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Radio World

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Remote Contribution: A New Ebook

Posted: 26 May 2022 06:32 AM PDT https://www.radioworld.com/resource-center/ebooks/remote-contribution-a-new-ebook

Radio stations need to deliver audio content back to their studios or other central control point for numerous reasons including sports coverage, news, promotional remotes and other applications.
Radio World’s free ebooks are intended to help you in your job and your career by gaining a greater understanding of important concepts and trends.
In this edition, engineers and audio teams at NPR, WTOP and Beasley Media
Group join manufacturing experts from six leading sponsors to answer
questions about trends and important features in codec and remote audio management.
Read it here.

The post Remote Contribution: A New Ebook appeared first on Radio World.


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Check Out NABs Beautiful New Headquarters

Posted: 26 May 2022 02:38 AM PDT https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/from-the-editor/check-out-nabs-beautiful-new-headquarters

Source: capitolriverfront.org

I was invited along with TV Tech Editor in Chief Tom Butts to tour the new headquarters of the National Association of Broadcasters at 1 M Street Southeast in Washington last week.

Any trade association that lobbies Congress desires an impressive home,
ideally near the Capitol; and this facility certainly fits the bill.

Having attended the groundbreaking six years ago, I was eager to see the results. The building was originally expected to open in 2018 but was
slowed by various factors including permit delays. NAB moved in April 2020, just as the pandemic was hitting, and employees began returning last
summer. They are now on a hybrid schedule.

What follows is a photo essay of images provided by NAB, LG Business
Solutions and my own iPhone, taken during our tour.

NAB owns the 11-story, 118,000-square-foot building and occupies six
floors, leasing the rest. There is a conference center on the top two
floors and retail spaces on the first floor. The LEED Silver building was designed by architectural firm HOK (which also did the new BBC Studios headquarters). It is located in the new, very popular Capitol Riverfront neighborhood.
Photo by LG Business Solutions

The ground-floor entrance shown below serves all building occupants, who
are welcomed by a carpet declaring the address: “1M.” The lobby includes a 22-foot-wide by 20-foot-tall LG LED Signage video display that can be used
for high-profile branding and messaging and is visible from the sidewalk,
which gets a lot of public foot traffic including games at nearby Nationals Park.

As one NAB exec put it, “We want to send a message that we represent an industry that is on the cutting edge across the board, from public policy
to programming to technology.”
Lobby With Video Display. Photo by LG Business Solutions.

You would want to make a bold first impression on a visitor. Well, below is what you see as you get off the elevator and enter the NAB lobby on the
10th floor. This large reception area and its striking video display have a lounge area with skyline views as a backdrop. Technology solutions provider Diversified, audiovisual consultant Miller, Beam and Paganelli, design firm Hickok Cole and commercial display provider LG Business Solutions played
key roles in how the facility looks.
The 10th-Floor Lobby. NAB Photo by Garrett Rowland

That display behind the reception desk is a transparent video wall that
allows you to see through the video messaging and TV content to the
skyline. The LG wall is made up of six 55-inch transparent OLED panels; the display measures 144 inches diagonally, and can show live TV programming
and NAB messaging as one large image or as six separate screens running different content.

The video wall is flanked by vertically mounted LG displays for additional communications; you can see one on the left in the photo above.

The spacious lobby offers sweeping views that include the Washington
Monument.
View From 10th-Floor Lobby. Photo by Paul McLane

Large touchscreens on one side of the lobby highlight the radio and
television recipients of the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame through images, video and audio clips. The old NAB lobby had nice, but traditional bronze plaques. This multimedia experience is a dramatic upgrade:
Michael Tow demonstrates the NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame Display. Photo
by Paul McLane

This exhibit uses five 55-inch 4K UHD LED displays in a 51 configuration,
with the touchscreen overlay so you can navigate the content. When you
stand there you really want to play around with it.

Early inductees of the Hall of Fame are remembered with photos and audio
clips, like Ronald Reagan below. The display also includes acceptance
speech videos by more recent honorees like Delilah.
NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame Display. Photo by Paul McLane

As you walk around the building, glass and fine wood surfaces dominate
meeting spaces, and there are lots of views. This photo of a hallway and meeting areas gives you a flavor of the design aesthetic of the overall project.
Photo by Garrett Rowland

Signage and branding throughout the NAB offices are top-notch. The sophisticated system of monitors, screens and projectors allows a great
deal of customization of meeting spaces and common areas.

On floors 5 through 9, visitors are greeted by 65-inch 4K Ultra HD displays showing NAB messaging as they exit the elevator; theres also one in the CEO Team Room. There are another five conference rooms as well as executive
offices and team rooms, and most of them also feature digital displays.

Also on the 10th floor is a large multi-purpose Conference Center that can
be divided into three rooms with drop-down walls, shown below.

One end of this room is dominated by an LG LED Signage UHD video wall. It
is 32 feet wide, gulp. A boardroom on a different floor has a 98-inch
version. While taking us around, Michael Tow, NAB senior VP of IT, used his laptop to demonstrate how easily a user can change the graphics or videos
on this or any screen in the place.
Conference Center With Video Wall. Photo by Garrett Rowland

Clearly this would be a great place for business meetings. (During our
visit, the NAB staff was preparing to host the General Assembly of AIR IAB,
the International Association of Broadcasting.)

The hallways and offices also offer numerous fun visual references to
radio, TV and film. Little things like that can can leave a lasting
impression. Below, see the treatment of the meeting room windows at left, reminiscent of a Golden Age radio; and by the elevator doors note the
countdown graphic that doubles as a floor number.
NAB Hallway With Design Elements and Signage. Photo by Garrett Rowland

The Gordon Smith Conference Room, named for the former association president/CEO, is on the eighth floor. Another conference room is named for Walter Cronkite.

And here is the entrance to the fifth-floor NAB Innovation Center, which comprises the NAB Technology Lab, another conference room and the new NAB
media production facility.
NAB Innovation Center Entrance. Photo by Paul McLane

The production facility will be used to create national spots, branded educational content, PSAs, podcasts and material for NAB events and trade shows. Radio World and TV Tech were among the first visitors.
Photo by Paul McLane

Its studio, below, has a curved, 15-foot interactive video wall/backdrop, energy-saving LED lighting and robotic cameras.

Vice President of Media Production Michael Khatcheressian is an
Emmy-winning producer so he knows how to use tools like this to maximum
effect.
New Media Production Facility. Photo by Paul McLane

Logos on the large video display include companies that donated equipment
and design services. Below is a view into the studio from its control room.
The suite is capable of 8K post-production. An audio room was located to my right, not visible in the photo.

NAB Executive Vice President of Industry Affairs April Carty-Sipp was explaining the uses of the room:
April Sipp-Carty in Media Production Studio. Photo by Paul McLane

Nearby is the new home of the NAB Technology Lab.

Its mission statement hangs on the wall: “The NAB Technology Team serves
the members and the National Association of Broadcasters as the trusted resource for technical expertise and guidance. We provide leadership as technology innovators, educators and advocates. We work to strengthen
current broadcast services and to foster new media opportunities.”

A more succinct motto hangs on another wall: “We improve lives through broadcast technology and broadcaster innovation.”

The large lab room has equipment for testing and research work in both
video and radio. Several high-end video monitors face a couple of
comfortable chairs for viewing.
Photo by LG Business Solutions

Members of the team posed for me, below. From left, Kelly Williams is vice president, engineering and technology policy at NAB. Lynn Claudy is senior
vice president of technology. David Layer, well known to Radio World
readers, is vice president, advanced engineering. Joining us via
telepresence on the mobile monitor in front was John Clark, executive
director of the PILOT technology initiative, who talked with us about the Android Automotive reference application that PILOT has built.
NAB Technology Lab Team Members. Photo by Paul McLane

The racks behind them in the photo are the lab’s radio test bed, where the engineers can do interference measurements. Below, David Layer gives us a closeup. The equipment in these racks essentially constitutes three AM and three FM radio stations. This gear has been used in lab testing of
all-digital AM HD Radio and in verification of MP11 mode for FM HD Radio.
Until the new headquarters opened, this equipment had resided at the
offices of consulting firm Cavell-Mertz & Associates in northern Virginia.
Test Bed. Photo by Paul McLane

As you know, the NAB also honors industry engineers. In its lab, you can
bring up information about the recipients of the NAB Radio and TV
Engineering Achievement Awards, going all the way back to John Wilner of
Hearst Corp., the first recipient in 1959.
Engineering Achievement Awards Photo by Paul McLane

Near the lab is a conference room that is named after former NAB
President/CEO Eddie Fritts. It includes a display of images from his career
as one of the association’s most important leaders of the 20th century.
(Also visible is the posted “social distancing capacity.” A sign of the times.)
Photo by Paul McLane

There is also an NAB staff fitness center, an IT Counter-Intelligence
Center (another sign of the times), staff project rooms and an open team
room for the conventions department.

Of course, the offices also include cubicle work areas like the one below.
One hundred and fifty desks around the building are outfitted with 34-inch curved LG monitors (instead of dual displays).
Photo by LG Business Solutions

You can see why LG has been highlighting this installation; in fact
according to an LG press release, NAB and LG are planning to use the space
as a showcase for businesses in the Washington metro area looking for new technologies.

We visited on a Friday, and given that NAB is working on a hybrid workflow policy like so many organizations, it wasnt surprising that the building wasn’t too busy that day.

But when looking to relax, staff or visitors can head to this 9th-floor
café area below. Not visible in the photo are banks of TV monitors that
hang above the coffee machine and other amenities, playing various
broadcast channels.
Photo by Garrett Rowland

I mentioned fun visual references, and this one speaks for itself:
Photo by Paul McLane

The whimsy also extends to signs on the bathroom doors, where a camerawoman
and dude with a microphone can be found.
Photos by Garrett Rowland

We finished our tour at the spot below, a nice patio venue on the 9th floor
for events or meetings when weather allows. This outdoor area overlooks
South Capitol Street to the left; here we are facing to the north and can
see the U.S. Capitol.

The skyline in this part of town is changing so fast that you never know if
a given view will still be there in a year or two, though there is an
historic church right across M Street whose low profile should assure that
at least part of this viewscape remains open.
Photo by Paul McLane

The new headquarters of NAB is sure to impress its visitors, broadcasters
and members of Congress who will come through its doors.

Our final photo, from the main NAB lobby, is a reminder of the names of
Hall of Fame broadcasters and radio and TV programs that have had such an impact on American life.
Photo by Garrett Rowland

Our thanks to Ann Marie Cumming, Zamir Ahmed and Alex Siciliano of the NAB communications team for taking time to show us around.

The post Check Out NABs Beautiful New Headquarters appeared first on Radio World.

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