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WHAT'S NEW March 13, 2008 It was great to see many of you at NRB this year. At the same time, I have to say it’s nice to be home. Frankly, I’m thrilled to be able to take a walk and not get lost . . . indoors! At the convention, we held four successful demonstration sessions, three for stations, one for program creators. It was a joy to watch the “light come on” as those who listened realized the ease of installation, options for use, and the power of the AMR-100 receiver. Next Steps As of the NRB, we have more than 600 receivers ready to ship. The balance will follow in short order. Receivers will be shipped with a “quick start” guide. That document is located at: http://www.amb-os.com/pdfs/Quick_Start.pdf. The full receiver manual is also available at: http://www.amb-os.com/pdfs/INSTALLATION.PDF. Installation More importantly, when the receiver is connected to the Internet, it can utilize the Amb-OS “back-fill” feature which automatically repairs files which were not received in their entirety. When the AMR-100 is connected to the Internet, stations can remotely control the receiver across the Internet which is useful where a studio-transmitter link is used to transport satellite signals back to the studio. Lastly, when the receiver is connected to the Internet, we can perform remote diagnostics to assist in the troubleshooting and repair of any receiver. AMR-100 Application
Let’s look at these two features and the advantages/disadvantages of each: AMR-100 as an Audio Source
These audio ports can be routed to the station’s routing switcher or the automation equipment or the mixing console. Also, there are digital audio outputs which mirror the first analog audio output. The station can create a playlist via our Web site interface or on the receiver itself which will play a program based on:
The AMR-100 can also send a relay closure back to the automation equipment to signal the end of a file or a spot break. If you were at NRB, you would have seen a demonstration of the powerful “Right Play” feature. This is useful for those times where a station loses power. Upon the resumption of electricity, the receiver picks right up where it is supposed to be, as though nothing ever happened. For instance, if a 25-minue program started at 10:00, and the power failed at 10:04, and then was restored at 10:09, the program would pick up exactly where it should be so that the program ends at 10:25, just as it would had the power not failed. Using the AMR-100 as a playback source has these advantages:
AMR-100 as a Transfer Site Once the feature is there, the station will use Amb-OS provided software to move the file from the receiver over to some networked folder. At that point, the automation equipment can “sniff” for new files and import the audio automatically, or it can also be executed manually. Dates Are Important
File Naming Convention The file name includes segments in the following order:
Each segment of the file name is separated by the underscore “_” character. So, an example file name would be: This is a program from the ministry Focus on the Family (FOTF), the Adventures in Odyssey Daily (ODY5) program, release date is March 10, 2008 (03-10-08), there are three segments to this program and this one in particular is segment one (01-03). NOTE: The date values are separated by a dash “-“ as you would find in a standard date field. A partial chart of Amb-OS ministry and program descriptors can be found here. Powerful Hardware If you’re interested in broadcasting an event via satellite, we’d love to speak with you about doing so quite easily. We’re not restricted to windows where time is available on the satellite. Contact Numbers
The suites are usually all together. The Ambassador suite is in the "Presidential Section" which is upstairs (mezzanine level above the ballroom) in the convention area. The Focus on the Family/Briargate suite is usually nearby. Steve Reinke will be leading these presentations while Dick and Jim will be joining him to help field questions and issues. We'll have approximately 30 minutes of presentation followed by about 20 minutes of Q&A. We're aiming to keep these sessions to NRB-friendly 50 minutes. Specifically for ministries who are on FSN or Ambassador's satellite channels (AIR), we've scheduled a separate time to update you on our software and hardware progress. It's been scheduled for:
Then, lastly, please be sure to register your interest on http://www.amb-os.com if you have not already. January 8, 2008 The Amb-OS development effort has been continuing at a rapid pace over the last months. Beta receivers were fielded in early December with 3 ministry partners, Focus on the Family, RBC Ministries, and Ambassador, daily transmitting programs for testing. In addition to the store/forward content a full term live stream is being tested. Beta test efforts this month are centered on enhancement of the software components of the platform and bringing on line redundant hardware at the uplink. We'll be meeting as a development team at the manufacturer's site later this month to work out a definitive rollout timeline. After those meetings on 1/23-1/24 we'll post an on our website www.amb-os.com and at the CR Technical forum (www.crtech.org). We're also planning to conduct several informational seminars in March during this year's NRB national convention in Nashville. We are still planning to have a significant period of time (at least a month) where both the legacy system and the new SFT platform are operational. More details in our next update.. We continue to be excited about how The Lord has brought so many talented people together for this project that, we believe, will have a positive impact on the Kingdom! November 1, 2007 Next week, our developers group will conclude our alpha testing in Kansas City. As we've said before, our desire is to eliminate every possible question mark about the receiver’s operation. We are close. Very close. Once this step is completed, we will sign a purchase agreement which triggers two events: beta testing (real-world installations) and the production of the receivers. When AMR-100 production starts, we'll ship receivers to stations about 45-60 days later. After the receivers are delivered, we're planning a significant period during which both systems are in operation, Amb-OS and Unity4000. At the point we've proven the AMR-100 is in full operation, we'll migrate off the Unity4000. This will not likely occur until early 2008, a date yet to be determined. So thank you for your patience. If you've been wondering where your receiver might be, now you know . . . it hasn't been made yet! But will soon. We will use this email address to keep you posted along the way. You can always check our news page at: http://www.amb-os.com/new.html for the latest information. We also post messages to the CR-Tech Forum (Christian Radio Technical Forum). They’re located at http://www.crtech.org, should you wish to subscribe. It’s a VERY helpful place to obtain seasoned and helpful technical advice. If you have questions, please feel free to email or call any of us involved in the project. The location for our contact information and links to our email is: http://www.amb-os.com/contactus.html. Jim Sanders October 9, 2007 The home page (http://www.amb-os.com) has a link to "CLICK HERE FOR SELECTED TEST RECEIVERS". This page displays a map of AMC-3's typical EIRP for North America. It also shows the five sites which represent the location of five receivers: Irvine, CA; Colorado Springs, CO; St. Paul, MN; Grand Rapids, MI; and Raleigh, NC. In Internet Explorer (but not in Firefox for now), mousing over these locations will reveal the antenna size at each location. When clicking on any particular location, an HTML file is opened which reports the most recent receiver performance data (including EbN0) from that receiver. For example, the report on the Irvine receiver reflects the fact that at 10:15 AM, the EbN0 has gone down and Bad Blocks and Errors increased. This is indicative of the fact that Southern California is currently going through the Sun Transit outage. More importantly, this functionality represents just some of the power of the AMR100 receiver being able to be accessed, if desired, via the Internet while continuing to download and monitor the satellite signal.
Again we assembled here in Irvine, working with the manufacturer and satellite head end to make sure we cross every “T”. We’ve been hunting down every possible scenario to make sure there are no hidden “features” (I learned “bugs” aren’t “bugs”—they’re “features). I’m pleased to say this second and final phase of acceptance testing Amb-OS AMR100 has been completed with the receiver proving it will be a powerful tool for stations to receive and rebroadcast programs. Our next step will be to build a select number of additional units for further field testing which moves us into the beta phase. For those who’ve asked, we will not make our target roll-out of November 1st for the new receiver. Again, our objective is to have six to eight weeks time during which you can have the receiver, determine how you’ll use it and then install before we turn off our current DVB/U4K platform. We’ll also have a Web cast during which time we’ll show the various ways the receiver can be used and/or installed. Stay tuned for our time line. I know we’ve been saying that for a while, but we REALLY want to get it right the first time in so far as we can. So thanks for your patience. One other note. Later this week, we’ll have a Web page active on our Amb-OS site which will allow you to view and compare performance of local EbN0 readings from five sites: Irvine, California; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Charlotte, North Carolina. It’s helpful if you have a question about your own local reception. The page will captures and reports in real time via the Internet on the fly, the performance of these five receivers—underscoring the power of our satellite-fed, terrestrial reporting system. It’s very exciting stuff. When that URL is up, we’ll post here.
August 30th was a rather momentous focal point in the life of our Amb-OS project. Dick Becvar, Ken Van Prooyen, Steve Reinke and Robert Jacobsen were in our Irvine offices to perform "System Acceptance Testing." Steve Reinke has created a 14-page document to ensure we dot every "i" and cross every "t". There's good news and bad news. March 19, 2007 On Thursday, April 5 from 12:30-2:00PM (Eastern) Ambassador Advertising Agency (Irvine, CA) and Focus Satellite Network (Colorado Springs, CO) are hosting a “ConFAQ”—a satellite-fed conference call to address frequently asked questions regarding the “AmbOS” S-FTP delivery system. “ConFAQ” will be hosted by Jim Sanders, Executive Vice President of Ambassador and founding member of the Christian Broadcasters Consortium and Steve Reinke, Manager of Satellite Services for the Focus Satellite Network.
At the February 2007 convention of National Religious Broadcasters in Orlando, Florida, Ambassador Advertising Agency (Irvine, CA) and Focus on the Family (Colorado Springs, CO) announced “Ambos,” a Satellite File Transfer Protocol (S-FTP), vaulting Christian radio into the next generation of program delivery. Participating stations will receive a new satellite receiver which contains a fully functional FTP server providing reliable, guaranteed delivery with the ability of the receiver to report via an Internet connection. As a result, program producers may choose to customize any program locally, every day, with high audio quality. Radio stations have increasingly asked for programs to be delivered via the Internet. In 1998, a group of Christian broadcasters joined efforts in a Christian radio consortium to form a common satellite distribution system: a single receiver from which any of their signals could be captured. Since that time, Focus on the Family and Ambassador Advertising Agency, along with other broadcasters, worked to develop the S-FTP system to deliver audio files, rather than traditional streamed audio via satellite. This "store-forward” solution has resulted in the Ambos receiver/server platform. The Ambos receivers/servers are being provided at no charge to stations carrying Christian radio programming. Jim Sanders, Executive Vice President of Ambassador a founding member of the Consortium said: “Since the S-FTP receiver/server will reside at the local area network, the transfer speed will be nearly 100 times faster than from remote FTP servers.” The name, Ambos, represents Ambassador’s entry into a new “OS” or operating system. But perhaps more appropriate, the term also refers to the platform or pulpit from which the early Christian church would proclaim the gospel. A print version of the Christian Radio Consortium Satellite FTP Project is available on-line at http://www.amb-os.com. Or email Jim@ambaa.com. Ambassador Advertising Agency was established in 1959 to represent and serve major radio ministries in the United States, Canada and around the world. Focus on the Family, founded in 1977, is a Christian non-profit organization dedicated to nurturing and defending families worldwide. The “Focus on the Family” broadcast has over 1.5 million listeners daily in the United States alone. Focus on the Family has offices worldwide with a total audience of over 200 million. Ambassador Advertising Agency |
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