Click on the Image to Enlarge
Wheatstone Corp. has announced that its AirAura X3, FM-531HD and VP-8IP FM processors are now capable of directly outputting an AES/EBU digital signal directly to a transmitter, so long as it is equipped with a digital baseband input. This will be a standard feature on shipping models.
Called Wheatstone baseband192, the software upgrade is also free for units in the field.
Wheatstone says that baseband192 uses open standard technology and eliminates the need for an analog composite interface between processing and transmission. That can provide a purely digital airchain.
In a release, Wheatstone elaborates, “A single AES/EBU cable between a Wheatstone processor and the transmitter carries the baseband signal, bypassing the need for multiplexing in the exciter and eliminating the resulting signal overshoot with associated loudness tradeoff.”
Jeff Keith, a senior Wheatstone product design engineer, explained, “We simply digitize the entire multiplex spectrum up to and including the RDS, then send that digitized signal directly to the modulator of the exciter.”