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An Importer Upgrade: Lesson’s Learned
A couple of weeks ago I decided to pursue an upgrade to our Nautel Export+ and Importers. For those not in the U.S., this is the equipment that makes our HD Radio channels work, or digital radio. The old Exporter and the Exporter+ units upgraded just fine. It really isn’t that difficult. The Importers were a bit different.
My upgrade worked out well. First I had to update from Windows XP SP2 to SP3. Well, the boxes are so old I had to find an executable upgrade package on the TechNet site. I found it and it worked. Why did Windows Update not work? As mentioned the boxes were so old and all automatic updates are disabled due to the fact that the software used for HD Radio does not get the continuing testing required to keep up with OS changes. The Nautel version 4.4.7 update specifies Win XP SP3. The most time consuming part was using Windows Update to get all the current, laugh here, patches. Done.
Importer update: This was straight forward too. I skipped a version, 4.2.1, past 4.3.1, to 4.4.7. All installed well and even my BTC (Broadcast Traffic Consortium) station came up just fine. As we were pursuing an HD2 channel, I looked closely at the Capture Client for the secondary service and discovered that the second audio card was not there! My brain started to wonder what happened. The OS saw it and the Orban PC Remote software saw the two audio cards. Now what?
After a reinstall of the 4.4.7 software, the reinstall of the Orban audio card drivers, and more checks to see what I may have missed, I did not get anywhere. I contacted Nautel and this stumped them. I decided to contact iBiquity. They heard of some issue with the Orban PC1100 cards, but did not have an answer. I contacted Orban and they did not have an immediate answer. More suggestions of removing and reinstalling drivers and software. I decided to dig a bit more.
At no time did anyone mention the PC1100 version. I visited the Orban website and checked the download section. I discovered at some point the software and drivers for the PC1100 audio cards was updated. I usually keep up on updates, but, again, with HD stuff you do not touch it unless instructed to or forced to. I figured I had nothing to lose, so I downloaded the software and installed in on a machine where the Importer services have not been required. It worked! I notified all parties involved. Everyone assumed that this update was applied. Well, again, I do not apply any updates unless there is a confirmed reason when it comes to the iBiquity equipment. It is mentioned in all their documentation that automated updates and any other updates be cleared first. Well, a bulletin or something could have been issued with the latest requirements and no one would have had to worry about this update.
I updated the other two Importers and all audio cards are seen and work. Lesson learned. Update that audio card and drivers if you have not done so. This applies to anyone with a box that is at least 3 years old or older. I see that Orban now has the PC1101 audio card out. This is 2 audio cards in one. Anyone have experience with this one?
Lessons are learned, and we keep learning everyday. Keep your stuff updated within reason! Hopefully my little exercise will help others not fall into this little trap. Have a great weekend!
Cheers!
Playing with HD 2
Well, I will start by saying I am not a huge fan of the HD technology for digital radio here in the U.S. I see all this progress on all digital DRM and DRM+, but I do not, and have not follow it that much. I do believe the future is an all digital solution, but what type and when is not clear. In any case, as an engineer we are at the whim of either programming or some corporate mandate. This week it is at the whim of programming wanting to utilize an HD2 channel.
First, as I know some other mandates are coming down the pike, I decided to update all my Exporters and Importers to the latest software/firmware. Believe it or not it was not that difficult. Over the years it seems to have gotten a bit more stream-lined. The thing that makes me laugh is that, just now, the Importer software supports Windows XP SP3, so I had to update the machines from SP2 to SP3. Since SP2 is no longer really supported, I had to download from Microsoft a update executable to SP3. Once installed all the Windows Update stuff started working again. My question is will any of this stuff work on Windows 7 or 8, or will it go to a Linux based OS like the Exporters? I guess I will know and learn about that some day!
To add to the complexity, the HD 2 will be run on our simulcast stations, so I first attacked the main and got that running. I then performed the configurations for the simulcast station. All works pretty well I might add, but I did discover an oddity. When configuring the Capture client for the second station, I noticed that I had one, and only one choice of sound card. This made me wondered how I would know if I have my audio feeding the “right” one. I did a bit of digging and everyone says that if there are two sound cards, they should show up in the list to be selected. That is definitely not the case on ANY of the Importers I have with that software and version. All have 2 sound cards. No where can I find in any configuration where the capture client gets its information on sound cards. The Windows OS shows both, the Orban software shows both, but not the iBiquity stuff. When I receive a definitive answer I will follow up with a note.
So, I had to determine which is the “right” sound card. Yes, the station is “out of range” to monitor HD at the studios, so the only test would be to feed audio to both cards, get to a receive location, and then disconnect one to determine which is correct. Logic prevailed as I chose the proper one initially. Now if this programmer goes nuts and wants an HD3, well, then we have a new issue: How to get the second sound card to feed that stream. I guess I will cross that bridge when we get there. For now, things are ready to roll when the programmer decides to pull the trigger.
My conclusion is nothing is easy or intuitive with HD and the iBiquity hoops we jump through to make this work. Some day I will gather my thoughts and post what my future of radio will look like in the fully digital world.
Cheers!
Tech Notes from the Field 