NAB Booth #N502 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Obscenity Delay increased to 80 seconds, and new PANIC mode maximizes broadcast protection from indecency fines
BD600 features MicroPrecision Delay functionality which enables synchronization of analog and digital signals to ensure seamless listener experience
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, April 18, 2005 -
Building on over 30 years of experience providing the highest quality and most reliable delays in broadcast, Eventide today announced its new flagship BD600 featuring seamless integration with HD installations, and expanded obscenity delay capabilities up to 80 seconds - twice the delay protection of any other broadcast delay. According to Eventide's vice president of sales and marketing, Ray Maxwell, the delay expansion combined with the new Panic feature gives live radio broadcasters more protection at a time when the risk of indecency fines have never been higher.
"The live broadcast landscape has drastically changed in the past few years," noted Maxwell. "Today's station, be it independent or major affiliate, is under intense scrutiny to monitor its content while at the same time delivering the programming and quality audiences demand. The BD600 also provides the highest quality precision delay for synchronizing analog with digital signals for stations upgrading to HD. This product is equally at home in the broadcast chain between the exciter and the processor in an HD installation, as it is in the control room protecting the station from potentially costly indecency fines resulting from a live call-in show."
The BD600, Eventide's fourth generation broadcast obscenity delay, introduces several new features, starting with expanded delay time. The BD600 doubles the total delay time of its predecessor to 80 seconds to give maximum protection for live shows where anything can happen. The exclusive PANIC feature allows a .WAV file stored on a compact flash card to be played when the PANIC button is hit. While the file, which may be a jingle or station ID or any other message, is played, the delay buffer is rebuilding, allowing programming to continue in safety as soon as the jingle has completed.
Control features enable users to control the delay device directly through the front panel or via a control interface. The Optional BD600 Extended Remote, perfect for more sophisticated automated broadcast chains, offers 16 bipolar opto-isolated inputs which may be configured to drive many BD600 functions or as general purpose delay inputs. And 16 open-collector outputs which may be configured to display BD600 status indicators or to pass through delayed versions of the inputs. An RS-232 output provides a delayed version of the input, useful for driving a time display or for other control purposes.
With all the enhancements, the operation of the unit remains completely familiar to any broadcast engineer. Included are indispensable Eventide functions, such as the SNEEZE function, which prevents throat clearing, coughing or other extraneous noises from going out over the air; REBUILD, which seamlessly rebuilds the delay buffer after a portion of audio has been removed; and RAMP-TO-ZERO, which gradually backs you out of the delay buffer at the end of the program.
For stations upgrading to HD, the MicroPrecision Delay™ mode offers ten seconds adjustable in 100 nanosecond increments, allowing Broadcast engineers to make the most precise, undetectable adjustments in real time while on air. Subsample synchronization of the analog with the digital signal in the HD broadcast chain ensures a seamless listener experience without unwanted combfiltering artifacts.
"Continuing in Eventide's tradition started by the 1745 delay introduced in 1971, which found its first customer in Maryland Public Radio," said Maxwell, "the BD600 represents the pinnacle of Eventide's broadcast delays and is by far the most flexible, reliable, and best sounding broadcast delay we have ever made."
Founded in 1971, Eventide is a leading developer and manufacturer of digital audio signal processing products for recording, broadcast and live performance, as well as avionics instrumentation, and digital communication products for public safety institutions. Headquartered in Little Ferry, NJ, Eventide invented the very first broadcast obscenity delay, the BD955, in 1977. Visit Eventide on the Web at www.eventide.com.
Eventide is a registered trademark, and MicroPrecision Delay is a trademark of Eventide Inc.