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Housekeeping ‘flags’ include
M/S
, identifying the program as
Music
or
Speech
,
TP
(discussed next) and
DI
to denote
Stereo
or
Mono
programming.
TP and the TA Flag
A station that carries road condition and traffic congestion
alerts as part of their scheduled programming can make use
of a unique RDS function. It comes with caveats, however.
Identifying your station as a TP (Traf-
fic Program) station entitles you to
raise the TA (Traffic Alert) ‘flag’ as
propriety demands. This action has the ability to re-tune
certain (mostly top-end) car radios from whatever station
they are receiving (or even when listening to a CD or MP3) to
your
station so that the listener can be apprised of vital
traffic info. This is a feature of the RDS system that is easi-
ly abused, as you can always sneak in a program promo af-
ter your announcement of a bridge closure or whatever.
Moreover, the TA flag stays ‘up’ as long as the GPI terminal
on the rear panel of the NOVIA 272 remains activated (see
Page 12), thus you can easily see why listeners could quickly
become irate over improper use of this feature. PLEASE, if
you are going to use this function, do so responsibly.
Options
RDS Options
include
RDS/RBDS
selection.
RDS
is the world-
wide standard;
RBDS
is used primarily in the Americas.
Send time group
broadcasts the date and local time, using
the Internet as a time standard and updating the clock on
consumer radios.
Scrolling Speed
PS Scroll Speed
sets the scrolling rate of a PS message con-
sisting of more than the eight static characters that would
be displayed on a consumer radio. A midway setting of 5 is
usually safe, but scrolling the PS message too fast can dis-
play gibberish on some radios.
Alternative Frequencies
In the
AF List
, checkmark the frequency of any and all
translators that rebroadcast the same programming as your
main signal. Be sure to enter the frequency of your main
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signal as well. Radios use this information for ensuring the
best reception as a mobile listener encounters varying sig-
nal conditions.
Stream to RDS
Stream to RDS
reformats
the incoming Internet
stream metadata to the
outgoing RDS messaging
protocol. In the
Stream
DPS
example here, we have interspersed text entered into
the boxes on the left with incoming stream metadata from
categories in the boxes on the right. In this example, the
RDS PS field will scroll:
The stream
Name
follows the first text block, the stream
Genre
follows the second. The third text block with
None
(no metadata) stands alone. You program
Stream Radio Text
in exactly the same manner.
The
PS
field can accept up to 128 characters/spaces; the
NOVIA 272 ‘parses’ this information to scroll across the ra-
dio faceplate. The
RT
field is limited to 64 charac-
ters/spaces.
Telnet
Telnet
allows data incoming from the Web to update RDS PS
and Radio Text fields ‘on the fly.’ Conceivably the station
automation playout system could send dynamic data to the
NOVIA 272 for scrolling artist and title.
Station automation connects using the IP and port address
of the NOVIA 272. The default port is 10001. You must
check the
Enable
box under
Telnet
.
The incoming data syntax for scrolling PS requires a pream-
ble of DPS= followed by artist and title and concluded with
an Enter (CR) ASCII symbol. Here’s an example:
DPS=Staying Alive by the Bee Gees
The same goes for Radio Text, except the preamble is
TEXT=. For example:
TEXT=BOSS-FM Plays your requests: 1-800-555-1212
To put the same information into both fields, the preamble
is DPSTEXT= .
