How Audio Processing is Used in Broadcast Radio

In broadcasting, we process our program audio for two reasons: to stay in our frequency allocation, and to make the station sound better (or louder). Here's an extraordinarily basic overview of how audio processing is used in broadcasting. Starring Omnia.9 from the Telos Alliance, this video will also teach you the difference between AGC, compressors, limiters, and clippers.

[RHauto]

I used to love playing around with Stereo tool and Breakaway on my computer and a little exciter hooked up to try get the best sound. It entertained me for months of my life lol. It really is a form of art

[sophiapriest]

I love these videos so much! I do a lot of music production/mastering, so I can relate to a lot of this audio processing stuff, but I'm also interested in radio broadcasting, and these videos are an amazing starting point for me to learn! Thanks!

[djbrettbsu]

This guy is the Technology Connections of radio engineering. Thank you for that!

[captainkeyboard]

I enjoy your shows as an audiophile. I just subscribed. Technology Connections is the right title for your programs, so that sound engineers, broadcast engineers, and audiophiles may look forward to enjoying them as do I.

[electroshed]

I run Breakaway One processing for our station, so the Omnia9 interface looks very familiar!

[HJCF]

I just found your channel. I am a college student who recently started working in broadcast engineering. Thanks for the great content!!! Really cool to see other installs and configurations. Also, I loved the Technology Connections reference.

[RocknRollkat]

Excellent presentation, thank you !
Bill P.

[dangerale]

Interesting how there's no mention of phase rotation/APF here, is it still a common practice? I hear a lot of stations still using it in the UK, but noticed some don't.

[timothystockman]

Back in the mid-1980's I set up a cable FM station which broadcast on the TV cable. It could be received by connecting an FM tuner to the TV cable. I modified our Orban 8000 processor to clip the peaks at 200%. This did not seem to bother our Catel modulator or FM receivers, and it was not a problem since all stations on the cable were at least 400 kHz apart.

[fhowland]

Great overview video! What's your opinion on Omina vs Orban? I feel like FM stations used to sound much better 15 or so years ago when they were all using Orban boxes. Most of the stations here in Boston WAY overuse digital clipping and in general push their processing too far so the audio just sounds like mush.

[gdj]

Audio Processing in Broadcast Radio 101 in 7 minutes ! Subscribed 🙂

[GreggKEGG]

this helped me set my orban 6300 to sound great for my live stream

[snugglebunnyhaven]

This was a very decent simplified description of processing but there is alot more to this. Most of the trouble lies within the pre emphasis curve vs the modulation control before the stereo generator receives the audio signal. Many "pirates" think they can buy a Chinese transmitter from ebay and throw a Behringer compressor before it and alls good when it does nothing for modulation control. Companies like Orban and Omnia have made good money engineering processors that combine all thats needed to tackle these issues perfectly.

[makrisj]

Ah, you went really, really well. Thank you.

[bmproenza]

Thanks a lot for the video. I learned something new today.

[djvintagevincenetpricks]

Yeah, very concise explanation on how FM terrestrial radio works, without being too oversimplified.

[cannade]

Thanks for the information! :) What is your opinion on a an Aphex 320?

[gks]

Hey, love the videos. I'm wondering how (or if) you deal with preprocessing audio (music or long form programs) before feeding to your processor. As in, Gain/Loudness, Normalization, RMS/LUFS. BBC and NPR are using some (imo ridiculously low) LUFS levels, and I see commercial broadcasters using everything from "Gain to -.1dB", "LUFS -16/14" or "Normalize at -3dB", to not touching the audio at all, just ripping and playing. With prerecorded audio all over the place, you can spin the dial and pick out the stations that aren't pre-processing from the folks that are, (the ones that are, aren't working their transmitter processor like a rented mule) . any thoughts or recommendations?

[thebrockdock]

Nice Technology Connections reference.

[haloprowrestling]

I’ve been looking for a channel like this for months! Was wondering if you could do a video on phone routing. I used to work at a station and we would screen calls in voice tracker, however a friend and I want to translate this into our podcast. Adobe audition will act as our voice tracker, but I’m wondering if you could go over the logistics of roughing the signal off the board so our voices don’t go out over the stream? Thanks ahead of time!