We’re featuring a series of interviews with industry thought leaders about trends in STL.
Jacob Daniluck is Tieline’s VP Sales for the Americas. He specializes in upgrading broadcast codec infrastructure connecting over terrestrial, satellite and wireless IP networks and technologies.
Radio World: What important developments should we know about, in how radio stations deliver audio and data to their transmitters?
Jacob Daniluck: The latest trend we’ve seen at Tieline is with MPX codecs for STLs. This functionality has allowed radio stations to reduce operational expenses by backhauling equipment back to the studio by reducing the amount of power and maintenance at tower sites. The other big trend we’ve noticed is the increase in dual network connectivity at tower sites. As towers are the most mission-critical aspect of a radio station operation, engineers are starting to drop in multiple internet providers to help leverage a more robust connection back to the studio. This is one of the key reasons we redesigned the newest Bridge-IT IP codec to incorporate dual LAN technology for redundancy.
RW: Given that many transmitter sites still do not have cell or hardwire connectivity, what options do these stations have?
Daniluck: If there is no cellular or hardline solution from an ISP, I’d say it’s time to start looking towards terrestrial satellite links. Yes, terrestrial satellite ISPs may not be the cheapest on the market, but all the benefits you receive by having an internet connection should outweigh the costs of maintaining a satellite connection. For those who unfortunately can’t get a good satellite connection, I’d suggest relaying an IP connection from another location using unlicensed or licensed wireless repeaters.
RW: How can stations harden or prepare station audio for delivery over today’s links?
Daniluck: The best practices that we like to follow for STLs are based around diversity and redundancy. This is because not all internet links are created equally. We’ve seen several clients lately receive hundreds of Mbps at their tower sites, and they think just because they are approaching 1000 Mbps they should be good, period. However, reality would state that hundreds of Mbps is most likely good enough for the link itself, but that doesn’t mean it’s reliable enough for the mission-critical aspect of your business.
This is one of the reasons internet providers offer Service Level Agreements, to help ensure uptime is maintained at your location. However, SLAs are expensive to maintain operating, and this is why Tieline developed our SmartStream Plus protocol years ago for real-time redundancy over multiple internet links. This way you don’t need SLAs with your ISP unless you have other reasons to pursue those types of contracts.
[Related: “Audacy Selects Tieline for Live MLB Coverage”]
RW: What is the role of MicroMPX in this discussion?
Daniluck: The ability to connect over WANs like the internet at low bitrates with µMPX is a game-changer for broadcasters, as it dramatically expands the number of STL sites that can receive composite signals. µMPX also facilitates multipoint distribution via multicasting or multiple unicasting. This reduces costs by affordably replicating streams at the studio using a single encoder, similar to how baseband IP audio streams can be replicated in audio codecs. Costs are reduced by eliminating the need for multiple encoders, as well as processors and RDS equipment at transmitter sites. When this is multiplied across multiple STL sites, the savings can be enormous.
RW: How can we secure radio’s STL connections against bad actors?
Daniluck: Always use secure passwords — never the default one! Apart from recommending firewalls and VPNS, some other features we have incorporated include the ability to install SSL security certificates to ensure codecs are trusted devices within your network. Tieline codecs also have the ability to configure SIP filter lists, which provide filtering of SIP URIs and User Agents to provide greater security when using SIP. Tieline also offers firewall settings to enable or disable a range of firewall-related network services and we have implemented CSRF protection (Cross-Site Request Forgery) which avoids unwanted attacks on web applications.
RW: Other thoughts?
Daniluck: Go and search Shodan.io and look up any internet-based product name. You’ll find a list of IP addresses with said product scannable on the open internet. Sometimes these devices are behind some sort of firewall for protection, and other times they are wide open with default user names and passwords. Without proper firewalls, or edge devices, sites like Shodan will easily scan your IP, store that information and then someone will use that information to exploit your broadcast facility.
Read more on this topic in the radio World ebook “Getting Data Up the Hill.”
