Southfield, MI, April 3, 2017 – At the 2017 NAB Show, visitors to ENCO’s booth (N2024) will see the future of broadcast radio taking shape through DAD, among the industry’s leading production and automation systems. ENCO will showcase enhancements to its DAD radio automation system that strengthen integration between production and newsroom operations, and diversify options for dissemination of Program Associated Data (PAD).
At NAB, ENCO will unveil the iNews MOS Interface, which will allow DAD systems to play out assets from the Avid iNews newsroom computer system. By adding support for the Media Object Server (MOS)-based protocol used by newsroom computer systems, DAD users can now manage—add, move, and modify—audio embedded in iNews stories. Changes are automatically synchronized with playlists to keep everything up to date.
ENCO has also added MetaPub metadata management to its PADapult program, which integrates with DAD and allows operators to send real-time texts to primary and secondary HD Radio channels, RDS encoders, web streamers or other locations that accept data.
With the new built-in MetaPub functionality, PADapult can now get rich metadata from ContentDepot’s MetaPub, which a majority of PRSS programs use for metadata distribution, including Classical 24, BBC World Service, Morning Edition, and many more. PADapult users can then provide that metadata to listeners for any live PRSS program. PADapault can also be used in automatic or manual mode to get data from a broadcaster’s automation system.
“We’re always looking for new ways to leverage technology breakthroughs to gain efficiencies for radio broadcasters,” said Ken Frommert, general manager of ENCO. “As a pioneer in virtualization and IP-based radio production and distribution, ENCO strives to stay at the forefront of broadcast automation.”
DAD and Virtualization
ENCO was among the first radio automation suppliers to offer a virtualized solution to reduce rack space, costs and maintenance for broadcasters. At NAB, ENCO will demonstrate how DAD software can be virtualized today by pairing it with ENCO1, the company’s virtualized automation system. ENCO1 allows DAD to run in a virtualized environment by leveraging existing IP audio technologies. Since virtualized stations and studios can be controlled from anywhere via a thin client, broadcasters can save space and operational overhead. It can also facilitate remote access and control of broadcast radio operations, which lays the foundation for more efficient cloud-based operations.
“DAD is about doing more with less through advanced automation,” Frommert said. “We’ve focused our efforts on giving broadcasters the means to run and manage their radio stations locally or remotely with the utmost flexibility and reliability. With every new feature we add, we’re striving to provide the broadcast industry with an extensible and future proof solution.”
To better support broadcasters using local and wide-area networks, ENCO will also demonstrate its redundancy failover software. This automatic failover software, introduced at IBC in September, allows production and playout content, including full playlists and advertisements, to seamlessly transition to local studio operations in the event of a server, audio drive or network connection failure.
“ENCO’s automation reliability is rock-solid and among the most robust platforms on the market, but working in networked environments always poses the risk of downtime from outages, which can in turn lead to a substantial loss of listeners and revenue,” Frommert said. “By adding seamless failover software to our automation system, we’re protecting broadcasters at all costs, without disruption to their operations or the consumer experience.”
About ENCO
Founded in 1983, ENCO Systems is a world leader in playout and automation system solutions for demanding radio and television organizations. ENCO is headquartered in Southfield, Michigan USA and retains a worldwide distribution network. For more information, please visit: www.enco.com.
