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Published on Saturday, 13 August 2011 23:24

July 26th 2011 

MEETING NOTICE 

Meetings are free. 

Guests are welcome.

HD Radio; What's the

Story here, Anyway?           

Presented by Scott Mason of CBS Radio

Join AES-LA and Scott Mason of CBS Radio on July 26th for an insightful look into HD Radio. HD (which originally stood for Hybrid Digital, not High-Definition) is a technology owned by the iBiquity Corporation and has been the sole technology approved by the FCC for radio broad-casts in the United States. iBiquity is a privately held company who aims to spread the adoption of HD Radio to an international level.

As a listener, you may hear broadcasters advertising their “HD2 or HD3” channels in their pro-motional materials. One major reason for the adoption of the system by the FCC is that stations can continue to broadcast on their existing channels through the use of the “in-band-on-channel” or IBOC technology. IBOC allows a station to maintain both analog and digital signals live within their licensed bandwidth on their assigned frequency.

There are many similarities in the implementation of this technology for the AM and FM sides of the dial, however there remain some important differences as well. The AM HD system allows for significantly improved frequency response and signal to noise than the conventional AM counterpart. iBiquity’s FM HD encoding system’s greatest benefits are that they provide a radio station with options for tailoring their usage of the allotted bandwidth either with addi-tional program channels or higher quality, or a combination of the two.

Even with all this new technology and an FCC granted monopoly, HD Radio continues to struggle with gaining hold of a consumer base. Will HD Radio be out of luck before it even picks up? Do radio stations and iBiquity have the prowess to bring listeners to the system, or will it fall to a similar fate as 8-track, quadraphonic and DVD-A?

Scott Mason has been involved in radio since 1976 both as On-Air Talent and as an Engineer. He is currently the Regional Director of Engineering for CBS Radio-West Coast. He is also on the Board of Directors for the Society of Broadcast Engi-neers and is a Certified Professional Broadcast Engineer. He’ll be able to share his insight on the technology behind HD radio and what the future might have in store for IBOC. This event will be open to questions and discussion following the presentation.

June Meeting Recap   
         

The Audio

Industry;

Early Digital and 

Beyond

Presented by Frank Wells

of Pro Sound News

By John Combs

Tuesday evening, at the June 
28th AES-LA meeting, Frank Wells presented a retrospective on the technology revolution that has taken place in the audio industry over the last two decades. His presentation covered everything from early digital audio coding in the form of black dots in a TV frame, to the evolution of present-day DAW’s, as the revolution unfolded in the recording studios of Nashville in the early nineties. He discussed both the technological developments and the business impacts on recording studios and the music business in general, and where they have led us today.

Early digital audio recording and modular recorders such as the Sony PCM-F1, and Sony PCM-1630 for CD mastering
pioneered the new technologies. Along with the Sony DMR-4000 video recorder, these were part of the classic
CD mastering setup in the 80's.

Digital multitrack recorders such as the Sony PCM-3324 and PCM -3348 became the standard for years for studio
tracking in the 90's, while DAT became a convenient low-cost standard for stereo digital audio recording.
The industry then saw the introduction of low-cost multitrack digital recording, with products like the Tascam
MMR-8 hard disk recorder, the Tascam DA-88 which used 8mm tape, and the ADAT 8-track recorder which used
VHS video tape. These low-cost products enabled the proliferation of small project studios which gradually siphoned
off more and more of the low-budget business from the big studios.

With the proliferation of faster PCs and massive storage capacities, came the advent of hard-disk recording. Nonlinear
editing technology fundamentally changed both the workflow and business model of audio recording and
post-production.

Today, personal electronics like the iPhone and iPad (and networked PCs in the home) are the preferred consumer
playback technology, often with compressed or band-limited sound files as the source format. Together with online
music purchasing, the convenience of these technologies is killing physical media. And currently, the preference
for convenience is trumping the demand for quality.

In the non-compressed digital audio world, there is now a trend towards favoring higher sample resolutions over
higher sample rates. It is becoming preferable to use 24-bit samples in place of 16-bit, and this is now seen as a better
upgrade than going to higher sample rates, i.e. 192 kHz. This kind of trend gives us reason for cautious optimism.

The AES-LA would like to thank Frank Wells for his engaging presentation, and Richard Wollrich for arranging
the discussion.

Supporters of AES LA

The AES LA Section needs your help. Our needs continue to grow and at the same time our costs have increased but
funding has decreased. We have formally launched a Section Supporter Program to raise additional funds so that we
can continue to meet member needs. The supporter program formally acknowledges three different contribution levels
with varying degrees of public recognition and discounts on section sponsored events.
Chapman University Dodge College of Film and Media Arts and JBL are members of the AES-LA Supporter
Program at the Gold level. Kasimoff-Bluthner Piano Company, Aphex Systems, Audio Precision,
Inc., Da-Cappo Microphones, and QSC are members of the program at the Silver Level. SKB
Cases is a member at the Bronze Level.
Contact section member, Jonathan Novick, for program details or check our website later this month.
Jonathan can be reached at (805) 302-7257 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Frank Wells, Sharing Decades of Observations and Insights from Around the Audio Industry.

  Section Newsletter Editors: Joe Carter and Eric T Johnson.                                    Section Webmaster: Alex Tinsley

  The Los Angeles section is one of the Audio Engineering Society’s largest and most active. Don’t miss out on the sections activities. Check the web site at http://www.aesla.org.