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Omnia.9

That's an impressive piece of video, quality notwithstanding. Was the station running HD also at the time that was taken? And if so, is that monitoring off - air, or analog only? i.e. are we seeing response to HD carriers on the monitor? If so, how's to turn them off for a couple of minutes?
My FMS-2 seems to resopond to them slightly.
 
No HD, all analog.

Here's the full "chain":

-Computer playing out .WAV files
-Wheatstone SP6
-Omnia.9
-Bext PTX-80 exciter into dummy load
-RF sample to Belar tunable RF amplifier
-IF output to FMM-2/FMS-2

I've got it for a few more weeks until a new site is built for a client. It'll be hard to let it go, but awesome to put it on the real air.
 
I just hope stations will use the Omnia 9's power to make them sound better, not necessarily louder, with improved high-end transparency, and reduced distortion. After all, radio's main competition these days are iPods playing completely unprocessed music.
 
Good point, but on top of that...the songs that are on those ipods are overprocessed and clipped to begin with...with undo in the O.9, this is our chance to sound better...for a change.
 
If anyone didn't look at that link, it's must see YT. That is without a doubt the most amazing thing I've ever seen done to a Belar Monitor. I suspect it may void the monitor's warranty!
 
fm-engineer said:
Looks smashed. How does it really sound? The video and audio is poor quality.
Click to expand...

I suggest you get a demo and hear it for yourself. I will say, what you see on the mod monitor, and what you hear are two totally different dimensions. The signal does look dense, but it really doesn't sound like it. The reason is due to how well Omnia.9 manages high frequencies across the mix spectrum. On account of the added clean HF content, the mod monitor looks 'smashed' because the metering is more sensitive to preemphasized high frequencies.

If Leif is lurking, he may have another point of view.

-Frank Foti
 
To add to what Frank said, if you look at the composite meter, it does just hang at 100%. But if you look at the L/R meters, they are moving much more and there is dynamic range there. They're moving.

When I get a better video camera, I'm going to put the output of the Belar straight into the camera for the audio. And I'll shoot it in 1080p. Just gonna take me a few days to get my hands on the iPhone--I'm guessing if I pad the output down I can send it into the phone? Or am I missing a step?
 
Not all frequencies goes over 100% (L/R level). Only Highs something about 3-4kHz and up (?) So, most dynamics in L/R signal what You talking about is more in DeClipper and "Undo".

br
 
Great video! Thanks for that -- it shows it clearly.

The composite mod monitor looks smashed because of the extreme amount of clipping. If you look at the signal on a scope, it looks like it's been cut with a razor blade. However, it doesn't sound smashed or distorted because thanks to my psychoacoustically distortion masking clipper, clipping distortion is masked, so I don't need to do any HF limiting before hitting the clipper. It's essentially the best of both worlds -- the punch and impact of a clipper, but the spectral purity of a gentle limiter. People listen to L/R, not MPX, so the L/R mod monitor displays are much more indicative of what it sounds like -- clear high-end with actual dynamics.

If you de-emphasize the audio before looking at L/R, the meters do not move nearly as much, however de-emphasis doesn't remove dynamics, it just changes the frequency balance, so all the HF dynamics remain after de-emphasis, even though they'll be obscured on a wideband meter due to the then much louder lower frequencies.

Bojcha is absolutely correct that it's only the highs that go over 100%, and that comes in really handy when you're fighting a pre-emphasis curve.

Doing this same test on most processors you'll see the MPX meter move more than the L/R meters (the ones carrying the audio we're supposed to be listening to), which is the exact opposite of what we want :).

Best regards,
Leif Claesson
 
WNTI, if you want to capture the audio, you could always plug a USB drive into the back, and then use one of the three File Recorders to record the MPX Output patch point (make sure to adjust the gain in the file recorder to -3.00 dB). This gives you a perfect digital MPX recording in FLAC format, which can then be played in MpxTool, replayed into a transmitter or mod monitor, or decoded and de-emphasized with my MpxDec command line tool, to yield a wave file you could mux with the video. I'll be happy to send you (or anyone) the tool -- it's completely free. It's a phase linear reference quality stereo decoder I made when I needed it that one time, and it has come in handy several times since. You could also post the actual MPX file for people to scrutinize. :)

Best regards,
///Leif
 
I think I thought he was kidding about the needle... that is incredible!!!

I got the shock of my life when I recorded some audio from just the dinky little Breakaway Audio Enhancer for your desktop. I had the Speed set all the way down to zero (on Zenith) and saw in the recording the buzzed top you were talking about... it has always sounded so open, clean and dynamic!

Looking back at the meters, I realized the volume barely changed from zero to 100 Speed at least in part because the lower the speed, the harder the peaks hit the Limiter... it creates the illusion of openness without actually letting the peaks get completely out of control.

I've about decided Leif is a sorcerer... ;)
 
Let me tell you guys!

Omnia Audio is a fun place to work. Lots of cool action happening...and we're all just getting started! It's great to be part of a group of audio processing nuts, all of us working our magic!

Leif -- you having fun yet? ;D ;D ;D

-Cornelius
 
Not to throw a wet blanket on this party, but in the REAL world, not laboratories and dummy loads, how does the process perform? I mean the world of multipath, hd-analog mixing, and ESPECIALLY high frequency blending and mono mixing in weaker signal areas. If the station is loud as dickens in stereo, but drops when blending, it would sound terrible. Not all listeners live and drive in the 54 dbu contour. You've got antennas as moving targets at 65 mph. If the stereo is louder than the mono mix, it would seem pretty useless.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a BIG fan of the Foti products. One of the early adapters. Well engineered and bulletproof. But this has me puzzled. Looks like it's being fed through an old Fisher Space-Xpander!
 
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