Clear Channel Station Uses PCAU for Program Feed

APT has added a Florida Clear Channel radio facility to the list of users of its PCAU products.
To ensure phasing of left and right channels, Chief Engineer Charlie Wooten specified circuits based around the APT/Pulsecom Program Channel Access Unit. The audio card uses APT’s apt-X audio data compression algorithm. It’s a telcom product but has found an STL application here.
The stations in the Panama City area use an analog 15 kHz program circuit, previously installed by the local telephone company. The new circuit is used to feed program material from studios to the WDIZ(AM) transmitter. Wooten told APT he couldn’t mount additional STL antennas on his directional array or build another tower without having to re-engineer the DA.
APT and Pulsecom launched the joint venture to produce these cards in 2001. “PCAU represents a major breakthrough in high-bandwidth public network audio transport,” APT says in its marketing material, “because it frees operating companies from the ‘manual workarounds’ and ‘special assemblies’ that had prevented them from selling broadband audio alongside broadband data.”
The PCAU is configured as an encoder or decoder to support 5, 7.5, 8 or 15 kHz tariffed telco services over 64 kbs or 128 kbs links, respectively, enabling broadcast audio from a D4, DLC or NGDLC carrier system. The cards are sold through Pulsecom sales channels to telecommunications companies.
Info: www.aptx.com