Tag Archives: Telos Alliance

My Magical Mystery Tour of Abbey Road Studio In London

Have you ever experienced something surreal?

I had reason to visit and work at Abbey Road Studio in London, and it still seems surreal!! My colleague Jayson Tomlin, Gary Katz (producer of Steely Dan), and myself were there to do testing and evaluation of some new technologies we’ve been working on for broadcast and consumer applications.

We spent a full day working in one of the mix-down studios, along with members of the BBC, Scotland Yard, Abbey Road, David Perreau, Felix Konrad, and some of Gary’s record producer ‘buddies”…Hugh Padgham (Genesis, Rush, Phil Collins, Police, Sting, XTC), and Elliott Randall (studio guitarist for Steely Dan).

Frank with Hugh Padgham (left) and Gary Katz (right)
Frank with Hugh Padgham (left) and Gary Katz (right)

Our connection with Gary has enabled us to connect with key members of the music production world, which in turn has enabled us to further evolve technologies for broadcast, and soon the consumer markets. Our work at Abbey Road was another step along this process, and it raised the bar for us, on what is expected of our products.

Frank on the steps of Abbey Road Studios
Frank on the steps of Abbey Road Studios

Being able to set foot into the building and studio where the Beatles recorded and produced all of their material was breathtaking. I’ll never forget, as we were wrapping up the events for the day, the studio engineer, whom we were working with, said “hey guys come with me, two is now open!” In my mind I’m thinking “this is where all the ‘magic’ happened.” So, off we went, and sure enough we walk into studio #2, and it’s still pretty much the same as if John, Paul, George, and Ringo were there the day before.  Getting chills—again—as I write this!!

Jayson Tomlin and others take in Studio #2
Jayson Tomlin and others take in Studio #2

Probably the most gratifying moment that day was towards the end. Hugh Padgham had been listening to some tech I’d developed, and told me how he’d done work with the late George Martin. His comment was how he had a good sense about how George produced the Beatles, and could we apply my ‘gizmo’ to their music.

Abbey Road Cafeteria
Abbey Road Cafeteria

So…in the building they recorded the album Abbey Road, we added some treatment to the song “Golden Slumbers.” Together, all of us were in awe to hear the Beatles music, with some treatment from our efforts, done at Abbey Road!

Tape deck used in the recording of Sgt. Pepper's
Tape deck used in the recording of Sgt. Pepper’s

There’s a skylight in the ceiling of the studio we were working in. While listening, I looked upward through the skylight, and thought, “if Mr. Martin, Mr. Lennon, and Mr. Harrison are listening, my hope is you won’t feel I let you down.” I felt a tear trickle down upon having this thought. Quite possibly one of the coolest occurrences in this boy’s life!!

Frank between pianos used for the Beatles' “Get Back” and John Lennon's “Imagine”
Frank between pianos used for the Beatles’ “Get Back” and John Lennon’s “Imagine”

Modestly, it was reassuring when each of our well-known music industry guests gave us the “thumbs up’ for our efforts. Further indication of how our little organization keeps growing and raising the bar! In closing, my sincere thanks to Jayson Tomlin, Gary Katz, Hugh Padgham, Andrew Scheps, and Elliott Randall for your feedback and friendship!!

Recording mixer used to record Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon
Recording mixer used to record Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon

For the Silo, Frank Foti.

Why Smart Speakers Were Popular Gift Idea Again This Holiday Season

Smart Speakers 101  The trendy devices can help you with everything from appointment reminders to grocery shopping lists to playing your favorite music and podcasts. It’s that last item that has the radio world excited. Find out why all the buzz is good news not only for broadcasters but also importantly for you.

A recent trend has shown an increase in radio listenership through popular smart speakers such as Google Home and Amazon Alexa. So what can broadcasters do to take advantage of this trend? Steve Goldstein of Amplifi Media and Sonic Ai aims to help.

A broadcaster by trade, most recently as EVP at Saga Communications, Steve saw a shift to on-demand content, and in 2015 launched Amplifi, a firm focused on developing on-demand audio—the intersection of podcasting and broadcasting. Earlier this year, Steve partnered with Jacobs Media on Sonic Ai, who develops smart speaker skills (more on skills later) for podcasters and broadcasters.

So what is it about smart speakers that make it easier for people to listen to radio? Steve explains, “There are a number of factors. For starters, the number of radios in the home has been on a steady decline. By some estimates, two-thirds of homes do not have radios. Generationally it’s even fewer.” Steve says the notion that it’s a choice between a radio and something else isn’t really true anymore – in some homes, there is no radio.

While it may be hard for those of us in the broadcast industry to imagine, the smartphone has replaced the radio and clock radio in many homes. “The smartphone is an entertainment hub,” Steve says. “It’s where people listen to music, get the news, watch videos, and so on. It’s transitioned from a telephone to a full-fledged hub. Part of that hub can be radio, but very little listening to radio occurs through the device.”

Steve says radio stations need to think beyond the transmitter and audio stream. While there are only so many radio stations in a market, there are 100,000 radio stations available via the TuneIn Radio app, streaming services like Spotify and Pandora, and 400,000 podcasts. “You’re talking about an awful lot of audio,” he asserts. “The focus needs to be on-demand content. That’s the trend. The expectation today is that content is available on-demand.” The ability to listen whenever and wherever a listener desires—in the car, while they’re walking the dog, when they’re exercising—is in step with today’s lifestyles.

Steve Goldstein

It’s the same arc we’ve seen on the video side with on-demand services such as Netflix, Hulu, and others. While adoption has been slower on the audio side, the conversion is happening rapidly among millennials.

An Edison Research study from NPR earlier this year showed that somewhere between 7-11% of homes in the U.S. have these devices and the largest group of users is millennials (18-34). And we should expect this trend to continue, especially with the holidays upon us. “We should expect these devices are going to sell like hotcakes over holiday season,” Steve says. He points out that some analysts predict that market penetration may increase to 15-18% by the end of the year.

Smart Speaker

With the trend toward radio and audio consumption through smart devices, it’s apparent the way forward for broadcasters is to develop new ways to connect audiences to their content.

Got Skills?
You’ve probably heard the term skills thrown about when smart speakers are discussed. So what exactly are skills? And how do they relate to broadcast audio consumption via smart speakers? Steve explains. “Think of smart speakers as computers… They don’t know what to do until you teach it. In this case, Amazon refers to the learning aspect of the device as a skill. We develop skills and invocations for the stations we work with.”

As an example, Sonic Ai built a skill for WMMR in Philadelphia called ‘Open MMR.’ The listener hears a greeting from the morning show, then is offered a menu of choices. Listeners can choose to listen to the live stream, the latest podcast of the morning show, or the show’s top feature, called ‘The Bizarre Files’—an 8-12 minute piece of audio you can listen to without sitting through the entire morning show. Steve says WMMR has seen significant traction from listeners who missed the segment on the morning show tuning in to listen at a time convenient to them.

For a top-performing morning show, this is huge; for the first time, there’s a retention strategy, with the ability to repurpose and reuse audio. Additionally, in PPM markets, listening to content within 24 hours of the original broadcast is accretive to a station’s ratings.

Steve points out that when it comes to a radio station’s invocations and skills, getting it right is essential. Depending on the name or phrase used to identify a station, the invocation might not provide the audio stream you’re looking for. Steve cites the phrase ‘Lite FM’ as an example. “If you say ‘Play Lite FM’ as your invocation, you’re going to get Lite FM in Beirut, Lebanon, or an Inspirational station in Albany, NY. So you need to get your name and invocation correct, and register it.”

Steve suggests however that if stations are only doing this for streaming purposes, that’s not enough. “The real opportunity is with on-demand audio, which is what we’re focused on.”

The capabilities of smart speakers are constantly being enhanced, and they’re used for a variety of tasks, but audio is by far the top option. That’s the good news, Steve says, but the challenge for broadcasters is that that audio is coming from a variety of sources. “The linear AM/FM notion is going away, but the notion that broadcasters create relevant content is not, so they need to be more flexible about where content is being consumed, less focused on the transmitter, and more focused on devices that can play audio.”

It’s a new challenge, but with booming sales of smart speakers and potential for a measurable increase in listeners, it’s a challenge broadcasters need to embrace. Steve sums it up. “Broadcasters need to get out of the radio business and into the audio business. That will change your thinking about everything.” For the Silo, Dave Sarkies/Telos Alliance.

Supplemental-
For more about the impact of smart speakers on the broadcast industry, check out TWiRT 372 – Tom Vernon on Smart Speakers 

Dubai DJ Sets Underwater Broadcast Record

The crew at Channel 4 FM in Dubai responded when the marketing team thought it might be fun to do a live 5-10 minute broadcast segment from the Ambassador’s Lagoon outside the iconic Atlantis the Palm Resort, more or less as a publicity stunt to promote this exotic location. We’re not talking poolside, mind you, but broadcasting from within the pool – an underwater broadcast from a pool that hosts a variety of sea life!

This might have been interesting enough, though such an aquatic broadcast had been done before, but the plan soon evolved into something more when Station Producer Lucas Poole (ironic, right?) suggested that Stu Tolan, host of the Celebrate Mornings breakfast show, attempt to break the record for longest underwater broadcast.

Mobile Rack featuring Telos Z/IP ONE used for underwater broadcastChannel 4 learned that this would mean staying on air and underwater for nearly five hours – no small amount of time to broadcast live while wearing scuba gear! The team was up for it, and preparations began to break the record. But would the tech hold up for such a stunt? Channel 4 IT and Broadcast Manager Muhammed Rafeeque says there were a number of challenges, and the engineering team initially didn’t feel prepared for the record-breaking broadcast.

“We were informed that one of the requirements to set the record was that the broadcast crew could not disconnect from the studio for more than two minutes, so we would need to ensure a stable link from the site of the broadcast to the main broadcast studio at all times,” Muhammed explains. In addition, the broadcast hosts would need to remain in communication with a representative from the Guinness Book of World Records, outside the pool, at all times. Muhammed continues, “These requirements presented some challenges for the technical crew to ensure these lines of communication would remain stable throughout the broadcast, and that any delays in communications or getting callers on the air would be minimal.”

Complicating things further, the resort could not provide a stable internet connection because it is reserved for guests, so the only access would be via cables. As such, a good bit of equipment would need to be hauled to the broadcast site so everything would be at the ready.

As a solution, Muhammed says the team used a router, which connected to a Telos Z/IP ONE, and then to the main broadcast studio. The studio features 100% Livewire infrastructure, so getting the audio feed into the studio would be easy using the Z/IP ONE, especially with sufficient backups. Muhammed assigned two Z/IP ONEs to the studio, so if one failed, the second one would take over and the broadcast could remain live. “For this broadcast it was all about convenience, quality, and low latency,” he points out.

“For this broadcast it was all about convenience, quality, and low latency.”

—Muhammed Rafeeque, IT and Broadcast Manager, Channel 4 FM

All the coordination paid off, and on May 13th, Stu and the Channel 4 Celebrate Mornings went live from underwater! Everything went smoothly, and presenters Saif, Vicky, Helen, and Kolter, Program Director Tom Ferguson, and news reporters on hand to interview the team, joined Stu underwater at various intervals during the show, while co-presenter Eve presented poolside.

With the help of the engineering staff—Ramesh, Chandana, Chaminda, Ibrahim, Mannan, and Shahid Kazmi—and the marketing team of CEO / Group Program Director and AlMurad Group CBO Talal Murad, and assistants Neeil and Yogesh, the broadcast came off without a hitch.

In the end, the record was not only broken, but shattered, as the broadcast went well beyond the five hour mark, giving future underwater broadcast hopefuls a high bar to shoot for. Check out the video highlights and the photo album.

Mr. Abdullah Murad, Chairman Al Murad group, parent company to Channel 4, phoned Stu to congratulate him once the record was officially broken, and the Guinness Book of World Records representative on hand certified the record presented Stu with the honor at the end of the broadcast.

It certainly wasn’t your everyday broadcast, but at a place like Atlantis the Palm, “A World Away from the Everyday” is the norm. The Telos Alliance is proud to have played a small part in this unique event, and help the Channel 4 team achieve a slice of radio broadcast history. For the Silo, Dave Sarkies.