Delivery of Service Is Key for Planning Dan Jackson of SCA also sees trends moving from “boxes” to a software and op-ex model Gone are the days of running OB trucks and lengthy lead times on ISDN installs. Content teams want to be able to move at the drop of a hat.
Dan Jackson is head of audio operations for SCA, Australia’s biggest entertainment company. Its multimedia assets include more than 100 radio stations.
RW: How are today’s technologies Radio World: In this ebook we are solving problems in creative ways? exploring trends in the design and Jackson: Moving to IP-based techperformance of codecs. nologies has decreased reliability on Dan Jackson: At SCA we are a big links, so SmartStream and dual link believer in standards to ensure codecs have allowed codecs to be interoperability between products. used in place of expensive microWe like to talk in terms of SMPTE wave links, where historically the IP 2110 and AES67 for audio distribuservice is no good. tion, and AES67/SNMP for control. As for codecs we tend to change RW: What role are codecs playing for our choice based on the application; we still use aptX for voice and AAC, Dan Jackson. “Gone are the days of running OB you in at-home broadcasting? Opus and Tieline MusicPlus for audio trucks and lengthy ISDN installs. Content teams Jackson: During COVID we had want to be able to go as soon as possible.” around 20 shows at 50 locations distribution. using mostly Tieline VIAs. Their Cloud One of the most important trends Codec Controller was an excellent add-on as it allowed is delivery of service. As we move away from dedicated our engineers to manage the codecs remotely. POTS and ISDN lines and onto 4G/5G services, we are at Historically we have been fairly flexible with our talent, the mercy of the tower operators. Having the ability to so broadcasting from home was not new for us. Holiday double-deliver the data through the same or multiple carhomes, pregnancies and simply being in another state riers ensures that content is delivered 100% of the time. have required us to have the capability to broadcast We’ve also noticed a shift away from having extremely remotely. low latency links, gone are the days where talent are monitoring off air, so things like Forward Error Correction RW: What recent features are offered that other engineers are welcomed to help ensure the quality of service. may appreciate? Another important trend I see is the shift away from Jackson: Time-zone delay is a great feature. In a country traditional “boxes” and capital expenditure. We are seethat has five time zones delaying the content from the ing a large demand for a software and op-ex model, head end can be costly so codecs with time zone capamuch like the rest of the IT world. bility delay ensures maximum efficiency. Another great One of the biggest issues we faced during COVID was feature is the addition of control data as opposed to more the inability to scale our codec fleet. Companies that are traditional “pulses,” our playout system can now talk taking advantage of WebRTC like ipDTL are certainly pavmachine to machine so the decisions are a lot smarter. We ing the way for a software/op-ex future. even delay the data so it’s time aligned with our audio. When we talk about remote codecs for remote broadcasts, the more portable, durable and simple, the better. CONTINUED ON PAGE 35 TRENDS IN CODECS & STLs Radio World | July 2020
12
