means beyond the transmitted transmission and as a routing the RF consulting firms will be signal has finally been under- protocol within a facility. On ready to apply the technology stood. Stations have long had the studio side, Axia (Booth to their services.

Web sites, and providing an on- N7620), Wheatstone (Booth Radio ratings are the heart line stream (while still complying N7612), Logitek (Booth N7124), of radio’s commercial success. with licensing requirements) Digigram (Booth N9024) and With the introduction and now was the initial step. Liquid Com- Audio Science (Booth N8313) gradual acceptance of the pass (Booth N8330) and Stream have made steady progress. On Arbitron Portable People Meter The World (Booth C755) are just the transmission side, Comrex comes a new way to look at rat-two of the many streaming pro- (Booth N6729), Telos (Booth ings. The technology behind the viders at the NAB Show. These N7620), Tieline (Booth N8123), system is interesting, although companies have taken the extra Musicam (Booth N4925), APT it’s not a direct engineering con-step by offering tools to make a (Booth N6717), Harris (N2502) cern for most stations once the station’s Web site more engag- and others have it covered. encoder is properly installed. ing to the listener or site visi- While IP audio is more com- What is interesting is the tor. More recently, the listener mon than ever, it is just short of PPM will change how radio online experience has become a being its own audio standard. targets listeners. Stations have community experience. While several versions, includ- always focused their attention

But there’s more to streaming ing Livewire and Cobranet, are to maximize the paper diary than just a Web site. Radioli- being used by various manufac- methods. Paper diaries tracked cious, Emmis and Clear Channel turers, the industry is not quite perceptions. Stations would have introduced iPhone ap- to the point of being able to target their efforts on brand plications to deliver the radio connect audio to one manufac- identity and awareness, which station signal where traditional turer’s IP device in one location would be equated into time

RF hardware does not exist. This and have it appear like a typi- spent listening. The PPM re-

kind of alternate delivery lends cal program source on another cords actual time spent listening. itself to new program streams, manufacturer’s IP router in the The old strategies are useless. just like Hd Radio multicast- studio. This is mostly possible The new strategy will be to ing, but it places the stream on within one manufacturer’s retain listeners or to make them devices that aren’t customarily equipment, but it’s not yet uni- want to come back. Listener considered to be radios in the versal. Perhaps this will happen interaction and interest may be traditional sense. at this year’s convention. tools to retain listeners longer.

Finally, don’t be surprised if

Digital delivery The broadcast basics the audio processing manufac-The term IP audio is now applied The FCC’s recent attention turers – Orban (Booth N2238), to many products and services. to and acceptance of using Omnia (Booth N7620), Vorsis Using packet-based technol- moment-of-methods modeling (Booth N7612) and Aphex ogy to transport audio has been for AM directional antenna (Booth N5523) – further en-highlighted at the past few NAB systems is an advancement for hance their products to improve Shows. It first made its appear- radio’s legacy foundation. This processing quality and reduce ance used for point-to-point will be covered in sessions, and listener fatigue. ●

Out-of-Home Media Mobile TV Show Highlights Content Production & Post Broadcast IPTV