Station ID inserter

[Studio1]

I've just been asked if I can supply a unit to drop a station ID into a sat downlink feed.
What they are doing is re-broadcasting a sat feed on FM, but need to add a local ident once at the top of the hour, when
the supplier of the sat feed gives them a break to do just this. [I believe there is a signal of some sort, yet to find out the details, that can be used to kick off the local ident).
Can anyone recommend a unit, or a way (short of using full on automation) to achieve this?

 

[spinjector]

You can use the "Cough" feature (or variants) of most profanity delay units to do this. You simply activate the Cough function for the length of the ID.

The Eventide BD-600 has a slot for a Compact Flash memory card that you can load WAV files into and play those as needed. If I recall correctly, the "Panic" feature would work nicely for that. You could set the delay for a length of perhaps twice that of your ID, set one of the remote control pins on the back of the unit to the Panic function, and then fire it whenever you need to.

I've been wanting to insert EAS messages this way for years, but I can't find a delay with the gobs of memory needed to absorb enough time for even an average thunderstorm warning. I've been pondering trying to do it with a PC somehow, but like I always say - I don't have time. =-)

 

[ncradioeng]

Get a good used cart machine and stack some ID's on a cart with EOM (sec) tones after them. Wire the main and cart audio through a latching relay that is toggled by the ID closure (that also starts the cart) and the EOM closure. If you don't need to override another ID on the main feed, then you don't even need the relay and EOM tones, just mix the cart audio with the main audio.

 

[TomT]

The Henry Digistor will do this. Don't know if it is still made.

 

[Jasonce66]

I have a software product that can do what you need. It can run on any Windows 32 bit platform, such as Windows 200, XP, etc. It has 4 play/record decks that are controlled through a GPIO module that connects to a COM port on the PC. The software isn't on the market yet, but I am close to launching this among several other software based engineering tools.

 

[Jasonce66]

Additional info: Yes, the satellite receiver generally have a port on them that has relay closures wired to it. If it is an ABR200/202 or Starguide, I can help you set it up. A GPIO (general purpose Input/Output) module is a circuit card that connects to the computer (in this case via an RS232 COM port) to convey the relay closures to the software running on the computer. There are many manufacturers of GPIO modules, but I've designed my own so they are more reasonably priced. For your application, it sounds like you could connect the output of the satellite receiver to the line input of a sound card, then allow the sound card to mix the satellite audio with the audio file when it is played (when the software received the relay closure)... you could also use an inexpensive 2 channel audio mixer, like a Behringer/Mackie.

 

[spinjector]

Oh it seems I was thinking too hard. Did you want to drop the ID "onto" the feed, or "into" it (with time expansion)...? =-)

 

[Studio1]

Oh it seems I was thinking too hard. Did you want to drop the ID "onto" the feed, or "into" it (with time expansion)...? =-)

Yeah, I see what you're talking about.

I am thinking that just dropping it 'onto' the feed, ie running it into a spare channel on their mixer (assuming they even use one) and having that channel 'live' all the time, then when the sat feed sends its notification pulse or whatever it does to signal the local system that "you can now insert your ID as I am giving you 10 secs of dead air" it will just kick off something that is fed into that spare channel and the ID will 'sound' like it has been mixed in with the feed.

I don't think they'd need to have time expansion etc, but it's a valid point. Thanks for mentioning it.

 

[Studio1]

I have a software product that can do what you need. It can run on any Windows 32 bit platform, such as Windows 200, XP, etc. It has 4 play/record decks that are controlled through a GPIO module that connects to a COM port on the PC. The software isn't on the market yet, but I am close to launching this among several other software based engineering tools.

This sounds like just the ticket. I'll PM you.

 

[Studio1]

Get a good used cart machine and stack some ID's on a cart with EOM (sec) tones after them. Wire the main and cart audio through a latching relay that is toggled by the ID closure (that also starts the cart) and the EOM closure. If you don't need to override another ID on the main feed, then you don't even need the relay and EOM tones, just mix the cart audio with the main audio.

A novel idea indeed. I have a heap of cart machines kicking around here!

The Henry Digistor will do this. Don't know if it is still made.

Thanks Tom, I have Googled that device and it seems it may still be in production. I appreciate your suggestion.

 

[spinjector]

If you're dropping it "onto" the feed, look at a "ducking" processor.

Most cheap DJ mixers have a "ducker". It's the process of lowering the main program channel when someone speaks into a microphone (or in this case an ID). You can commonly hear it in grocery stores when someone announces "cleanup in aisle one". While the person is speaking, the music is still audible in the background but at a lower level. Then when they finish it comes back up.

Ducking works just like an audio compressor, but the "sense" circuit is listen to one program, and the "volume control" circuit is controlling a second. It would work best if the ID is a nice clean voice with no jingles or underbed.

 

[Nostalgia]

Get a good used cart machine and stack some ID's on a cart with EOM (sec) tones after them. Wire the main and cart audio through a latching relay that is toggled by the ID closure (that also starts the cart) and the EOM closure. If you don't need to override another ID on the main feed, then you don't even need the relay and EOM tones, just mix the cart audio with the main audio.

A novel idea indeed. I have a heap of cart machines kicking around here!

HAHAHA Being old school my first thought was a cart machine, but I thought that if I posted such an antique solution to the board I would be ................ well I'm not sure what I expected but was sufficiently scared to keep my silly idea to myself ;D

 

[Studio1]

HAHAHA Being old school my first thought was a cart machine, but I thought that if I posted such an antique solution to the board I would be ................ well I'm not sure what I expected but was sufficiently scared to keep my silly idea to myself ;D

Well, you MUST speak up and put your ideas forward no matter what others may think. I am old school as well and being an
analog junkie I have a heap of it at my disposal.
Some of the best ideas for radio have come from early developments and ideas.

 

[Charlie]

Talking of making use of old cart machines - on a UK forum some year's ago, somebody once told a story of a radio geek who wired an old cart player to their doorbell - the cart fired-up when pressed by a visitor... the sound of somebody knocking on a door with their knuckles ;D

 

[Tom Wells]

Talking of making use of old cart machines - on a UK forum some year's ago, somebody once told a story of a radio geek who wired an old cart player to their doorbell - the cart fired-up when pressed by a visitor... the sound of somebody knocking on a door with their knuckles ;D

I wanted to do this years ago with a loop that had a Chicago "regular guy" saying "Hey! Someones at da door!"
Lack of time......

 

[whoops]

You can do this pretty easily with the task scheduler on a Windows computer whose clock is synced with a time standard. Just create a task to play an ID every hour. Here is how.

Make sure your Windows installation has the program “sndrec32.exe”--usually found in the C:\WINDOWS\system32\ folder. The sound recorder MUST be in one of the “path statement” places contained in the computer environment variables. The “system32” folder is one of those. If you do not have “sndrec32.exe” on your computer, get it from another one and stick it in the “system32” folder.

Create your ID audio as a WAV file and put it somewhere. I recommend the C drive root directory. Fewer problems occur this way as the computer will find the file regardless of unwitting changes somebody may make to the computer directory structure.

Create a text file with the following text:

start /min sndrec32 /embedding /play /close "c:\[ID filename].wav"

Save that newly created text file with whatever name you want but make the file extension the “.bat” batch file extension. Again, I recommend putting this file in the root directory of the main drive.

Go to Control Panel > Scheduled Tasks

Create a new task with whatever name you want--I use “Hourly_Auto_ID”. In the “Run” box, point it to the batch file you just created. Schedule it to start “Daily” at “01:00” with no end date; repeat task every “Every 1 hours” “Until Duration 23 hours 05 minutes”; “Schedule Task Daily Every 1 day”. Be sure the task is “Enabled” on the Task tab before clidking “OK”.

Every hour, on the hour, the task scheduler will flash open a command window momentarily, play the ID in a hidden sound recorder instance, then close out sound recorder.

Surely most everyone is running an Optimod or Omnia these days. If so, adjust the playback to a good 2db above normal program level. The Optimod will duck the program content for the ID.

We have been using this method for months now, without a hitch.

 

[listner1]

I've seen EMF K-LOVE racks that just have a $25 mp3 player. Someone tore it apart and wired a relay on the sat receiver to the play button on the mp3 player. Oddly enough, it was very reliable.

 

[ncradioeng]

It would be interesting to see which method would be the most trouble-free - a cart that runs once an hour or a computer running windows all day long. The cart machine wouldn't need a UPS.