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BW Broadcast DSPXtra Encore User Manual

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DSPXtra Encore
A U D I O
P R O C E S S O R
USER MANUAL
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Summary of Contents for BW Broadcast DSPXtra Encore

  • Page 1 DSPXtra Encore A U D I O P R O C E S S O R USER MANUAL www.bwbroadcast.com...

  • Page 2: Table Of Contents

    Contents The Encore Family The DSPXtra-AM Encore Warranty Safety Front & Rear Panels User Interface Installation & Operation System Configuration Presets Configuration Menu Structure Routing and Block Diagram Technical Specification...

  • Page 3: The Encore Family

    About Encore Welcome to the Encore family! Encore is a modern, high-quality range of products designed around a common hardware and software platform. The Encore family includes: Audio processors § RDS coders § Stereo generators § Rebroadcast receivers § Audio backup devices §...
  • Page 4 All product-specific settings are contained within the ‘Presets’ menu – providing an automobile radio -like interface which works just as well for profiles in an RDS encoder as it does for settings in an audio processor, a modulation monitor or rebroadcast receiver. The web remote control interface is common across all products, as is the API and the internal language, so it’s simple to interface the whole Encore range of products with your common monitoring and telemetry system.

  • Page 5: The Dspxtra-Am Encore

    The DSPXtra-AM Encore The BW Broadcast DSPXtra-AM Encore is the latest incarnation of the world famous BW Broadcast range of DSP audio processors. Using multi-band DSP technology, the DSPXtra-AM Encore offers a versatile and powerful tool in creating a loud, punchy on-air presence.

  • Page 6: Warranty

    Broadcast shall, at its sole discretion, either repair or replace the product. If the warranty claim proves to be justified, the product will be returned to the user. The freight will be paid by BW Broadcast within the first 2 years, thereafter freight will be the responsibility of the customer. Warranty claims other than those indicated above are expressly excluded.

  • Page 7: Safety

    WEEE COMPLIANCE BW Broadcast Ltd is registered with Northern Compliance PCS number WEE/P3438PR/ SCH and has been issued with WEE/FA0268RX as its unique producer ID by the appropriate environment agency. BW Broadcast Ltd full comply with it explicit responsibilities, subject to WEEE Collections Policy outlined in their General Terms and Conditions of Sale, when it sells Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) to B2B customers in the UK and EU.
  • Page 8 DETAILED SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS: All the safety and operation instructions should be read before the appliance is operated. Retain Instructions: The safety and operating instructions should be retained for future reference. Heed Warnings: All warnings on the appliance and in the operating instructions should be adhered to. Follow instructions: All operation and user instructions should be followed.

  • Page 9: Front & Rear Panels

    Front & Rear Panels The Encore range uses several versions of the front panel, each using similar components and featuring the same method of operation. Headphone OLED displays for Multicolour LED Scroll knob, LED ring and output for high matrixes for level menu system and buttons for control and quality audio...
  • Page 10 Note: Some connectors on the rear panel are non-functional where appropriate to the product 5 - 2...

  • Page 11: User Interface

    User Interface NAVIGATING Encore products have an intuitive interface based around a pushable scroll knob, surrounded by a ring of LEDs, with a series of buttons. Some products have three buttons, some five and some six. The buttons can be ‘soft keys’, and perform various functions denoted by icons shown adjacent to them in the displays, or may be function-specific - in which case the buttons are illuminated with the following symbols: ONLINE...
  • Page 12 The icons that can be shown against the softkeys are as follows: If the ‘scroll screen left’ or ‘right’ icons are displayed, this indicates that there are additional screens available. Pressing these buttons slides the displays to and from these other screens. ‘Back’...
  • Page 13 EDITING A PARAMETER To edit a parameter, navigate to it in the menu using the knob - square brackets [ … ] will surround the currently highlighted parameter. Press the knob to select the parameter, then rotate the knob to change it. Changes happen immediately as you turn the knob;...

  • Page 14: Installation & Operation

    Installation & Operation DSPXtra-AM Encore can be installed in a number of ways, for example: At a combined studio/transmitter site; § At a studio location before a studio-transmitter link; § At a transmitter site, fed from a studio-transmitter link; § 7 - 1...
  • Page 15 7.1 QUICK SETUP Install the DSPXtra-AM Encore into the rack; The unit should be mounted in a grounded, 19” (483mm) equipment rack. While the DSPXtra-AM Encore generates little heat itself, it could be damaged by being confined between other heat-generating equipment. If the equipment directly below or above the DSPXtra-AM Encore runs hot, you should allow one single rack space between them.
  • Page 16 7.1.2 DATA AND GPIO CONNECTIONS The DB-9 ‘GPIO’ connector is used for preset switching and/or to interface with other remote control equipment or telemetry. The RJ-45 Ethernet connector allows the DSPXtra-AM Encore to be controlled over a network using the built-in web interface. TCP/IP network settings are contained in the system|communications menu.
  • Page 17 The output meters show a smaller dynamic range than the input meters; this reflects the smaller dynamic range of the audio once processed by the DSPXtra-AM Encore . The I/O meters follow an approximation of the PPM levels of the audio waveform. 7.2.3 MULTIBAND AGC The first four meters show the gain reduction of the multiband AGC.
  • Page 18 THE SYSTEM MENU This menu contains all the fundamental unit configuration settings, and should be the first place you go after taking the Encore out of its box! These settings are peculiar to the installation, perhaps the transmitter site itself, as opposed to the following ‘Presets’...
  • Page 19 8.1 AUDIO I/O (Certain menu items are omitted in some products in the Encore range). Within this there are two submenus – ‘inputs’ and ‘outputs’. ‘Inputs’ allows you to set the operating level of the unit when referenced to the rest of your installation.
  • Page 20 MPX 2 source: none mpx in 1* tuner 1 mpx* tuner 2 mpx* mpx generator pilot tone MPX 2 out level: 0dBu to +12dBu** Headphones source: none analog audio digital audio tuner 1 audio tuner 2 audio test tone diversity Headphone level: 0 to 100% For convenience, the headphone source and headphone level settings are duplicated...
  • Page 21 Source: none analog audio digital audio tuner 1 audio tuner 2 audio diversity test tone Preemphasis: 50uS, 75uS, off. Pilot level: 0 to 12% in 0.1% increments RDS level: 0 to 5% in 0.1% increments Audio clip drive 0 to 12 O-sh compensate drv -3 to 9 (overshoot compensation drive)
  • Page 22 The other option available in this menu is ‘polarity’ – where you can set each pin to output either active Hi-Z (high impedance) or active low (i.e. connected to 0v). The Events and Triggers port pinouts are: Next is the list of the 8 available events, each of which can perform a variety of actions when triggered.
  • Page 23 both tuners, so in this case there’s no way the Encore can know when or if the event trigger has ended. When you’re happy with the event setup, return to the top of the event menu, and switch it to ‘active’. Exit from the ‘events’...
  • Page 24 Encore: Sender: the email address of the Encore, e.g encore- 01@stationname.com Mail method: ‘BW’ to allow the unit to send emails via the BW Broadcast monitoring system; ‘SMTP’ if you wish to send the emails via your own SMTP server;...
  • Page 25 This submenu shows values of current hardware parameters: PSU voltage; PSU current; PSU power; fan voltage; fan state; temperature; plus fan speed control – which should be left set to ‘auto’ unless otherwise advised by a BW Broadcast support technician.

  • Page 26: Presets Configuration

    Presets Configuration 9.1 THE PRESETS MENU The DSPXtra-AM Encore features 20 factory presets, and up to 10 user presets. The factory presets can be used as a starting point in creating your own customised user preset. The presets are accessed as follows: From the home screen, highlight the ‘presets’...
  • Page 27 In addition, in this screen, softkey 2 shows the symbol. Pressing this will display extra information about the highlighted preset, such as and date/time the preset was created and last used. The factory presets cannot be overwritten, however they may be used as good starting points for you to create your own presets, which can then be saved in one of the user preset locations.
  • Page 28 Pressing the ‘undo’ button will revert the preset (and therefore the live state of the DSPXtra-AM Encore) to its unmodified and saved state. Once pressed, the ‘redo’ icon is shown against softkey 3. Guess what happens if you press it! If you attempt to exit the preset edit menu and load another preset before saving your changes, a warning dialog box will appear, informing you that if you continue, your changes will be lost, and asking if you wish to continue, or go back to save your...
  • Page 29 9.2 INTRODUCTION TO AUDIO PROCESSING Most audio processors use a combination of compression, limiting and clipping to 'funnel' the dynamic range down, reducing the peak to average ratio in each stage. A cascaded arrangement of compressor, limiter and clipper produces the best results. The first stage of processing usually operates in a slow manner, the processing getting progressively faster and more aggressive as the audio passes through the chain.
  • Page 30 9.2.3 CLIPPING Img. 4 Clipping the audio waveform will not produce any audible side effects if performed in moderation. Excessive clipping however, will produce a form of distortion that is unpleasant to hear. Clipping can also be used as an effective method of high frequency peak control when used in conjunction with distortion controlling filtering.
  • Page 31 The HF curve can be shifted slightly lower or higher in frequency, with a shape control. Illustrated below are curves at 10 dB and 20 dB gain, with the HF shape control varied from 1 to 9 in steps of 2. To provide NRSC-1 pre-emphasis, the HF Gain should be set to 10 dB and the HF Shape to 8.
  • Page 32 transmission) set the filter to 10kHz, 8.5kHz and 4.5kHz respectively. The graph below shows all the low pass filter curves. You can use it to determine the correct setting for the required bandwidth (or mask) in your country. 9 - 7...
  • Page 33 9.3 THE PROCESSING STRUCTURE The DSPXtra-AM Encore broadcast audio processor is intended to be used for processing audio prior to broadcast on AM. 9.3.1 THE PROCESSING PATH Input selection and conditioning The DSPXtra-AM Encore offers the user input selection, gain control and a selection from a range of stereo/mono options.
  • Page 34 Output selection, processing and routing The AM output has an adjustable low-pass filter to comply with NRSC or ITU-R standards, tilt equalization to compensate for a non-DC path in the transmitter and a tone generator to facilitate set-up and alignment. A quiet word about the final peak limiting stage: This stage employs distortion controlled clippers to limit the peaks of the signal.
  • Page 35 9.4 SETTING UP THE PROCESSING Each preset menu allows access to all of the processing blocks that make up the DSPXtra-AM Encore. There are further sub-menus inside each ‘preset’ menu. The submenus follow the signal path through the DSPXtra-AM Encore, as shown in the block diagram above.
  • Page 36 'GATE THRESHOLD' The gate function prevents 'suck-up' of noise during periods of silence or low level audio. The level can be adjusted to turn on when the input drops to a level from -20dB to -40dB. The gate can also be switched off or forced on. The gate when turned on will cause the gain reduction to move towards the resting 0dB level.
  • Page 37 BAND5MIX: -3dB to +3dB of level adjustment is available. BAND6MIX: -3dB to +3dB of level adjustment is available. The 'CLIPPER' menu contains the clipping controls that form the final peak limiting stages of the DSPX’s AM mode of operation. 'BASSCLIP' Controls the clip level of the mix of Bands 1 and 2. The clip level range is -6dB to 0dB referenced to the main clippers output level.
  • Page 38 9.5 ADVANCED PROCESSING This section has more detailed information on setting up the DSPXtra-AM Encore’s processing. 9.5.1 HIGH PASS FILTER The high-pass filter has five selectable cut off frequencies and a bypass option. Modern AM transmitters can accommodate low frequencies, however older AM transmitters may suffer from AFC bounce and overshoot when driven with high levels of very low frequency bass.
  • Page 39 1. To re-equalise the program material to provide a consistent tonal balance and sonic signature; 2. To prevent excessive limiting by the following peak limiter stages. Because of the RMS based level detectors the multi-band AGC can re-equalise the sound in a more natural manner than the peak limiter stages which use peak detectors. As the human ear works on average loudness rather than peak level the re-equalised audio will sound more natural when dynamic range reduction is per- formed by RMS based level detectors.
  • Page 40 The DSPX has three controls that affect gating. The first is the gate level and this can be adjusted over a range of -20 dB to -40dB. This is the level at which the program material must fall below for the gate to become active. The gate level control has two more options, OFF and ON.
  • Page 41 Traditionally audio limiters have two time constants, an attack, the time is takes the limiter to respond to a signal above the threshold and a decay or release which is the time is takes to respond to a drop in level. In a traditional audio limiter the attack time is usually set to somewhere in the region of a few milliseconds and the decay time considerably longer at somewhere in the hundreds of milliseconds.
  • Page 42 has the effect of lowering the average platform level and allowing the peak part of the circuit to dominate with its faster release times. The average decay time can usually be viewed as the nominal release time of the detector, similar to a standard single time constant limiters release time. To recap, the peak attack time and average decay time play the same sort of role as that of a standard conventional single time constant based limiter.
  • Page 43 9.5.6 BASS CLIPPING The DSPXtra-AM Encore, like most competent broadcast audio processors, has a bass clipper prior to the final clipper. The purpose of the bass clipper is to keep low frequency energy to a pre-determined level to allow for the summation of the other bands. Without the bass clipper the bass signal can push the mid and HF audio waveforms into the final clipper, creating audible IMD, the worst type of distortion.
  • Page 44 9.5.7 LOW PASS FILTER To comply with the bandwidth requirements of the AM transmission, the DSPXtra-AM Encore has an adjustable low- pass filter. This low pass filter is tightly integrated in the processing stages and provides full protection with all international standards (masks). The frequency of the filter is user adjustable over a wide range - from 4kHz to 10 kHz in 0.5 kHz steps.
  • Page 45 transmitter will be increased. To correct this you can use the polarity switch in the Output menu. Keep in mind that while operating the clippers asymmetrically might increase the loudness, it will also increase odd harmonics (and therefore overall distortion) as well as the inter-modulation distortion.
  • Page 46 9.6 GETTING THE SOUND YOU WANT While the DSPXtra-AM Encore can help you obtain the sound that you want we must always take into account the limitations presented to us by the transmission channel. The trade off in any audio processor is loudness vs. quality. The mark of how good a processor is, is how loud the processor can be whilst maintaining sufficient quality.
  • Page 47 9.6.2 MORE CLARITY We can obtain extra clarity and ‘quality’ in several ways: Multiband AGC: Slow down the release times; Multiband limiters: Speed up the peak attack times, letting less through to the clippers; Slow down the release times of the average release time constants;...
  • Page 48 9.6.4 MORE TREBLE (HF) There are several ways of increasing the HF content of the audio. When processing for AM we need to use distortion controlled clipping to preserve as much of the high frequency content as possible, which will be removed by the de-emphasis curve in the listeners’...

  • Page 49: Menu Structure

    Menu Structure DSPXtra-AM Encore menu structure PRESETS > Bypass General General bright General heavy General Heavy Bright Talk Talk bright Talk heavy Talk heavy bright News News bright Sports Sports bright Music Music bright Music open Music open bright Loud Loud bright Classical-jazz Classical-jazz bright...
  • Page 50 peak attack (1-10) peak release (1-10) compr attack (1-10) compr release (0-10) BAND 2 drive (6dB – 12dB) peak attack (1-10) peak release (1-10) compr attack (1-10) compr release (0-10) BAND 3 drive (6dB – 12dB) peak attack (1-10) peak release (1-10) compr attack (1-10)
  • Page 51 asymmetry (100-150%) polarity (normal/inverse) TONE GENERATOR oscillator (off, sine, square) frequency (50, 100, 200, 400Hz, 1, 2, 4, 10kHz) amplitude (10 – 120%) analog output level (-18 – 24dBu) analog output level (-18 – 24dBu) digital sample rate (48, 96, 192kHz) digital output level (-26 –...
  • Page 52 site number lat/long (xxx.xxx yyy.yyy) ETHERNET dchp (off/on) (off/on) subnet mask gateway dns 1 dns 2 link (down/up) EMAIL sender mail method (bw/smtp) smtp server authenticated (yes/no) smtp password TEST recipient (admin/user1/user2/user3) send test test WEB REMOTE active (off/on) port SNMP enable (off/on)

  • Page 53: Routing And Block Diagram

    Routing & Block Diagram Please see below for an audio, RF and RDS data routing diagram. This can help you understand the enormous capabilities of the Encore family of products! 11 - 1...
  • Page 54 11 - 2...

  • Page 55: Technical Specification

    Technical Specification Encore family specifications. Certain parameters are irrelevant in some products. TUNER (Dual) Inputs 2 x 50 ohm, BNC female Tuning range 65-108MHz in 50kHz or 100kHz steps IF bandwidth 56kHz - 311kHz dynamic or fixed De-emphasis 75µs, 50µs or Off SNR (Mono/Stereo) -79dB / -60dB THD (Mono/ Stereo)
  • Page 56 This manual was written by Andy Linton. © BW Broadcast Ltd. 2017. E&OE. Encore products are manufactured in the UK by BW Broadcast Ltd. IO Centre, Croydon Road, Croydon, CR0 4WQ, UK. Tel: +44 208 253 0290. US toll-free: 1-866 376 1612.

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