XM Expands Its Klotz System

Klotz Digital said XM, its client, has expanded its Vadis audio and control platform in the satellite company’s tech center in Washington.
The satellite company expanded last October, to accommodate XM’s Internet streaming services, and in April of this year, for Major League Baseball. Each was preceded with an expansion to the inputs and outputs of the central router core.
“This brought the size up to 3808 x 4320 with enough capacity still for further expansion,” Klotz stated. “XM Satellite Radio now has in use a total of 144 Vadis 880 audio frames making up the TOC. A further 100 frames are in use in the studios within the D.C. facility.”
Remote facilities in New York and Nashville complete the platform.
The XM router in Washington handles all the audio and serial data routing for the facility. Song title and artist information is routed as serial strings in RS-232, RS-422 or combined forms and follows the audio.
“Due to the large number of channels being broadcast and the immense size of the router, silence sensing at specific points in the system had to be automatically integrated,” Klotz said. “These sensors trigger the initiation of primary, secondary and tertiary switching as necessary to ensure that XM can broadcast without loss of signal.”