Broadcast automation
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In broadcast engineering, broadcast automation is the use of technology to automate broadcasting operations. Used either at a station or a network, it is used to run a facility in the absence of a human operator. They can also run in a "live assist" mode when there are on-air personnel present in the studio.
The transmitter end of the airchain is handled with a separate automatic transmission system (ATS).
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[edit] History
Originally, many (if not most) radio licensing authorities required a licensed operator to run every station at all times, meaning that every DJ had to pass an exam to obtain an FCC license to be on-air, if their duties also required them to ensure proper operation of the transmitter. Gradually, the quality and reliability of electronic equipment improved, regulations were relaxed, and no operator had to be present (or at least available) while a station was operating. This led a slow march toward automation, to help supplement (and now in many cases supplant) the live on-air talent.
[edit] Early analog systems
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Early automation systems were computerized only to the point of maintaining a schedule.
Music would be stored on reel-to-reel audio tape. Subaudible tones on the tape marked the end of each song. The computer would simply rotate among the reel-to-reel players until the computer's internal clock matched that of a scheduled event.
When a scheduled event would be encountered, the computer would finish the currently playing song and then execute the scheduled block of events. These events were usually advertisements but could also include the station's top of hour legal ID or news. At the end of the block, the rotation among reel-to-reels resumed.
Advertisements, jingles and the top of hour legal ID were often on carts (short for cartirdges and were endless like eight-tracks). Mechanical carousels would rotate the carts in and out of multiple tape players as dictated by the computer. Time announcements were provided by a pair of dedicated cart players, with the even minutes stored on one and the odd minutes on the other. This way an announcement was always ready to go, even if the minute was changing when the announcement was triggered.
This system did require attention throughout the day to change reels as they ran out and reload ad carts. Nearing the obsolescence of this type of system, a method was developed to automatically rewind and recue the reel tapes when they ran out. This extended 'walk-away' time indefinitely.
[edit] Modern digital systems
Modern systems typically run on hard disk, where all of the music, jingles, advertisements, voice tracks, and other announcements are stored. These computer files may be either compressed or uncompressed, or often with only minimal compression as a compromise.
Scheduling was an important advance of these systems, allowing for exact timing. Some systems use GPS satellite receivers to obtain exact atomic time, for perfect synchronization with satellite-delivered programming.
Automation systems are also now more interactive than ever with digital mixing consoles, and can even record from a telephone hybrid to play back an edited conversation with a telephone caller.
The simplest arrangements can even be done on software as basic as Winamp.
There is also a trend in radio to use voice-tracking production techniques which make the live presenter in the studio, less critical in the overall broadcast; a great number of Internet radio and variety hits stations use automation software and voice-tracking to completely replace live on-air talent.
A commercially available, for-sale product named Audicom was introduced by Oscar Bonello in 1989 [1]. It is based on psychoacoustic lossy compression, the same principle being used in most modern lossy audio encoders (MP3, AAC,...), and it allowed both broadcast automation and recording to hard drives.[2][3]
Voice-tracking, also called cyber jocking and referred to sometimes colloquially as a "robojock", is a technique employed by some radio stations to produce the illusion of a live disc jockey or announcer sitting in the studios of the station when one is not actually present.
