Introduced in 2004, the Radio magazine Innovative Product Awards were developed to honor excellence in new product development in the radio industry. The awards demonstrate the talent and commitment of the people in every aspect of development at each company, from concept through sales. The entrants were listed in the 2005 Radio magazine Buyers Guide that was included in the December 2004 issue.

Manufacturers submitted products in several categories, and the winners were selected through an online form by you, the Radio magazine reader. The results were tallied at the end of February, and the winners were presented with their awards at NAB2005. Over the next few months, we will profile each of these winning products.

The 2005 Innovative Product Award entries will be listed in the Radio magazine 2006 Buyers Guide, which will be released in December.

Facility Support

Circuitwerkes Sicon-8

This dial-up remote control provides speech capability that can be programmed with the user's voice. Designed for facilities with basic to moderate control requirements, the unit includes metering, status and control for eight channels. Additional channels can be added.

Relay contacts are provided on removable screw-terminal connectors. Metering and status connections are created with a DB25 connector. A separate breakout cable is available for the metering connector to provide screw-terminal connections. Channels one through six provide momentary relay contacts. Channels seven and eight can be configured for momentary latching or latching DPDT contacts.

Sicontroller, the Windows control software, displays the metering and provides a control interface.

The telephone connection features hybrid connections to send audio to and receive audio from the phone line.

As many as five alarms per channel are available.

A cell phone audio interface allows the unit to work with an auto-answer wireless phone, which is well suited for transmitter sites without wired phone service. A high-speed Internet option allows the unit to communicate via DSL or cable modem. An X10 option adds additional control over existing electrical wiring.

The unit is pre-programmed with English prompts. Spanish prompts are available on request. All the prompts can be rerecorded. The Sicontroller software is included with the unit. Sicontroller also provides basic logging functions.