Senate Committee Passes FCCReauthorization Act

Washington, DC - June 26, 2003 - The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved by voice vote, S. 1264, the FCC Reauthorization Act of 2003. Senators McCain (R-AZ) and Hollings (D-SC) introduced the legislation on June 13, 2003.

The legislation is designed to reauthorize the FCC. This independent agency has not been reauthorized since 1991. The bill does the following:

• Reauthorizes the Commission through fiscal year 2008. It would require that all application and regulatory fees paid to the Commission be deposited with the Commission subject to appropriations.

• Establishes the timing and the standard the FCC will use for reviewing its broadcast ownership rules and lengthens from two years to four years, the interval between reviews.

• Bans any payment or reimbursement for travel costs for FCC officials or staff from a nongovernmental sponsor of a convention, conference or meeting, but authorizes additional funds to permit the FCC to pay these costs.

• Authorizes the Commission to allocate sufficient funds to be used for an audit of the e-rate program to determine whether any fraud or abuse has occurred during the operation of the program.

• Provides the FCC the authority to promulgate regulations necessary to require video descriptions of television programming to assist those who are visually impaired.

• Prevents successful bidders for spectrum at FCC auctions to avoid their obligations to the Federal government by filing for bankruptcy.
  
  The Committee also adopted the following amendments to S. 1264:

• A perfecting amendment by Senator McCain and Senator Hollings to extend the authorization to 2008; to require the Commission to initiate a proceeding to determine whether it is economically and technically feasible to include the "crawlers" in the video description rules and other technical changes.

• An amendment by Senator McCain to require the FCC to initiate a proceeding to provide guidance regarding its political advertising regulations, and to adopt procedures to resolve complaints regarding political ads.

• An amendment by Senator Hollings to provide additional sanctions for the broadcast of obscene or indecent matter.

• An amendment by Senator Stevens (R-AK) to direct the FCC to undertake a rulemaking with respect to digital translators in rural areas.

• An amendment by Senator Sununu (R-NH) to provide for quadrennial review of the media ownership rules by the FCC.

• An amendment by Senator Lautenberg (D-NJ) to phase out the attribution discount permitted for UHF TV stations.

Mitsubishi Licenses HDRadio Technology

Columbia, MD and Warren, NJ - June 26, 2003 - Mitsubishi Electric has signed a license to develop products using Ibiquity's IBOC technology, which is branded HD Radio. Mitsubishi's U.S. subsidiary, Mitsubishi Electric Automotive America, will integrate Ibiquity’s technology into automotive receivers slated for availability in 2005. Mitsubishi Electric Automotive America supplies automotive electronic products to Daimler Chrysler, Mitsubishi Motors, Volvo and other leading automakers.

Jefferson-Pilot SelectsHarris Consoles

Cincinnati - June 26, 2003 - Jefferson-Pilot Communications has purchased eight Harris consoles for its group member stations in Miami, San Diego, Atlanta and Denver. The consoles are from Harris' Legacy and BMXdigital on-air console lines.

The Harris consoles are to be used at WSTR-FM Atlanta, GA; WAXY-AM Miami, FL; KSON-FM San Diego, CA; KYGO-FM Denver, CO; and WLNK-FM Charlotte, NC. Along with the Legacy consoles, KYGO-FM and KSON-FM have both ordered cabinetry and furniture from the Harris line to complete their studios.

Romanian Radio NetworkInstalls 142 Optimods

Tempe, AZ - June 16, 2003 - Orban/Circuit Research Labs sold 105 Orban Optimod-FM 2200D audio processors and 37 Optimod-AM 9200D audio processors to Romanian Radiocomunicatii S.A., Romania's state-owned broadcast organization. The equipment was purchased through Harris as part of an $85 million contract. The equipment contract will substantially upgrade and expand the nation's broadcasting infrastructure and spans a period of three years.

The Orban audio processors will be installed at transmitter sites spread throughout Romania.

Adobe Acquires Cool Edit Pro

San Jose, CA - May 19, 2003 - Adobe Systems and Syntrillium Software have reached an agreement whereby Adobe will acquire the technology assets of Syntrillium Software. Syntrillium's flagship product, Cool Edit Pro, will join Adobe's existing line of professional digital video products. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Adobe gains an established audio editing product to compliment the company's existing image and video editing products.

Radiomagazine will supply more details of the agreement as they are announced.

BBC invests in APT Milano

UK - June 24, 2003 - The BBC has recently made a major investment in the Worldnet Milano, from APT, by purchasing 11 units over a three-month period for use with Radio 3 remote broadcasts in London, Manchester and Glasgow.

The BBC’s decision to invest in the Worldnet Milano came after extensive listening and functionality tests during the 2002 Proms, and was based on a number of key issues: audio quality, ISDN transmission reliability and transcoding. The reliability issue is handled by the Milano's ability to bond three ISDN lines for 20kHz transmission at 384kb/s. If one line is lost, the unit will automatically drop to 15kHz without a glitch. Another determining factor for the BCC was the low coding delay.

Sirius Breaks 100KSubscribers

New York - June 23, 2003 - Sirius has crossed the 100,000 subscriber mark this month. At the close of business on June 20, Sirius had 100,233 subscribers on its nationwide service of 60-commercial-free music streams and 40+ streams of news, sports and entertainment.

Texas Instruments Uses RadioscapeTechnology in Digital Radio Chip

London - June 23, 2003 - Texas Instruments (TI) has launched the DRE310, which uses a custom-developed Eureka 147 digital audio broadcast (DAB) software stack from Radioscape. While the DRE310 baseband targets handheld and portable applications, it also has applications for automotive applications.

The DRE310 uses an enhanced version of the DAB software stack that was created for TI's DRE200. Radioscape will follow with a module based on the DRE310 that will be called the RS310. The module will be shipping toward the end of 2003.

One of the key attributes of the DRE310 is that it can decode more than one channel simultaneously, which is particularly useful for automotive applications. For example, one audio channel could be decoded for radio listening, while a data channel containing traffic flow information could be made available to a navigation system. In addition, recording and playback features have been integrated into the baseband, which gives the user the ability to listen to a particular program at a later time.

Additional features integrated into the DRE310 include time-shifted audio, announcement support, service linking (FM/ensemble switching), TII (Transmitter Identification Information) and MP3/Windows Media Audio (WMA) CD support. These features are also facilitated by the integration of key peripherals, such as a USB 2.0 full-speed (12Mb/s) interface, I2C, a real-time clock and a direct interface to a Multimedia card (MMC), Memory Stick and SD storage media.

Orban/CRL Adds Schulke

Tempe, AZ - June 13, 2003 - Glenn K. Schulke has been named manager of new product marketing for Orban/CRL. He will work to promote the sale of new Orban/CRL products.

Schulke was formerly the president and CEO of Open Technologies, based in Tempe. The firm was a distributor and systems integrator for networking and communications product for Unix and Linux based systems and was a leading provider of automated data collection and document management systems. Schulke is also the co-founder, developer, and managing director of Patient Doctor Voice Exchange (PDVX). PDVX provides physician and patient voice processing based contact management software that enables physicians to deliver test results, appointment reminders and other patient contact services to primary care patients quickly and easily through PDVX's in-practice system. He was also the founder and vice-president of Unizone, a Unix and Linux products distribution and systems integration firm. In his various positions, Schulke has performed consulting and integration services for GE Medical Systems, Intel, Premier Radio Networks, Texas Instruments and America West Airlines.

As a published author, Schulke has written a variety of technical and non-technical articles for various international trade publications over his career, and has served on the board of directors of industry associations and other technology companies. He previously taught Unix system administration at the college level. In 2000, he was selected and served on the Tempe Mayor's Business Roundtable to assist the mayor and city officials in guiding the City of Tempe in developing a world-class technology infrastructure - one to attract world-class high technology companies to Tempe.

Schulke holds a degree from Arizona State University in Business (1981) specializing in technology marketing. As the founder and president of the Southwest Uniforum UNIX user's group, Schulke ran Uniforum International's southwestern United States affiliate chapter for almost 10 years, and he was the first to serve as affiliate advisor to Uniforum International's board.

Coté Joins Middle AtlanticProducts

OMT Addsto Technical Support Department

Winnipeg, MB - June 1, 2003 - OMT Technologies has added Ben Johnson to the company's Imediatouch and Imedialogger Technical Support Department.

Johnson’s primary role will be to manage support calls to continuously improve the responsiveness of OMT's technical support delivery and follow-up. Most recently, he worked in a major support call center for Convergys, and brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to OMT's customer support team.

Staco Updates Website forBroadcasters

Audioscience Releases HPI DriverSoftware Under GPL

Eventide Ships Reverb 2016

Little Ferry, NJ - June 20, 2003 - The sound of Eventide's SP2016 reverb has been recreated in the Reverb 2016, manufactured by Princeton Digital. This new product is now shipping. The reverb features dedicated controls and menu-free operation in a single rack space, roadworthy chassis. The unit recreates the original reverb algorithms of the Eventide SP2016 – stereo room, room reverb and high density plate, as well as new enhanced versions of each algorithm designed to take advantage of additional processing power, yielding higher reflection density. The original algorithms were the result of a five-year effort that began at Eventide in 1978 and culminated in the introduction of the SP2016 in 1980.

V-Soft Adds ZIP Code-Signal SearchTool

Dynaudio Acoustics AIR SeriesAdds 192kHz Support

Risskov, Denmark - June 20, 2003 - With the new AIR software update version 1.10, the AIR series from Dynaudio Acoustics can now operate at a sample rate of 192kHz. The update also enhances existing features such as bass management, and adds a single parametric EQ for the sub channel and preset storage of setup information. In addition, the AIR 20 now carries the THX PM3 certification.