I used to love playing around with Stereo tool and Breakaway on my computer and a little exciter hooked up to try get the best sound. It entertained me for months of my life lol. It really is a form of art
The Omnia.9 unit shown on this video is the hardware version of Breakaway. It is on the main FM station where I work. There are deeper settings that what Breakaway allows, but the presets are the same. It's amazing how loud (and legal) this processor can be while still sounding somewhat open and dynamic!
I love these videos so much! I do a lot of music production/mastering, so I can relate to a lot of this audio processing stuff, but I'm also interested in radio broadcasting, and these videos are an amazing starting point for me to learn! Thanks!
I enjoy your shows as an audiophile. I just subscribed. Technology Connections is the right title for your programs, so that sound engineers, broadcast engineers, and audiophiles may look forward to enjoying them as do I.
@@BroadcastBlueprint Interesting! Breakaway One's manual is basically non existent, I had to download the Omnia9 manual to have it explain some of the settings in Breakaway One, hah!
I just found your channel. I am a college student who recently started working in broadcast engineering. Thanks for the great content!!! Really cool to see other installs and configurations. Also, I loved the Technology Connections reference.
Interesting how there's no mention of phase rotation/APF here, is it still a common practice? I hear a lot of stations still using it in the UK, but noticed some don't.
Back in the mid-1980's I set up a cable FM station which broadcast on the TV cable. It could be received by connecting an FM tuner to the TV cable. I modified our Orban 8000 processor to clip the peaks at 200%. This did not seem to bother our Catel modulator or FM receivers, and it was not a problem since all stations on the cable were at least 400 kHz apart.
Great overview video! What's your opinion on Omina vs Orban? I feel like FM stations used to sound much better 15 or so years ago when they were all using Orban boxes. Most of the stations here in Boston WAY overuse digital clipping and in general push their processing too far so the audio just sounds like mush.
This was a very decent simplified description of processing but there is alot more to this. Most of the trouble lies within the pre emphasis curve vs the modulation control before the stereo generator receives the audio signal. Many "pirates" think they can buy a Chinese transmitter from ebay and throw a Behringer compressor before it and alls good when it does nothing for modulation control. Companies like Orban and Omnia have made good money engineering processors that combine all thats needed to tackle these issues perfectly.
Hey, love the videos. I'm wondering how (or if) you deal with preprocessing audio (music or long form programs) before feeding to your processor. As in, Gain/Loudness, Normalization, RMS/LUFS. BBC and NPR are using some (imo ridiculously low) LUFS levels, and I see commercial broadcasters using everything from "Gain to -.1dB", "LUFS -16/14" or "Normalize at -3dB", to not touching the audio at all, just ripping and playing. With prerecorded audio all over the place, you can spin the dial and pick out the stations that aren't pre-processing from the folks that are, (the ones that are, aren't working their transmitter processor like a rented mule) . any thoughts or recommendations?
I’ve been looking for a channel like this for months! Was wondering if you could do a video on phone routing. I used to work at a station and we would screen calls in voice tracker, however a friend and I want to translate this into our podcast. Adobe audition will act as our voice tracker, but I’m wondering if you could go over the logistics of roughing the signal off the board so our voices don’t go out over the stream? Thanks ahead of time!
Good evening we just got approved for LPFM station can you recommend the best antenna and transmitter for this class of LPFM to be able to maximize the coverage area. Thanks
My first station, we had an Aphex Compeller, with a DBX compressor/limiter, then a Hard clipper (Can't remember the brand). I remember the manager wanting an Optimod, but the Audio engineer refused. He liked the individual components cause he said it gave a better sound. Mind you, we were flat-lining the signal, very little movement on the VUs, but we were very loud!
We have the optimods at our station and your engineer needs to listen to an optimods sound its amazing for FM. Great choice. They are pricey we still use a few of the old 8000s for a few stations. Our Classic rock station sounds amazing with it. Even an old 8000 is around 2k used
I did this for a pirate sation I was invited to DJ at with a hardware compressor I found laying around. They doubled their range and cleaned up their audio. They got busted shortly afterward, hope i didn't accelerate that by increasing their footprint, but they were at least making less interference. Remember to A/B compare your pre and post processing signals! You can accidentally change the sound too much very easily just looking at graphs. The only thing that matteres in the end, is that it sounds good once within limits.
So the on-air talent sounds different on radio than on the phone...is this due to the audio processor...because the audio processor clears the junk and makes his voice on the air crisp and clear with clarity...am i correct
I remember how hard i had to work on our processors to work as they should. We use Processors from Juenger (Jünger) they are nice to work with as long as you know how to set them up (the interface is not exactly easy to be honest)
Love your vidios but i would put the onmia 9 at the studio side especially if you have more than one trasnmitter on the air and the onmia 9 as webstreaming encorders which means you can do fm and hd or online feed and the texture of the sound for fm would be like the online the difference would be fm would be pre emphasis 75
That's not how FM bandwidth works. We can't claim that the bandwidth of a U.S. commercial FM station is 150 kHz, just because the deviation is +/- 75 kHz. What's missing is the maximum frequency of the deviation component. That's a mistake made by entry-level broadcast engineers. Instead, Carson's Rule gives us an approximation of occupied bandwidth. In any unfiltered FM system, there's no hard limit on bandwidth: FM produces infinite sidebands. Carson's Rule deals with this by specifying "significant sidebands." Carson limited the significance to 98 percent of total power bandwidth. The rule states that the bandwidth of an FM system is twice the sum of the maximum frequency deviation and the highest modulating frequency. That means, notwithstanding SCA and RDS subcarrier modulation, the significant bandwidth is closer to 180 kHz for mono FM and 256 kHz for stereo FM, and not 150 kHz as claimed in the video. Carson's Rule formula: Bw=2( fd + fm); where Bw is bandwidth, fd is deviation from the carrier frequency, and fm is the maximum modulated audio frequency. Thus, for a monophonic FM station with no subcarriers, Bw=2(75k+15k) = 180 kHz. For FM stereo with no subcarriers the formula is Bw=2(75k + 53k) = 256 kHz. Limiting the modulation index keeps the total bandwidth closer to 200 kHz, the width of a licensed FM broadcast channel.
Something I was curious with broadcast (dump) delay units - given that they insert a determined amount of delay in to the signal chain that ramps up during entry & down during exit, how do you achieve time synchronisation? For example, the automation is scheduled to switch to an outside news source over satellite at the top of the hour - how do you get the automation & presenters back in to "real time" so that the 1 o'clock news goes out at 1 o'clock? Love your stuff on here & on tiktok btw 🙂 would love to see more
@@BroadcastBlueprint Gotcha, that makes sense. I guess it's a bit "market specific" but I've always been curious how this is handled: in the UK, it's common for for stations to use IRN (Independent Radio News) for national news, with the feed coming from Astra 2. Where such switching is automated, is Zetta "aware"/able to control the delay unit? As in - can it command build/destroy of delay, time compensate for the delay, etc?
Usually stations with delay (mostly Talk here in AUS), will use dynamic delay units. They will introduce, or remove delay over a pre-determined window. Usually to make sure the hourly news casts are on the hour. This Video from Sydney 2GB - I've put a time stamp on it, if you let in play into the weather, your can hear audio artifacts on the announcer. This is the delay unit putting the delay in. This was in the early 90s, most current/new units don't have this effect any more. however, in Melbourne Station 3AW Still uses one of these old units and STILL has the artifacting. th-cam.com/video/No1VAoA_2l4/w-d-xo.html
Hello! Thanks for the information. Why background music sounds a lot louder comparing to the dialogue when broadcasting on FM radio? It sounds fine after mixing. How can I fix that please?
I used to love playing around with Stereo tool and Breakaway on my computer and a little exciter hooked up to try get the best sound. It entertained me for months of my life lol. It really is a form of art
The Omnia.9 unit shown on this video is the hardware version of Breakaway. It is on the main FM station where I work. There are deeper settings that what Breakaway allows, but the presets are the same. It's amazing how loud (and legal) this processor can be while still sounding somewhat open and dynamic!
I love these videos so much! I do a lot of music production/mastering, so I can relate to a lot of this audio processing stuff, but I'm also interested in radio broadcasting, and these videos are an amazing starting point for me to learn! Thanks!
This guy is the Technology Connections of radio engineering. Thank you for that!
I enjoy your shows as an audiophile. I just subscribed. Technology Connections is the right title for your programs, so that sound engineers, broadcast engineers, and audiophiles may look forward to enjoying them as do I.
I run Breakaway One processing for our station, so the Omnia9 interface looks very familiar!
@@BroadcastBlueprint Interesting! Breakaway One's manual is basically non existent, I had to download the Omnia9 manual to have it explain some of the settings in Breakaway One, hah!
Both BAOne and Omnia are developed by Leif Claesson
Both BAOne and Omnia are developed by Leif Claesson.
I just found your channel. I am a college student who recently started working in broadcast engineering. Thanks for the great content!!! Really cool to see other installs and configurations. Also, I loved the Technology Connections reference.
Excellent presentation, thank you !
Bill P.
Interesting how there's no mention of phase rotation/APF here, is it still a common practice? I hear a lot of stations still using it in the UK, but noticed some don't.
Back in the mid-1980's I set up a cable FM station which broadcast on the TV cable. It could be received by connecting an FM tuner to the TV cable. I modified our Orban 8000 processor to clip the peaks at 200%. This did not seem to bother our Catel modulator or FM receivers, and it was not a problem since all stations on the cable were at least 400 kHz apart.
Great overview video! What's your opinion on Omina vs Orban? I feel like FM stations used to sound much better 15 or so years ago when they were all using Orban boxes. Most of the stations here in Boston WAY overuse digital clipping and in general push their processing too far so the audio just sounds like mush.
Omnia's sound is much denser and punchy than Orban..
@@macgeraldbugay9647 maybe. But better? I don’t think so.
@@fhowland depends on your preference.. I prefer omnia more than orban..
Audio Processing in Broadcast Radio 101 in 7 minutes ! Subscribed 🙂
this helped me set my orban 6300 to sound great for my live stream
This was a very decent simplified description of processing but there is alot more to this. Most of the trouble lies within the pre emphasis curve vs the modulation control before the stereo generator receives the audio signal. Many "pirates" think they can buy a Chinese transmitter from ebay and throw a Behringer compressor before it and alls good when it does nothing for modulation control. Companies like Orban and Omnia have made good money engineering processors that combine all thats needed to tackle these issues perfectly.
Ah, you went really, really well. Thank you.
Thanks a lot for the video. I learned something new today.
Yeah, very concise explanation on how FM terrestrial radio works, without being too oversimplified.
Thanks for the information! :) What is your opinion on a an Aphex 320?
Hey, love the videos. I'm wondering how (or if) you deal with preprocessing audio (music or long form programs) before feeding to your processor. As in, Gain/Loudness, Normalization, RMS/LUFS. BBC and NPR are using some (imo ridiculously low) LUFS levels, and I see commercial broadcasters using everything from "Gain to -.1dB", "LUFS -16/14" or "Normalize at -3dB", to not touching the audio at all, just ripping and playing. With prerecorded audio all over the place, you can spin the dial and pick out the stations that aren't pre-processing from the folks that are, (the ones that are, aren't working their transmitter processor like a rented mule) . any thoughts or recommendations?
Nice Technology Connections reference.
I’ve been looking for a channel like this for months! Was wondering if you could do a video on phone routing. I used to work at a station and we would screen calls in voice tracker, however a friend and I want to translate this into our podcast. Adobe audition will act as our voice tracker, but I’m wondering if you could go over the logistics of roughing the signal off the board so our voices don’t go out over the stream? Thanks ahead of time!
Good evening we just got approved for LPFM station can you recommend the best antenna and transmitter for this class of LPFM to be able to maximize the coverage area. Thanks
Do you have an AM broadcasting version of this?
My first station, we had an Aphex Compeller, with a DBX compressor/limiter, then a Hard clipper (Can't remember the brand). I remember the manager wanting an Optimod, but the Audio engineer refused. He liked the individual components cause he said it gave a better sound. Mind you, we were flat-lining the signal, very little movement on the VUs, but we were very loud!
We have the optimods at our station and your engineer needs to listen to an optimods sound its amazing for FM. Great choice. They are pricey we still use a few of the old 8000s for a few stations. Our Classic rock station sounds amazing with it. Even an old 8000 is around 2k used
I did this for a pirate sation I was invited to DJ at with a hardware compressor I found laying around. They doubled their range and cleaned up their audio.
They got busted shortly afterward, hope i didn't accelerate that by increasing their footprint, but they were at least making less interference.
Remember to A/B compare your pre and post processing signals! You can accidentally change the sound too much very easily just looking at graphs.
The only thing that matteres in the end, is that it sounds good once within limits.
Is this video promoted by Omnia ?
Orban Optimod does same.
It’s not - that’s just what we use in primary service. We have a few Optimod 8500 processors attached to auxiliary transmitters.
So the on-air talent sounds different on radio than on the phone...is this due to the audio processor...because the audio processor clears the junk and makes his voice on the air crisp and clear with clarity...am i correct
@1:12 😂 I was like WTH that can NOT be it. Then I checked how much time had passed on the video...
In memory of two old friends: Gary Blau, W3AM (SK) and Bob Kanner W6OXE(SK)...
I remember how hard i had to work on our processors to work as they should.
We use Processors from Juenger (Jünger) they are nice to work with as long as you know how to set them up (the interface is not exactly easy to be honest)
@@BroadcastBlueprint Jea true, i Hand my fair Share of Equipment that made my days harder than They needed to be 😂
I love when I hear that music from Technology Connections elsewhere 🤣
Love your vidios but i would put the onmia 9 at the studio side especially if you have more than one trasnmitter on the air and the onmia 9 as webstreaming encorders which means you can do fm and hd or online feed and the texture of the sound for fm would be like the online the difference would be fm would be pre emphasis 75
That's not how FM bandwidth works. We can't claim that the bandwidth of a U.S. commercial FM station is 150 kHz, just because the deviation is +/- 75 kHz. What's missing is the maximum frequency of the deviation component. That's a mistake made by entry-level broadcast engineers. Instead, Carson's Rule gives us an approximation of occupied bandwidth.
In any unfiltered FM system, there's no hard limit on bandwidth: FM produces infinite sidebands. Carson's Rule deals with this by specifying "significant sidebands." Carson limited the significance to 98 percent of total power bandwidth. The rule states that the bandwidth of an FM system is twice the sum of the maximum frequency deviation and the highest modulating frequency. That means, notwithstanding SCA and RDS subcarrier modulation, the significant bandwidth is closer to 180 kHz for mono FM and 256 kHz for stereo FM, and not 150 kHz as claimed in the video.
Carson's Rule formula: Bw=2( fd + fm); where Bw is bandwidth, fd is deviation from the carrier frequency, and fm is the maximum modulated audio frequency. Thus, for a monophonic FM station with no subcarriers, Bw=2(75k+15k) = 180 kHz. For FM stereo with no subcarriers the formula is Bw=2(75k + 53k) = 256 kHz. Limiting the modulation index keeps the total bandwidth closer to 200 kHz, the width of a licensed FM broadcast channel.
Omnia.9!
Something I was curious with broadcast (dump) delay units - given that they insert a determined amount of delay in to the signal chain that ramps up during entry & down during exit, how do you achieve time synchronisation?
For example, the automation is scheduled to switch to an outside news source over satellite at the top of the hour - how do you get the automation & presenters back in to "real time" so that the 1 o'clock news goes out at 1 o'clock?
Love your stuff on here & on tiktok btw 🙂 would love to see more
@@BroadcastBlueprint Gotcha, that makes sense.
I guess it's a bit "market specific" but I've always been curious how this is handled: in the UK, it's common for for stations to use IRN (Independent Radio News) for national news, with the feed coming from Astra 2.
Where such switching is automated, is Zetta "aware"/able to control the delay unit? As in - can it command build/destroy of delay, time compensate for the delay, etc?
Usually stations with delay (mostly Talk here in AUS), will use dynamic delay units. They will introduce, or remove delay over a pre-determined window. Usually to make sure the hourly news casts are on the hour. This Video from Sydney 2GB - I've put a time stamp on it, if you let in play into the weather, your can hear audio artifacts on the announcer. This is the delay unit putting the delay in. This was in the early 90s, most current/new units don't have this effect any more. however, in Melbourne Station 3AW Still uses one of these old units and STILL has the artifacting. th-cam.com/video/No1VAoA_2l4/w-d-xo.html
PS, for the boffins, this video is an AM-Stereo. C-QUAM.
Nice! Subscribed.
Lost me at 00:23
Hello! Thanks for the information. Why background music sounds a lot louder comparing to the dialogue when broadcasting on FM radio? It sounds fine after mixing. How can I fix that please?
Create more dynamic in the mix, and keep track of the output of your mix to match the station gain structure. Type -18db