Archive
PPM Qualifying
I know this may sound simple, stupid, but this turned out to be the best method for me to respond to the Arbitron request to make sure the PPM encoders are working. Record your off air audio on your computer and email it to them!
I am able to monitor in my office our stations’ air feeds, HD feeds, program feeds, etc. This came in quite useful yesterday when I finally got around to responding to Arbitron’s request. In the past we placed a phone by a speaker and stepped through each station. Not this time. I fed my computer, fired up Audacity, and recorded 5 minutes of each station. After I was done with the main encoder, I have remote access via my Burk equipment and switched to the backup encoders. Again, recorded 5 minutes for each station. When I was done I emailed off the recordings properly named for easy reference.
If you are running a logger and feeding it via an air signal, this is acceptable, too. Now you already have a recording, you just need to edit down to about 5 minutes, and email off to them.
I sent 128kbps mp3 audio files. A bit better quality than they request, but it definitely gets the job done and it beats wasting the time of two of us on a phone.
Any other tips? Let me know!
Weekly What Up?
As you know, last week was fun. The upcoming weeks should be fun too. As we proceed to dismantle the old remains of the tower we will see how things change, tuning-wise, on the new. I also get to take care of the details preparing for the filings. We are already hitting a road block with the FAA. All pre-filings were no issue, now they want verification of the actual height and ground level. I really do not think the ground level has changed since the surveying for the original FAA notification. Wacky!
I get to head into the NV20 installations, too. Whether we get to those this week or not depends on the last of the AM work. I still need to time-align the HD install from December. Tough to do when the monitors are at the studio and the transmitter is just out of range of getting an HD lock! I can get the data, though, which makes me wonder why I cannot get an audio lock. Oh well, it will get done.
I also received the new Aphex HeadPod. A headphone amp which is claimed to be high end. I look forward to trying it out. I have some ideas of how to use it pending I am able to spend any money!
PPM is in, so we will see how that works over the next couple of months. Arbitron has been slow in responding to my call sign change notification and my analog backup for an FM.
Have a great week!
What’s Happening
I’ve done a number of posts on the Nautel NV20. What else is going on? Well, we are rebuilding our AM tower that “broke” in half 4 years ago. It is now at 445 feet. We intend to move the diplexed AM stations to the new tower this coming Tuesday. Hopefully we will match well. We are using the existing ATUs for this move. Insurance would not pay for the complete replacement. Go figure.
As you know we install our PPM equipment. This is a completed project included our Internet streams. We are using the Roku Soundbridge for our monitoring source to the PPM monitor. It works well. I have also given each station a selection on the console to monitor this feed, too. Nice what I can do quickly with the SAS system.
One morning show talent has moved out of state, again. Still part of the show we create a studio for her. Our feed back to the station is using a Tieline iMixG3 using IP. We’ve done it before and will do it again. I make sure we are ready for Monday tomorrow.
Hope you all have a Happy New Year. I hope we make it fine during this slow economic times. I will have some comments on the FCC and their weak backbones and the liberals that will try to ruin the industry. I still have thoughts on how greed has attempted to ruin the industry, too. We’ll see how it all pans out!
PPM Update
As posted before, we installed our PPM equipment from Arbitron. We had no issues with the verification process. We even verified our Internet streams. I’ve heard stories that verification was a pain. We let it rip and each air chain tested well. Now we will see how well the equipment holds up.
Tech Notes from the Field 