VII-1

Studio/News Room Automation-An update

Mr Arnaud ElnecaveManaging Director, Dalet

VII-2

Studio/News Room Automation-An update

bandwidths have reached performance levels Journalists in the drivers seatand cost points that make it economic for A second generation of newsroom computer broadcast quality media to go tapeless. Last year, systems appeared in the mid-1990s to address it became cheaper to store 25Mb/s video that goal. With the introduction of its Electronic material on computer hard drives than on video News Production System (ENPS), the tapes. The advent of tapeless electronic news Associated Press achieved a tour de force by gathering (ENG) based on Grass Valley Infinity, successfully defining and imposing a new Panasonic P2 and Sony XDCAM is further protocol — Media Object Server (MOS) — as a acce lerat ing th i s move to f i l ebased standard communication mechanism. Systems environments. Gigabit Ethernet networks now such as Avid iNews and Dalet OpenMedia offer the bandwidth required to migrate digital followed suit. The industry took advantage of video from SDI streams to TCP/IP packets. MOS to achieve dynamic communications

between newsroom computer systems and news

production systems. Although each system The Workflow Engine of remained a proprietary island, both could

exchange basic data through MOS messaging. Tapeless Facilities Improved communications resulted in a As tapes disappear and files become the rule, breakthrough, which in turn allowed for the broadcasters have the unique opportunity to partial reengineering of news production. redefine their production workflows. The legacy

divide of news production — with scripts and In addition to user rights management, rundowns on one side and tapes on the other — newsroom computer systems became more has been broken. The thirdgeneration sophisticated. They permitted system newsroom enables the whole workflow, administrators to define sophisticated workflows providing a platform to share scripts and involving item status management, instant rundowns at various levels of completion, as well notification and versioning. as of media clips and their associated metadata

In the gallery, journalists and producers were (the electronic tape labels).allowed to drive things themselves. From the

Spain’s RTPA runs a trimedia TV/radio/Web newsroom computer system, they could control operation, with TV scripts also used for the radio news. and trigger third-party devices or equipment;

automation was partially commoditized. In addition to providing user management and Multichannel broadcasters started dreaming of workflow functionalities, these thirdgeneration “bi-media” operations in which a single newsroom computer systems (3G|NCS) allow newsroom platform could feed and control for more sophisticated metadata and media output to both radio and television transmitters. management. By doing so, these 3G|NCS make

it much easier to handle networked digital Then the Internet wave hit. Web sites became a media; they automatically capture contextual “must have” for all news organizations. For metadata collected during news gathering and technology vendors, open systems became the give system administrators the flexibility to tailor rule and XML its lingua franca. Today, metadata schemascomputing power, storage and network

VII-3

to fit the needs of their own organizations. In incoming feeds from any desktop, the ability to

doing so, 3G|NCS make sure that editors can strip the audio of a radio story to produce a last-

determine at any time who did what and why. minute piece for the TV newscast or to capture

Finding relevant, accurate information has frames from a video package and convert these

always been important to meeting editorial into still images for a Web site facilitate the

standards. Properly labeled material and sources constant re-working of raw material and

have become essential to maintain both speed constitute the basics of any tri-media,

and accuracy in a very competit ive multichannel newsroom.

env i ronment . In th i s mu l t i channe l , Shown here is the news gallery at Radiotelevisión del multiplatform world, separating the shelf life of Principado de Asturias (RTPA) in northern Spain. The content from its transmission date has become tapeless newsroom shoots with a Panasonic P2 and airs of strategic importance. It allows stations to with a DaletPlus News Suite. provide access to material that would otherwise

To do this, however, 3G newsrooms need to be locked away in vaults. Each media channel — make media migration from one news AM/FM, digital radio, SD and HD television, production system to another as seamless as Web sites and mobile services — has its own possible. Such flawlessness requires integration constraints and formatting guidelines. But there that goes beyond the data exchange supported is huge benefit in providing mutual access to raw by the original MOS protocol. It implies that source material: the possibility to browse

VII-4

By merging such media asset management

features with the core workflow engine found

inside newsroom computer systems, 3G

newsrooms are capable of much more than the

day's news bulletin. They are the key to massive

productivity gains. By merging media

production and metadata intake into a single

workflow, broadcasters can deploy a more cost-

efficient news production model. Such a re-

engineering of work processes can occur only

through incremental change management. It

must leverage on an open, scalable newsroom

solution that combines the benefits of central

media warehousing, integrated workflow, easy-

to-use production tools, and automated

broadcast and distribution.

In doing so, broadcast organizations can convert

news stories and clips into corporate assets that

can be redistributed over more and more

delivery platforms. More importantly,

journalists can be empowered with the tools they platforms be open enough to allow for media

need to do what they do best: delivering the most essence and associated metadata to migrate

accurate news, faster than the competition. across the network, from system to system. It also

means that wrapper and format conversions are

automated in order to ensure that once content

is found, it can be easily repurposed.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

A graduate from the prestigious French engineering university École Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Métiers, he started his career in the oil industry, in Venezuela. He then spent five years at l'Oréal in Paris where he was in charge of IT projects dedicated to supply chain management, before moving to operational marketing and sales manager. Arnaud joined Dalet in 2006, as Managing director for Asia Pacific.

VII-5

Mr Mike PowellVP International, RCS Inc

Automation and Newsroom Software

VII-6

Automation and Newsroom Software

[and tools to compete in the Digital Era]

RCS was founded in 1979 by Dr. Andrew France, Germany, Sweden, Poland, Italy,

Economos for the purposes of developing Czech Republic, Canada, Dubai, USA

programming software for the radio industry. and Latin America.

The Selector® music scheduling system is the RCS has been in India right from the beginning industry standard, and is used by more than 85% of commercial radio; our clients include the of radio stations worldwide. Selector helps country's largest radio operators.broadcast music programmers make their song

rotations consistent and balanced. Based on

programming strategies created by each station, The Heart of the StudioSelector provides an on-air play list complete

While the scheduler is the most important tool with reports and analysis capabilities for any for the music programmer, the automation or format and any size music library, small to large.playout system is the most important tool for the

Selector was the first of its kind and presenter in the studio. “Playout System” is

revolutionized song management at thousands probably a better term because “Automation”

of stations, and remains today the industry infers that it always automates – which is not so.

standard and most popular radio software in the The vast majority of radio stations have a high

world.proportion of live programming and while this is

Specializing in audio software products, RCS happening, the Playout system provides what we continues to expand and develop products for call “Live Assist”. In other words, it provides the radio broadcast and television applications, as maximum degree of help to allow the presenter well as audio products for the Internet. to do their job while pushing a minimum

number of buttons! If a sequence can be RCS remains the ONLY broadcast software automated (for example, an advertising break, company that is able to provide a total suite of station promotion, station identification jingle or software that covers all of radio's needs:production bit and into the next song) … then

· SCHEDULING the Playout system can be configured to do this · PLAYOUT (AUTOMATION) with one key press.· LOGGING

· MONITORING

· COMMERCIAL TRAFFIC Playout/Automation Systems· NEWSROOM

• RCS has two current playout systems – · NEW-MEDIA TOOLS NexGen Digital and Master Control SQL.

• NexGen works in conjunction with our

revolutionary scheduler, GSelector.RCS maintains offices all over the world

• Master Control SQL works either with India, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, GSelector or Selector SQL.Thailand, China, Taiwan, Korea, New

Zealand, Australia, South Africa, UK, • Most Indian commercial radio uses

VII-7

Selector/Master Control XV and is about to Note the big green arrow on the top right of this

be upgraded to the new SQL version. picture. Anyone can learn how to use this system

in a basic mode within 10 seconds. Quite simply,

when you press that single green button,

whatever is meant to happen next, will happen Master Control SQLnext. And when the audio stops, that's your cue

Because of a unique feature called the Living to speak – until the next time you choose to press

Log,™ Master Control is the only automation the green button!

system that is Selector-smart and communicates

constantly with the music scheduler – Selector

SQL. This means when you make a change, it Master Control Highlights

automatically appears on the log and in the

studio. • Living Log® integration with Selector,

LINKER and your traffic database keeps Master Control is used in over 100 countries every workstation in sync with log changes. worldwide. Fully integrated with Selector music

scheduling and LINKER promo scheduling, • Voice Tracking™ and Internet Voice

Master Control is user-friendly and easy-to- Tracking™ give your group the flexibility of

learn. So, your on-air staff can focus on their using talent from anywhere around the

creativity, not operations. world and make them sound local.

VII-8

• Selector Smart Ripper® rips CD audio, and • Audio support for Master Control: Windows

then analyzes the file to deliver rich song data PCM (.wav), Broadcast Wave (.bwf) MPEG 1

like title/artist, run time, tempo, texture and Layer 2 128-384Kbps. (44.1K, 48K), MP3

more. All automatically and directly into and WMA (decoding).

your Selector database. • Hardware: Master Control runs on standard

• Au t o - S c h e d u l i n g k n o w s w h e n a rack or desktop PC computers. Networking,

programming schedule is about to run out backup solutions and manufacturer's

and automatically generates more schedule hardware maintenance agreements are

using the station's Selector Rules and available.

Policies, to keep you on the air.

• Precision Segue Editor™ maintains tight After Master Control?transitions and great segues.

Following the merger of RCS and Prophet • Auto-Traffic Integration "grabs" the next Systems, we quickly retired Prophet's MusicGen day's spot log and integrates it into LINKER system in favour of the more widely used and Selector automatically. Selector.

• MC Monitor™ keeps a real-time watchful But it wasn't such an easy decision with eye on all your Master Control computers. It automation/playout systems. Prophet's NexGen can also report (within seconds) any system was in many hundreds of radio stations problems to RCS support and to you via and this robust system had many attributes that email, mobile text message and display were widely appreciated – particularly in screen. America. On the other hand, the RCS Master

• Background Recording captures records Control system integrated tightly with Selector network or external programming feeds to provide the “Living Log” feature and was based on a trigger by Time, Contact Closure, even more widely used around the world.or start of audio.

What we needed for the future was to combine • Audio Editor offers native MPEG2 or linear the best of both systems and then add 21st

editing with built-in time stretch and Century features that would provide a new squeeze. Plus, drag & drop support to your benchmark for radio stations around the world.favorite multi-track editor.

So on November 16-17, 2006, a two-day design • Script Display shows live copy on demand “think tank” (“brainstorming session”) was held

for the ultimate paperless studio. at RCS HQ in White Plains, New York to discuss

• Automatic Time and Temperature the future of automation. We literally locked

announcements. ourselves in our large conference rooms; did

team-building exercises (including building • Launcher: This Automated Task Scheduler model cars!); stuck notes all over the windows; handles daily chores such as data backup, discussed feature requirements and ultimately audio distribution and numerous other pulled everything together to write a detailed assigned tasks. project brief.

• AFS - Audio File System stores shared audio We also came up with a project name – and for on central server or locally on playback the next couple of years, our top secret 21st machine.

VII-9

century playout system was known internally as editing to actual on-air broadcast and story

Project Bengal. archiving. This comprehensive, standalone

newsroom software enables reporters to write Recently Bengal got to the stage where we newscasts, receive and revise wire copy and needed its long-term name, and for this we digitally record, edit and playback audio.searched for something that would work in as

many languages as possible around the world.

The result is ZETTA and this brand new Virtual Newsroomsautomation/playout system will be launched

this year at Broadcast Asia in June … with the With RCSnews as the backbone of your news first version being destined for China, and department, you can create custom Virtual worldwide launch some time later. Newsrooms for each of your writers, reporters

and editors. You can also arrange filing systems,

archives and organizational structure for Newsroom Systems optimal control. This increases workstation

speed and story-creation productivity, thus India remains one of the very few radio markets improving workplace efficiency.in the world where commercial radio is not

permitted to broadcast news. Without wishing to

get involved in Indian politics – it is a matter for Scaleable from giant to tiny India, not a matter for a software vendor – I newsroomsthink most people believe this will change in the

not-too-distant future. Because all radio news departments have As a former journalist myself, I would have to different needs, RCSnews is completely applaud this because I know it will provide scaleable from large network news operations to wonderful new career opportunities for existing single station news "closets". RCSnews can be print journalists and those who will enter configured to adapt perfectly for any of these journalism directly through radio. environments:

Unlike my own baptism in radio news, where we · Network news: Server-based system creating still wrote scripts on typewriters and edited tape and serving all newscasts simultaneously to with razor blades and sticky tape, the 21st affiliates as a typical network "one to many" century radio newsroom is highly computerised. scenario.Everything including audio editing, copy- · Peer-to-peer newsroom: Enterprise-wide writing, archiving, research, wire-ingest and deployment for sharing stories, audio and even reading from a tele-prompter, can all be complete reports among multiple stations, done using one piece of software, which we call, cities, regions, or countries.RCSnews.

· The Outpost: stand-alone, single-operator

system for one newsroom, one station or one

journalist.Write Better News™Whether you're writing your own newscast for RCSnews™is a state-of-the-art radio newsroom the top of the next hour, or editing/stacking system, providing solutions for your entire news stories and audio for an upcoming broadcast, operation from newscast gathering, writing and

VII-10

RCSnews is flexible enough to handle those · Time newscasts based on each reporters'

extremes and everything in between reading speed

Multiple Language SupportFEATURES· Switch from English to any other language News wires

without re-starting · Keep updated with automatic news alerts on

· Run multiple languages from one newsroom any subject as they happen simultaneously

· Sort and customize wire stories dynamically · Enhanced Spell Check allows you to check for easy categorization

just highlighted selections of copy and · Ingest RSS and FTP feeds choose from any loaded language dictionary

· View newswires from all sources · Support for multiple-language data capture

News delivery methods Security

· Deliver live news or insert recorded news · Restrict access with multiple security levels into any studio automation system for each user

· Send completed newscasts to one or many

Web Sites, all at once The Digital Future – Radio's

RevolutionAudio

What about the future? In this difficult global · Record audio streams 24/7

economic climate, what tools can be integrated · Edit audio with the fully integrated single into your “traditional” software suite to take

track audio editor, or use any third party advantage of new revenue streams?editor

Right now, radio is changing all over the world

and despite India's commercial radio industry

being young, it too will be swept up in the Story managementchange.

· Edit scripts or change story sequence during As the global economy falters, radio is being live broadcasts forced to look again at all the possible ways of

· Playback directly from story screen decreasing cost and increasing efficiency – while

· Change look and feel of the screens from understanding that programme quality is what reporter to reporter grows audience and advertising revenue.

· Drag and drop columns into new positions. Radio the world over is looking again at what

smart tools it can acquire to help it maximise

traditional revenue and grow brand new Communication between systems revenue.

· Send IMs (Instant Messages) to any user

VII-11

spreading radio out to multiple interactive

digital platforms.

• Radio should champion social

networking because of its unique

relationship with listeners.

• Skyrock Radio in France is the third

most visited website in the country and the

41st in the world (source: Alexa.com). It

gets seven million unique users every day.

• Advertising on mobile devices is one

of the fastest growing new-media

segments. Even based on existing

technology, Ovum Research predicts text

and ad spending on mobile phones will

reach $1.3b by 2010

RCS has new technologies such as

Rad ioShow wh i ch can p rov ide

synchronised graphics synchronised with

the radio station's audio to virtually any

digital platform that can be imagined,

including mobile phones, digital

billboards, music-only television channels,

websites, DAB, DVB-H and any of the

new digital radio standards. Using

RadioShow, you can send content What's happening in radio at the moment is not (including artist pictures, CD cover art, an evolution, it is a revolution. advertisements, competitions) out from a single

program to multiple digital platforms and the But is it a bloody revolution? In some places, it is. software will repurpose the content as the Traditional radio revenue is falling in many platforms requires it.markets around the world and advertisers and

agencies are switching budget to online. Radio We also have a tool called iSelector – a tool that listening faces ever-growing competition from allows you to have many additional web-based multiple alternatives. radio streams where the user can teach the

system to play their own unique mix of music. However, this revolution has a silver lining. iSelector is already successfully used at Europe's Radio is the medium best-suited to spread its largest radio group (Global Radio, formerly brand to the internet and other digital platforms. GCap Media) for their London rock station, Radio is best-suited to turn radio listeners' ears XFM and their national classic music station, and eyes into revenue.Classic FM. They are planning to roll this out to

How do we do that? By utilising content-rich ALL their stations in the UK.interactive websites, social networking and

VII-12

Media Monitoring Conclusion

RCS also provides radio stations with The global economic conditions may be bad at

contemporaneous monitoring of rival radio the moment, and global economic conditions

stations through its AirCheck service. Songs and affect what is happening locally and regionally.

commercial content for the most popular However, radio has weathered competition

stations in many of India's larger radio markets before and radio has weathered recessions

can be accessed by subscribers within 24 hours before. Radio's unique position as a beloved

of transmission so you can see the strength or “secondary medium” (a medium you can

weakness of your station and competitors; see consume while you are doing something else)

effect of special programming; see audience coupled with smart 21st century technology, will

reaction to presenters; see audience reaction to make it more and more relevant into the future.

individual songs – instantly, and over time.

Objective information from AirCheck can even

be imported directly into our GSelector

scheduler so that your programming can be

adjusted automatically to match the needs of

your target audience, if you wish.

VII-13

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Mike Powell is a former British newspaper and radio journalist who hosted top-rated morning shows on several UK music radio stations before transitioning to station management. He was Program Director of County Sound (Guildford, UK) from 1984 to 1986 and then CEO from 1986 to 1991 - growing the group to eight radio stations. His innovations at County Sound included being the first UK radio station to use RCS Selector 24 hours a day and introducing the UK's first gold format radio station. Powell designed the programming for award-winning station, Fox FM (Oxford) - a joint venture with Capital Radio (London).

After taking County Sound to a full UK stock market listing, he departed to form radio investment, research and management company, Infinity Radio, which set up Pirate FM (Cornwall) with Powell as launch CEO. Infinity then merged with UKRD Group where Mike became CEO - eventually building the group to well over 20 radio stations and associated companies.

While running UKRD, Powell played a key role in launching Manchester's Kiss 102 and served as launch CEO of Berkshire's Star FM, which was joint launch customer in the UK for RCS Master Control. In 1995, he launched the new County Sound Radio Network consisting of County Sound Radio, 96.4 The Eagle and Delta Radio.

In 2001 Powell became Chairman of Infinity Media which then separated from UKRD to concentrate on digital platform technologies. In October 2002, he joined RCS as Vice President of its International division.

VII-15

Abstract

In the last decade, noise floor levels have risen due increased urbanization, more stations in the AM & FM bands, and an increased number of high frequency devices in the home, workplace and car. This paper will examine available data about current noise levels, both theoretical and anecdotal, and describe possible efforts that broadcasters can make to maintain their coverage area.

Mr Charles W. KellyDirector of Sales, Nautel

Implications of Increasing Man Made

Noise Floor Levels on Radio Broadcasting

VII-16

caused by thermal agitation of electrons, and is Introductionroughly linear with respect to frequency.

Noise in the radio frequency bands has been Because atmospheric noise declines so with us since the beginning, as there are reports dramatically with frequency, thermal noise is the of Marconi complaining about ignition noise dominant natural noise source on the FM from early cars. While natural sources of noise, broadcast band.including atmospheric noise and cosmic noise,

have remained relatively stable over the last

century, man made noise has increased due to Man Made: Power Line Noisethe proliferation of unintentional radiators such

Power line noise often is caused by arcing across as microprocessor controlled devices,

power line equipment. It declines in amplitude fluorescent lighting, RF lighting, dimmers,

with frequency, and is typically more switch mode power supplies, remote control

troublesome in rainy and windy conditions. It devices, and the like.

affects AM and FM but is most often noticed on

AM as the recognizable buzz is demodulated in

an AM receiver more readily than on FM. Power Noise Sources in the Radio

line noise is carried and radiated by the high Environment tension lines compounding the problem.

Radio noise comes from a variety of sources,

both man made and natural, and the intensity Man Made: Light Dimmer Noise

varies both on a time of day as well as a seasonal Light dimmers made for home use incorporate basis. Frequency distribution also depends on thyristor devices which switch the AC line the noise type. voltage with a very fast rise time. Unless effective

Natural: Atmospheric Noisefiltering is used, these fast rise times can cause

Atmospheric noise is primarily caused by ringing which creates interference primarily in lightning, and as such, varies due to the the AM band. Again, the AC power distribution proximity to storms, and the time of the year. serves as the antenna for the noise.The noise amplitude caused declines roughly 50

Man Made: Microprocessor and High dB per frequency decade from 10 kHz to 10

Speed Digital CircuitryMHz. Atmospheric noise is the dominant

Huge advancements have been made in the natural noise source in the AM band. speeds of computers, while at the same time Atmospheric noise is more problematic in the there has been significant growth in the number night time hours because distant lightning of microprocessors in so many other devices in storms can propagate long distances via sky regular household use. Since these devices all wave.include clocks ranging from a few kilohertz to

Natural: Thermal Noisehundreds of megahertz, even when effective

Thermal noise (aka Johnson–Nyquist noise) is a shielding and filtering are used, the cumulative

Implications of Increasing Man Made

Noise Floor Levels on Radio Broadcasting

VII-17

effect of these devices raises the noise floor in the power companies have implemented technology

home, office, and automotive environment. in which high frequency radio signals are carried

on power lines. While US implementations of The noise generated by high speed logic has this have been limited to roughly 1.7MHz to caused serious problems in AM and FM receiver 80MHz1 and would thus be limited to the design as the controllers used for the display as spectrum between the AM and FM bands, well as decoding of digital radio modes create internationally this is not always the case, and signals which are picked up by the adjacent could be significant source of noise to radio receiver front end circuitry, limiting the effective broadcasters. sensitivity of the receiver.

Man Made: Co-channel or adjacent Man Made: Touch Control Lampsstations

In the past few years, inexpensive lamps for the The population of radio stations worldwide has home which may be switched on an off, or multiplied several times in the past 20 years on through a range of brightness levels, by touching both AM & FM, as new services are authorized a capacitive plate have become available. These by governing bodies. In the US, in just the last lamps generally contain a free-running oscillator decade, 2,000 more stations have gone on the air, which changes frequency when the plate is plus 831 LPFM's, plus 5,900 translators and touched. Unfortunately, these oscillators are also boosters6. rich in harmonics and can radiate a wide range

in frequency.

Noise Distribution by LocationMan Made: Broadband over Power Line Rural areas suffer the least with noise, and

In an effort to bring high speed internet access increasing levels of development have a

cost effectively to a wide geographic area, some correspondingly higher average noise level. For

AM Band Noise

010

2030

405060

7080

90100

0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7

Frequency (MHz)

Fa

Med

ian

No

ise

Lev

el

(dB

)

Business

Residential

Rural

Quiet Rural

VII-18

example, from a NTIA2 study in 1974, areas decade or more ago as methodology and test set

defined as “business” showed about 4dB greater ups are difficult to duplicate accurately. An

average noise, regardless of frequency, than did NTIA study in 2001 indicated that VHF man

“residential” areas. Similarly, “residential” noise made noise had remained constant relative to

levels averaged 6dB noisier than “rural” levels, measurements in business areas were essentially

which in turn were 16dB noisier than “quiet unchanged and the residential noise levels had

rural” areas. Thus, if it can be assumed that actually declined5. On the other hand,

“quiet rural” areas were limited primarily by anecdotal information from listeners and

atmospheric noise, the noise levels at the broadcasters alike attest to station coverage

“business” areas was 26dB higher, and a result of being limited by increases in man made noise

man made noise sources. levels. AM stations that were once routinely

audible at great distances can no longer be heard From values reported in an ITU study4, graphs beyond their local coverage areas. can be derived which depict average noise levels

in the AM and FM broadcast bands. Note that the NTIA and ITU studies identify

primarily unintentional radiators, as a result, the These estimates do not include intentional man effect of the growth of AM and FM radio made noise, such as new stations. In addition, stations would not be reflected in these studies. where the population is moving from rural areas

to residential or business environments, the noise Nearly a decade ago, the privatization of Radio

level will increase accordingly. had yet to occur in India, and the author had the

opportunity to run some unscientific Changes in Noise Levels within measurements of the AM and FM spectrum in the AM & FM Bands Over Time some of the major cities. Listening to the AM

bands was much like the spectrum looks, silence Several studies have been done with disparate from end to end, with just a few stations audible. results in ambient noise levels today. It's On FM, there was noise on the top half of the challenging to compare measurements made a band, and just one or two stations.

FM Band Noise

-10

-5

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

87 89 91 93 95 97 99 101 103 105 107 109

Frequency (MHz)

Fa

Med

ian

No

ise

Lev

el(d

B)

Business

Residential

Rural

Quiet Rural

VII-19

Chennai AM

Chennai FM

New Delhi AM

VII-20

New Delhi FM

Mumbai AM

Mumbai FM

VII-21

which have terrain shielding.The Effect on Coverage of

- Look into translators which can provide Increased Noise Levelstargeted coverage in key areas

Increased levels of noise have a very predictable

effect on coverage areas. In the example below,

we see the effect of a 16dB increase in the noise Conclusionsfloor on an FM station. In this example, the

The increase in urbanization, the proliferation coverage area is reduced by 71%. of unintentional radiators of man made noise,

and the increase of the number of AM and FM

stations world wide is having an effect on the Possible Solutions for coverage areas of radio stations. Those stations Broadcasterswhich went on the air 10 years ago or more may

Noise level increases are often gradual, and may be experiencing a reduced coverage area. not be noticed day to day. Radio broadcasters

who are affected have a number of choices in

dealing with the reduction in coverage, Referencesdepending on local regulatory conditions:

1. NTIA Report 04-413 “Potential Interference - Consider changes to the transmitter location, From Broadband Over Power Line (BPL)

power and antenna gain, height and S y s t e m s To Fe d e r a l G o v e r n m e n t directivity to provide higher signal strength Radiocommunications At 1.7 - 80 MHz” 2004over the areas most affected by increased

2. Spaulding, A.D., and Disney, R.T. 1974. noise.“Man Made Radio Noise, Part 1”. NTIA OT

- Investigate boosters on the same frequency Report 74-38to reach areas geographically separated or

VII-22

3. International Telecommunications Union AcknowledgementsRecommendation ITU-R P 372-8, “Radio

The author would like to thank the following Noise” 2003individuals for their kind assistance with this

4. International Telecommunications Union paper:Recommendation ITU-R P 372-9, “Radio

Tim Hardy, Nautel Limited, Hacketts Cove, NS Noise” 2007Canada

5. Achatz, R. J., Dalke, R. A., NTIA Report 02-Ed Hare, American Radio Relay League, 390, “Man-Made Noise Power Measurements Newington, CT USAat VHF and UHF Frequencies” 2001

6. Radioworld “Number of Licensed Radio

Stations Grows” March 21, 2008

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Charles W.Kelly,Jr.,director of sales for Nautel,is a 35 Year veteran of Radio,Starting as a DJ at his college station at the University of llinois. He has held positions as News Director, Program Director and Chief Engineer at stations in llinois and Colorado.He was educated at the University of llinois ,llinois State University,Parkland College.Prior to joining Nautel in 2006,Mr.kelly Served as director of international Sales For Broadcast Electronics for 18 Years and as Sales manager of ITC/3M for 7 years.Mr. Kelly is a two term past president of the society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE),a professional society with over 5000 members in over 30 Countries.He currently serves the on the SBE International Committee.