Nautel and Omnia are proposing that the fully digital broadcast transmission chain and interface developed by the two companies be adopted as an industry standard.
Introduced as Omnia Direct, the technology permits a single AES-EBU cable between the Omnia 11 and the Nautel NV Series transmitter to carry the baseband signal in digital form. This wholely digital path eliminates losses and distortion accrued by multiple passes through A/D converters and reduces potential overshoots, while ensuring full FCC mask compliance. It also eliminates the need to use an analogue composite signal, which prior to this collaboration was the only reliable way to ensure maximum modulation for station loudness.
Nautel and Omnia are now proposing that this technology be made available via an adopted industry standard to other processing and transmitter manufacturers.
‘By opening up the implementation details of this collaboration, it will give the industry an opportunity to develop interoperable solutions,’ says Nautel President and CEO, Peter Conlon. ‘Customers will have the choice of their transmitter and processor, and be able to use digital multiplex, and the industry can avoid the possibility of incompatible standards.’
‘Both of our companies are very excited about the ability to offer the digital equivalent of the analogue BNC-to-BNC composite (MPX) connection, where we can take the output of the audio processor’s stereo generator and couple it directly to the modulator of the exciter,’ adds Telos Alliance CEO and Omnia Audio founder, Frank Foti. ‘Although both Omnia and Nautel have expended a great deal of time, energy and resources in developing the interface, we feel it is important enough to the radio industry to make it an open standard for all manufacturers. We would be happy to share the technical details with any interested party.
Both Omnia and Nautel are to offer MPX over AES at no charge to their customers. Initially, the functionality is available on Nautel NV Series transmitters from 3.5kW to 44kW and the Omnia.11 processor. New transmitters are shipping with the feature as standard, and older NV series transmitters may be upgraded with the NV v4.0 software, which is now in controlled introduction.
