Modulation monitoring leader announces Automatic Delay Correction demos with leading processor, exporter vendors in Central Hall
West Chester, PA, April 7, 2015 – With one week to the 2015 NAB Show starting gun, Belar Electronics announces a series of Automatic Delay Correction demos with exhibitors that will expand its presence well beyond its home turf at Booth C2452. At the Las Vegas Convention Center next Monday through Thursday, the demos will showcase the flexible deployment options of Belar’s innovative HD Radio™ diversity delay/time alignment solution in partnership with some of the industry’s most recognized brands, including GatesAir, Nautel and Wheatstone.
Belar’s Automatic Delay Correction software provides a simple and cost-effective way to eliminate delay between digital and analog signals in the blending areas of HD Radio coverage. The software consistently measures the FM/HD time alignment, and precisely controls the roughly eight-second delay between HD and analog FM programming to ensure a pleasant listening experience. The demos will show how Belar’s software accomplishes this task without forcing its customers to push the audio through the modulation monitor. Instead, Belar’s Automatic Delay Correction feeds the adjustment back toward the front of the air chain, with corrections taking place in the audio processor, HD exporter, or standalone precision delay line.
According to Belar CEO Mark Grant, recent innovations make the processor and exporter options particularly compelling.
“High-end audio processors today from companies like Wheatstone, Omnia and Orban typically include a delay line, or can integrate one through software updates,” said Grant. “However, those with well-functioning older high-end processors, or other less feature-rich processors, typically do not have or cannot integrate a delay line. In these cases, companies like GatesAir and Nautel offer an especially valuable service via connectivity with their HD exporters.”
Tim Anderson, manager, radio market and product development, GatesAir, claims its demo (Booth C3107) will unmask how the inherent flaws in the HD Radio system architecture, network timing issues and synchronization cause continual drift or sudden shifts in otherwise perfectly aligned installations – and how the GatesAir/Belar integration automatically detects, correlates and corrects misalignments at regular intervals to improve the listener experience.
“Using the latest Belar FMHD-1 modulation monitor and its Automatic Delay Correction software with GatesAir’s HDE-200 Exporter control protocol, the analog-to-digital diversity delay timing is constantly monitored and correlated to generate a correction message,” said Anderson. “That message is sent via Ethernet to the GatesAir HDE-200 Program Exporter’s internal diversity delay control, and the correction is applied and continually maintained within optimum specifications, assuring that the FM and HD audio streams are always synchronized.”
Visitors can also see Nautel’s demonstration of its exporter and the FMHD-1 at Booth C2131.
On the processing side, Wheatstone will demonstrate how corrective timing is able to take place in its AirAura, FM-55 and other audio processors (Booth C755) without broadcasters having to insert yet another box into the air chain. Belar’s ADC algorithm is introduced into the audio processors through Wheatstone’s network protocol Automatic Control Interface (ACI). Belar’s algorithm in the FMHD-1 continuously measures FM/HD time alignment and transmits closed-loop diversity delay corrections back to the Wheatstone on-air processor through the ACI interface.
“Every HD Radio broadcaster has a diversity delay in the program line, and many customers utilize the one built into our on-air processors,” said Jeff Keith, senior product design engineer at Wheatstone. “By not modifying the existing air chain, we can keep the signal path pure and simply tell the processor what the perfect diversity delay setting should be. Because all of our on-air processors already have the ACI protocol built in, a simple software upgrade opens up access to the HD diversity delay being controlled by the Belar FMHD-1.”
Grant adds that, while not being demonstrated at the show, Belar also integrates 25-Seven’s Precision Delay and Orban audio processors. Belar is additionally working with Omnia to integrate Automatic Delay Correction into their latest-generation on-air processors.
About Belar Electronics
Founded in 1964, Belar Electronics Laboratory, Inc. is the world’s leading manufacturer of modulation monitors. Used by radio and TV stations globally to monitor broadcast signals, Belar products are world-renowned for accuracy and reliability. These benefits are also recognized worldwide by manufacturers of transmitters and audio processors, which regularly rely on Belar monitors as test instruments to ensure their products meet specifications. Contact Belar at (610)-687-5550 or visit them on the web at www.belar.com.
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