Delivery of Service Is Key for Planning

Dan Jackson of SCA also sees trends moving from “boxes” to a software and op-ex model

Dan Jackson is head of audio operations for SCA, Australia’s biggest entertainment company. Its multimedia assets include more than 100 radio stations. 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.

Radio World: In this ebook we are RW: How are today’s technologies exploring trends in the design and solving problems in creative ways? performance of codecs. Jackson: Moving to IP-based techDan Jackson: At SCA we are a big nologies has decreased reliability on believer in standards to ensure links, so SmartStream and dual link interoperability between products. codecs have allowed codecs to be We like to talk in terms of SMPTE used in place of expensive micro2110 and AES67 for audio distribuwave links, where historically the IP tion, and AES67/SNMP for control. service is no good. As for codecs we tend to change our choice based on the application; RW: What role are codecs playing for 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 distribution. want to be able to go as soon as possible.” around 20 shows at 50 locations

One of the most important trends using mostly Tieline VIAs. Their Cloud is delivery of service. As we move away from dedicated Codec Controller was an excellent add-on as it allowed POTS and ISDN lines and onto 4G/5G services, we are at our engineers to manage the codecs remotely. the mercy of the tower operators. Having the ability to Historically we have been fairly flexible with our talent, double-deliver the data through the same or multiple carso broadcasting from home was not new for us. Holiday riers ensures that content is delivered 100% of the time. homes, pregnancies and simply being in another state

We’ve also noticed a shift away from having extremely have required us to have the capability to broadcast low latency links, gone are the days where talent are remotely. monitoring off air, so things like Forward Error Correction are welcomed to help ensure the quality of service. RW: What recent features are offered that other engineers

Another important trend I see is the shift away from may appreciate? traditional “boxes” and capital expenditure. We are seeJackson: Time-zone delay is a great feature. In a country ing a large demand for a software and op-ex model, that has five time zones delaying the content from the much like the rest of the IT world. head end can be costly so codecs with time zone capa

One of the biggest issues we faced during COVID was bility delay ensures maximum efficiency. Another great the inability to scale our codec fleet. Companies that are feature is the addition of control data as opposed to more taking advantage of WebRTC like ipDTL are certainly pavtraditional “pulses,” our playout system can now talk ing the way for a software/op-ex future. machine to machine so the decisions are a lot smarter. We

When we talk about remote codecs for remote broadeven delay the data so it’s time aligned with our audio. casts, the more portable, durable and simple, the better. CONTINUED ON PAGE 35