National

You Have Options When Monitoring PEPs

San Diego and Imperial Counties can hand broadcast engineers some challenges with respect to receiving the Emergency Alert System (EAS) LP1 and LP2 stations, both AMs. If you are relaying the signals of KOGO 600 and KLSD 1360 from an AM transmitter site, you must have good filtering and shielding from your own transmitter signal, and be able to receive the signal at night. And if you’re in El Centro, how do you even receive a Primary Entry Point (PEP) signal required for national tests?

Richard Rudman, California State Emergency Coordination Committee Vice-Chair, has some viable suggestions for receiving PEPs:

  • Monitor your usual LP-1, like KOGO, which depends on receiving a PEP signal
  • Monitor the NPR network via satellite
  • Monitor an NPR affiliate like KPBS San Diego or KQVO Calexico
  • Monitor SiriusXM’s “barker” channel.

The latter option is worth explaining. You can use any SiriusXM receiver and as long as you hear audio, you’re good. The barker channel is the free channel used as a reception confidence signal and for promoting their subscription options. In the event of a national emergency or test, they interrupt that, or any, active channel you are listening to with any national EAS message.

National

FCC Directs Stations to Submit Form One to ETRS by February 28

The FCC announced in mid-December that February 28 is the new deadline for submitting a Form One in the EAS Test Reporting System (ETRS) in anticipation of a National EAS Test, which, as of this writing, does not have a test date established.

While there was no national test in 2022, if your station was operating before last year, you likely have an account set up on the ETRS. The FCC said it would open the site for Form One filings on January 3, 2023.

Society of Broadcast Engineers