Radio Currents Online – Jan 21 – Jan 27, 2008

Jan 22, 2008 9:37 AM

News

Quincy Jones to Receive NABEF Leadership Award
Washington, DC – Entertainment industry icon Quincy Jones will receive the Celebration of Service to America Leadership Award from the NAB Education Foundation at the 10th annual Celebration of Service to America Gala on June 9. The Leadership Award, NABEF’s highest honor, is presented to an individual who has performed extraordinary public service in bettering the lives of others.

Jones is being recognized for his humanitarian work in establishing the Listen Up Foundation and the We Are the Future Foundation, both dedicated to helping underprivileged youth. He has also served as a committed leader in preserving and promoting African-American art through the Institute for Black American Music and the Black Arts Festival.

Inspired by events from his own childhood, Jones founded the Listen Up Foundation in 1991 to connect impoverished children with education, music and culture. In 2004, Jones helped launch We Are the Future to build youth centers in poor and war-torn countries. Both projects have successfully served underprivileged children throughout the world, exposing them to new opportunities and a more positive future.

Born Quincy Delight Jones, Jr. in Chicago in 1933, Jones began his career as a trumpeter with the legendary bandleader Lionel Hampton. Among his many accolades and honors, Jones has received 27 Grammy Awards and has a record 79 Grammy Award nominations. He produced two all-time best-sellers: Michael Jackson’s album entitled “Thriller,” which sold 104 million copies worldwide, and “We Are the World,” the all-time best-selling single, which raised money for Ethiopian famine relief.

Jones’ significant achievements have earned him recognition from a variety of institutions. He was the first African-American producer to be nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Picture for The Color Purple, as well as the first to win the Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. In 2000, Harvard University endowed the Quincy Jones Professorship of Afro-American Music. Shortly thereafter, in 2001, Jones received the prestigious French Legion d’Honneur medal.

NAB Crystal Radio Award Entries Due Feb. 1
Washington – Jan 23, 2008 – The National Association of Broadcasters Crystal Radio Award is given for year-round commitment to community service. In all, 50 finalists will be honored and 10 winners announced during the Radio Luncheon at the NAB Show on April 15. In addition, one person from each of the winning stations will be flown to Washington, DC, in June to represent their station at the Celebration of Service to America Awards.

Entry information is available at the NAB website.

APRE Seeks Engineering Award Nominees
Washington – Jan 23, 2008 – The Association of Public Radio Engineers (APRE) is now accepting nominations for the 2nd annual APRE Engineering Achievement Award. The award will be presented at the annual engineering dinner on April 11, 2008, during the public Radio Engineering Conference in Las Vegas.

The honor recognizes an individual for outstanding contributions to the art and/or science of radio engineering that have made a significant impact on, or improvement in, the state of the public radio industry.

The nomination form is available at www.nprlabs.org. Questions about the award process can be directed to Roger Karwoski at [email protected].

Business

Irdeto Licenses Cyphercast Encryption Technology to International Datacasting
Ottawa, ON – Jan 21, 2008 – International Datacasting Corporation has entered into an agreement to license Irdeto’s Cyphercast IP encryption technology. Under the terms of the agreement, the ongoing sales and development of the Cyphercast IP product as well as support for Cyphercast customers will transfer to IDC. The agreement also enables IDC to combine the Cyphercast IP encryption technology with the Irdeto Pisys and Flex SMS products under an existing reseller agreement where IDC would be the only supplier of Cyphercast IP conditional access systems.

Cyphercast is a secure smart card or SIM-based conditional access system that is used to provide IP-level encryption and decryption of file-based content and streaming media.

Balsys Companies, Systems Store Relocate to Larger Spaces
Winter Garden, FL – Jan 18, 2008 – Balsys Technology Group and Systems Store have relocated to larger spaces to accommodate their growth in systems integration and product distribution. Larry Lamoray, CEO of the Balsys Companies, says that move is a reaction to increased demand for the company’s studio and RF integration services, as these activities require considerable space and utilities to be performed efficiently.

The space has increased the size of its wood shop to accommodate the demand. In addition, SystemsStore.com is extending beyond its Internet-based business and opening a walk-in store to serve the technical contractors market in Central Florida.

Balsys Technology Group is a systems integration company based in the Orlando area that provides studio and RF services on a nationwide basis to the radio broadcast industry.

The company’s contact info remains the same. The new address is 890 Carter Road #150-160, Winter Garden, FL 34787.

Gibson Guitar and TC Group to Merge
Anaheim, CA – Jan 18, 2008 – Gibson Guitar and TC Group have announced plans to merge. The TC Group, headquartered in Risskov, Denmark, develops and manufactures amplifiers, speakers, digital processors, guitar pedals and other pro audio and MI products.

The plans are in the preliminary stages right now. Under the terms of the merger, TC’s Anders Fauerskov will remain in Europe, and serve as chief operating officer of the new combined Gibson Guitar. The two companies expect to finalize the deal by the end of February 2008.

New HQ for APT
Belfast, Ireland – Jan 24, 2008 – Codec manufacturer APT will move into new facilities on Jan. 25, 2008 to accommodate the company’s growth. Effective Jan. 28, the company’s new address and phone numbers will be
APT Ltd.
Whiterock Business Park
729 Springfield Road
Belfast BT12 7FP
Northern Ireland

The new contact numbers are:
Phone: +44 28 9067 7200
Fax: +44 28 9067 7201

During the move on Jan. 25, the company employees will have no access to e-mail. APT asks urgent inquiries to be directed to +44 28 9037 1110. The U.S. offices of APT will be available as usual.

Livewire University Heads to Philadephia
Cleveland – Jan 23, 2008 – Axia Audio has teamed with Broadcasters General Store and Radio Systems to bring a free Livewire University workshop to Philadelphia on Feb. 15, 2008. Livewire University is designed to inform broadcast engineers about IP audio networks. Presented by Axia Audio’s Ken Skok and Jim Armstrong, IP University covers the concepts of IP audio as it is applied in the Livewire system.

The event is cosponsored by 25/Seven Systems, Audio Science, Broadcast Bionics and International Datacasting.

Livewire University Philadelphia is free to attendees, and will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Hampton Inn, 1301 Race St., Philadelphia. More information: [email protected], Clark Novak at Axia Audio, 216-241-7225. Online registration is available at www.radiosystems.com/livewireuniversity.

Arbitron, Entercom Sign Multi-year PPM Agreement
New York – Jan 23, 2008 – Entercom Communications has signed a multi-year contract for Arbitron Portable People Meter radio ratings services. The agreement takes effect as the new audience ratings technology is commercialized in each of 14 markets encompassed in Arbitron’s current PPM rollout plan: Austin, TX; Boston; Denver; Greensboro-Winston Salem-High Point, NC; Indianapolis; Kansas City, MO; Memphis, TN; Milwaukee, WI; Norfolk, PA; Portland, OR; Providence, RI; Sacramento, CA; San Francisco and Seattle.

The agreement covers all 64 stations owned by Entercom in the radio markets scheduled to convert to PPM measurement by the end of 2010. Over the next three years, Arbitron is scheduled to deploy the Portable People Meter in the top 50 markets in place of the paper diary method that the company has used to collect radio audience estimates since 1965.

CBC/Radio-Canada Taps Lawo for Facility Project
Toronto, ON – Jan 21, 2008 – Lawo has reached agreement with CBC/Radio-Canada for the delivery and implementation of a new central audio router and control system for all CBC/Radio-Canada radio production and distribution in Montreal. The agreement covers a project that will commence in January 2008, with an intended on-air deployment by May 2008. Subsequently, the system will expand to four regional stations that will be integrated into the system by October 2008, with more stations integrating after this. The yearlong, multistage deployment is targeted for completion in December 2008.

The system is built around two Lawo Nova 73 router cores interconnected with 18 Lawo DALLIS frames for AES and analog I/O, which will be distributed throughout multiple locations of CBC/Radio-Canada’s French language broadcast operations. The completed project will ultimately encompass roughly 3,000 I/Os; 400 DSP channels; and 110 stereo peak program meters (PPMs).

From June through October 2008, the initial router and control system will be expanded to include four regional stations throughout Quebec. These deployments — occurring at a rate of approximately one station per month — will include the smaller Lawo Nova 17 routers. Each of these compact routers will be equipped with integrated fader, gain, PPMs, and silence detectors.

Klotz Digital Australia has been selected to rebuild the studios of Austereo Melbourne. Klotz will provide Vadis D.C.II mixing consoles, Vadis 888 frames for all on-air studios, pre-production studios and news booths. Klotz will also provide all signal routing for the main control room and a Varizone digital public address system.

People

Dielectric Adds Popescu to Engineering Team
Raymond, ME – Jan 22, 2008 – Catalin Popescu has joined Dielectric Communications as an application/proposal engineer. Having worked in the broadcast industry since 1988, Popescu is now responsible for the preparation of technical specifications for TV, FM, and mobile media RF systems for Dielectric worldwide.

In his new role, Popescu provides technical product support for OEM customers and the company’s sales staff. This includes the preliminary design of TV, FM and mobile media RF systems and the development of technical proposals and presentations.

Popescu joins the Dielectric team from Larcan, where he was manager of the project management and application engineering department. In this role he was responsible for creating technical specifications and diagrams to support the company’s products, managing product specifications and adherence to global regulatory policies, and overseeing a team of sales engineers, application engineers, contract administrators, and customer service support staff. Prior to his time with Larcan, Popescu was the director of the radio and television broadcasting department at the National Company of Radiocommunications (Radiocom) in Bucharest, Romania. Before joining Radiocom, he took part in Harris’s co-op engineering program, working on the tuning and factory acceptance tests of FM transmitters. For the first 10 years of his career, Popescu worked as an in-house engineer for various radio stations.

APT Appoints New Financial Director
Belfast – Jan 17, 2008 – APT has added to its senior management team with the appointment of Mark Weir as financial director.

Weir has more than 10 years of financial experience having qualified as a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland in 1998. Since qualifying, Weir has held positions with a number of companies, most recently as finance director of Motis Ireland Limited, a large shipping agent. Prior to joining Motis, he was vice president of finance at UPU Industries and financial controller at both UTA Enterprise Solutions and Celluarfones.

Klotz Promotes Two in Asia
Sydney – Jan 21, 2008 – Patrick Salloch has been promoted to general manager of Klotz Digital Asia Pacific. Salloch, who has managed Klotz Digital’s Australia office since 2006, will take over the position from Thomas Marcher, who has left the company for personal reasons.

In addition, Keith Prestidge will overlook and manage all engineering resources as technical director Asia Pacific. Prestidge has been with Klotz Digital since 2001. Since then he has been involved in all large broadcast and PA projects throughout the entire region.

Products

Omnia.8x and ONE FM Now Shipping
Cleveland � Jan 24, 2008 – Omnia Audio is now shipping One FM, the latest addition to the popular Omnia One audio processor for multicast broadcasting, and Omnia8.x, the processor that processes eight stereo audio channels at the same time.

Omnia One FM features the same processing topology as the original Omnia FM, and includes a wideband AGC/leveler, four-band AGC and a separate four-band limiter section with precision crossover. Omnia One FM also includes Omnia’s pre-emphasized final limiter/clipper.

Omnia.uses eight discrete three-band stereo Omnia audio processors in a single, 2RU networked box.

Audio I/O enters and exits on a Livewire Ethernet port, ready to connect to an Axia IP-Audio network.