News from the Convention

Silliman Receives NAB's Engineering Honor
Washington, DC - Mar 6, 2008 - Thomas B. Silliman, president of Electronics Research Incorporated (ERI), and retired ABC senior advisor of science and technology Antoon (Tony) Uyttendaele will be presented with the 2008 NAB Engineering Achievement Awards on April 16 during the Technology Luncheon at the NAB Show. National Public Radio's science correspondent and award-winning TV journalist Ira Flatow will keynote the luncheon.

Known for his accomplishments in the field of antenna engineering, Silliman began his career as a consultant in the engineering firm Silliman and Silliman before developing a design for the patented Rototiller antenna in the 1970s. This circularly polarized FM broadcast antenna became a popular choice for FM stations in the United States. Since then, Silliman has been a consistent innovator in antenna engineering in the broadcast industry, eventually leading ERI in the development of an antenna system that accommodates analog and digital transmissions.

During his tenure at ABC, Uyttendaele played a pivotal role in the evolution of high-definition television by working with major broadcast and consumer equipment manufacturers to create 720p hardware, a video format used in the production and transmission process of HDTV. Uyttendaele's efforts contributed to the final adoption of 720p by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). He also developed and managed the completion of ABC's C-Band satellite network distribution system and for a number of years served as international chairman of the ITU-Radiocommunication Sector Working Party on Satellite News Gathering, which developed numerous recommendations on uniform standards and operating procedures to make SNG practical worldwide.

NPR's Ira Flatow will serve as the luncheon keynote speaker. In his address titled Funny, You Don't Look Like Your Avatar: New Media Conquers Old Problems, Flatow will present a discussion on broadcasters' opportunities to participate in the new media revolution. Starting as a reporter at WBFO-FM in Buffalo, Flatow began covering science stories in 1970 during the first Earth Day. He eventually moved up to news director before joining NPR as a science correspondent in 1971. On television, Flatow spent six years as host and writer for the Emmy-Award winning show Newton's Apple on PBS and has worked as a science reporter for CBS This Morning. Flatow has also appeared on a variety of programs and TV talk shows, including Merv Griffin, The Today Show and Oprah. Currently, Flatow serves as president of Talking Science, a non-profit company he founded that is dedicated to creating radio, TV and Internet projects that make science user-friendly.

Since 1959, the NAB Engineering Achievement Awards have honored individuals who have made outstanding achievements and contributions in the broadcast engineering profession.

CSI Creator to Address Content Strategies at NAB Show
Washington, DC - Anthony Zuiker, executive producer and creator of the CSI television franchise, will speak on Monday, April 14 during the NAB Show.

Zuiker will show how creative ideas, great talent and a healthy dose of risk can open new pathways for existing brands. He will explain why promoting fresh content to a young audience is so important.

With CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Zuiker has mixed traditional television with evolving broadband opportunities to create one of the highest-rated franchises in television history. The CSI franchise, which also includes CSI: Miami and CSI: NY, regularly appears in Nielsen's weekly Top 10 broadcast ratings and has earned 28 Emmy nominations.

Products from the Floor

Tascam DR-1
Portable recorder
Booth SL10328 and SL 9623
The DR-1 portable digital recorder is a compact unit that captures hours of music using built-in mics to its 1GB SD card. A pair of high-quality stereo condenser microphones is mounted on a variable angle mechanism, which allows the recorder to record from almost anywhere. It features 48 or 44.1kHz/24-bit recording resolution. The DR-1 includes auto gain control and analog limiting for easy setup and a low-frequency cutoff to eliminate handling or wind noise.

Lectrosonics UTPR20
Wireless mic system
Booth N5223
Combining the capsule from Heil Sound's PR20 dynamic microphone with the Lectrosonics UT Series Digital Hybrid Wireless transmitters, this system provides compandor-free audio for wide dynamic range and neutral frequency response. The UTPR20 uses Heil's grill basket and capsule identifier ring features a gold-colored battery access ring to match the unit's overall color scheme. The transmitter features 100mW RF power, 256 synthesized frequencies and full compatibility with Lectrosonics Digital Hybrid Wireless and analog receivers.

Axia Audio Pathfinder PC
Router control software
Booth N7620
This software package allows the user to construct custom, conditional audio routing applications for Axia IP-Audio Networks. Pathfinder PC automatically scans an audio network for Axia audio nodes and gathers information about the audio sources and destinations and presets it to the user. Snapshots can be created and recalled to make multiple routes with a single mouse click. These snapshots can make changes to many routes, or it can make changes to just a few routes, such as routing audio from one studio device to another. Pathfinder PC also combines audio and machine logic into a single virtual router to route bi-directional audio and GPIO simultaneously. Built-in audio metering, combined with a configurable silence sense, sets up automated watchdogs on important audio sources, automatically switching to a backup source if audio is not present.

Wirecad Patch Verx
Patchbay design tool
Booth N3635
Patch Verx creates accurately scaled and easily printable designation strips and layouts for jackfields and patchbays. Patch Verx uses predefined or custom-generated template files that to which a user adds data and any display formatting desired. Patch Verx includes a built-in CAD viewer to show the jackfield as it would export. Users can also create custom definition files using the new Jackfield Wizard. By default Patch Verx prints jack fields scaled 1:1 so that the designation strips can be sheared out and applied directly to the jackfield.

Industry

Quincy Jones to Receive NABEF Leadership Award
Washington, D.C. - Entertainment industry icon Quincy Jones will receive the Celebration of Service to America Leadership Award from the NAB Education Foundation at the 10th annual Celebration of Service to America Gala on June 9. The Leadership Award, NABEF's highest honor, is presented to an individual who has performed extraordinary public service in bettering the lives of others.

Jones is being recognized for his humanitarian work in establishing the Listen Up Foundation and the We Are the Future Foundation, both dedicated to helping underprivileged youth. He has also served as a committed leader in preserving and promoting African-American art through the Institute for Black American Music and the Black Arts Festival.

Inspired by events from his own childhood, Jones founded the Listen Up Foundation in 1991 to connect impoverished children with education, music and culture. In 2004, Jones helped launch We Are the Future to build youth centers in poor and war-torn countries. Both projects have successfully served underprivileged children throughout the world, exposing them to new opportunities and a more positive future.

Born Quincy Delight Jones, Jr. in Chicago in 1933, Jones began his career as a trumpeter with the legendary bandleader Lionel Hampton. Among his many accolades and honors, Jones has received 27 Grammy Awards and has a record 79 Grammy Award nominations. He produced two all-time best-sellers: Michael Jackson's album entitled "Thriller," which sold 104 million copies worldwide, and "We Are the World," the all-time best-selling single, which raised money for Ethiopian famine relief.

Jones' significant achievements have earned him recognition from a variety of institutions. He was the first African-American producer to be nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Picture for The Color Purple, as well as the first to win the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. In 2000, Harvard University endowed the Quincy Jones Professorship of Afro-American Music. Shortly thereafter, in 2001, Jones received the prestigious French Legion d'Honneur medal.

Barry Sonnenfeld to Speak at NAB Show
Washington, DC - Famed director and executive producer Barry Sonnenfeld will present a keynote address during the NAB Show, April 15, in Las Vegas. A veteran of both motion pictures and television, Sonnenfeld will look at changes in film content and how it is consumed, including the kinds of projects that studios are now producing, the impact of home theaters and the Internet, and new directions in storytelling.

Known for his deft hand with comedy and visual style, Sonnenfeld has directed a number of feature films including Men in Black I and II, The Addams Family, Addams Family Values and Get Shorty. His many credits as producer or executive producer include Enchanted, The Ladykillers, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events and Out of Sight.

In television, Sonnenfeld is the executive producer of the critically acclaimed series Pushing Daisies. He has also directed several episodes of the series, including the pilot, for which he was awarded a Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Comedy Series this past weekend.

Sonnenfeld began his career as a highly praised cinematographer, working on more than a dozen motion picture and television projects including Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Throw Momma from the Train, Big and When Harry Met Sally. For the last five years, he has been a contributing editor at Esquire Magazine, for which he writes the monthly column "The Digital Man."

Do You Know...?

How Well Do You Know Las Vegas?
The longest morse code telegram ever sent was from Carson City, NV. Where in the U.S. was it sent?
a. New York
b. Pennsylvania
c. Washington, D.C.
d. Florida

True of false: Las Vegas has more hotel rooms than any other place on earth.

The population in Las Vegas has grown by more than 620,000 residents in the past eight years. What decade saw the second highest growth in population?
a. 1960-1970
b. 1980-1990
c. 1970-1980
d. 1990-2000

True or false: Gambling was always legal in Las Vegas.

The answers are at the bottom of the page. No fair peeking.

More Products

Klotz Digital Xenon
Mixer
Booths N5925
Designed for small ratio stations and studios that are part of large radio facilities, this stand-alone digital radio console provides integrated mic pre-amplifiers, DSP such as EQ and voice processing, signal routing and free configurable GPIs. The console offers audio inputs and outputs in analog and digital format, routing capabilities and free assignments to faders, DSP functions for audio treatment and processing and a pool of free configurable GPIs. It is available as a six- or 12-fader console. Each channel strip is equipped with a 104mm fader ssignable with any kind of signal through the GUI configurable input router. Large on/off buttons, a cue button for pre-fade listening, alternate source selection and an individual bus assignment to the three main buses PGM, REC and UTL completes the fader modules.

Telos Systems Zephyr Iport MPEG Gateway
Broadcast codec
Booth N7620
Using the Livewire protocol for networked audio over Ethernet, this codec connects directly to an Axia IP-audio network. A single CAT-6 cable carries eight channels of stereo I/O and remote control. The Iport connects eight channels of stereo audio between two Livewire-equipped sites over an IP link. The Iport can also be used for any application where MPEG encoding and/or decoding are needed for transmission over IP channels. Applications include studio-to-transmitter links, satellite uplinks, Internet streaming, broadcasting to mobile phones and audio distribution systems.

Jampro Antennas JSHD-HD
FM antenna
Booth C 2607
The dual input HD sidemount antenna system for full service stations provides linearity and power handling capability and features broadband characteristics. The antenna provides isolated and separate inputs for analog and digital transmitters. This approach allows the digital transmitter to operate at its target power with no power lost in a reject load and no power reduction caused by lossy digital injectors.

Avlex Superlux E522, E523
Field recording mic
Booth N5232
The Superlux E522/B features a closely matched pair of capsules in an X/Y configuration, an integrated switchable low-cut filter, external on/off switch, the ability to operate on either battery or phantom power and dual unbalanced outputs. The Superlux E522/B excels as a stereo field recording microphone. Featuring two closely matched fixed-charge, back plate, permanently polarized condenser capsules with an X/Y stereo polar pattern, the new E522/B captures live performances with broad spatial effect.

Convention Events

V-Soft Communications to Host its 6th Annual Broadcast Engineering Training Seminar
Cedar Falls, IA - Jan. 23, 2008 - V-Soft Communications will hold its 6th annual engineering training seminar on April 12 and 13, at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino. This seminar is scheduled immediately prior to the NAB convention.

The seminar will focus on specific broadcast engineering projects such as station upgrading, translators, single frequency networks and boosters, interference analysis, and move-ins. The seminar will spotlight numerous features in the Probe, version 3, propagation prediction software, FM Commander frequency search software, AM-Pro, version 2, allocation software, Microwave-Pro and other V-Soft Communications computer programs.

The V-Soft Communications training seminar will be held Sat., April 12, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sun., April 13, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Breakfast and lunch will be provided for attendees on both days. For additional information, please contact Kate Michler or call (800) 743-3684.

Logitek Sets Users Group Meeting
The Logitek users group meeting has been scheduled for Sun. April 13, at the Flamingo Hotel, 3555 Las Vegas Blvd. S. from 2-4 p.m.

This year's user group meeting will give customers a chance to act as a focus group for development. The company tentatively plans to show some future designs that might not be out on the show floor, subject to a non-disclosure agreement, in addition to what it will show to the public on the exhibit floor.

To RSVP for this meeting, visit Logitek on the Web before March 31, 2008.

Out and About

Restaurants Within Walking Distance
When you're in Vegas, you've got to eat. Here is a list of places only half a mile from the Las Vegas Convention Center. All area codes are 702.

Product Peeks

Yamaha Pocketrak
2G pocket recorder
Booth SL 5710
The Pocketrak 2G is a light and compact pocket recorder featuring 2GB of built-in memory, long battery life, easy USB file transfer. It includes a copy of Steinberg Cubase AI DAW software. It features two tracks of CD-quality recording in PCM, MP3 and WMA formats. The Pocketrak 2G includes a rechargeable battery capable 19 hours of MP3 recording. Plugging its sliding USB connector into a powered USB bus simultaneously recharges the battery and transfers files to a PC or Mac. The Pocketrak 2G includes an on-board speaker in addition to a headphone jack.

Middle Atlantic Products WMRK
Server enclosure
Booth SU10205
WMRK Series configured server enclosures are manufactured with features that simplify cable, thermal and power management when mounting servers or other data-specific components, and save installers time and energy when ordering, installing and servicing components. The enclosures are designed to house servers from all manufacturers. They are also designed to facilitate passive thermal management with perforated front and split rear doors and a Decora temperature-monitoring module for local monitoring; as well as electrical knockouts on rear plates, removable split bottom rear panel, integral gland grommeted cable pass-throughs and a 42-space vertical lacing strip.

Broadcast Software International Series 110
Air and production workstation
Booth N9111
The BSI Series 110 System offers considerable cost savings against buying the component parts separately. It's also fully configured, including network configuration, to run right out-of-the-box. Comprising of one air and one production workstation, additional workstations can be easily added to expand your network. The Series 110 is an ideal system for small and medium markets, or for satellite operation (using the supplied 24-way BSI Trigger Kit).

Propagation Systems Inc Power Tiller
FM broadcast antenna
Booth C 2324
This omni-directional, circularly polarized FM broadcast antenna with rugged copper and corrosion-resistant brass construction is available in high power (PSIFHR) for input power up to 60kW and medium power (PSIFMR) for input power up to 15kW. The elements are stacked in arrays of up to 12 bays for increased gain and are end-fed from a support boom. For arrays requiring beam tilt and/or null fill, a center feed system is required. The entire antenna system including the feed is pressurized. Each antenna is supplied with standard galvanized mounting brackets for round leg mounting on uniform cross section towers. Custom mounting brackets are also available. For those antennas that will be exposed to adverse weather conditions, fiberglass radomes are available.

Did You Know?

How Did You Do?

Take the FASTtrack with you!
Download the Radio magazine 2008 NAB FASTtrack, Exhibitor Directory and Broadcast Engineering Conference session guide to your handheld device. Search for exhibitors sorted alphabetically or by category. The Broadcast Engineering Conference session guide gives you quick reference to the key sessions.

Click here to access it.