Monday Morning Coffee and Technical Notes

January 27, 2025 View as Webpage

New FCC Chairman



Newly elected President Trump last Monday signed an order designating Commissioner Brendan Carr as the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.

 Carr has been a member of the Commission since 2017.  President Trump has also picked Olivia Trusty to fill the open commission seat left by the resignation of Jessica Rosenworcel.  She must first be confirmed by congress before taking the position.

Weather Issues

Last week a good part of the country was hit by a major winter storm, with ice and snow even on the beaches of Alabama and Florida.



Engineers are encouraged to conduct a visual inspection of tower structures including transmission line hangers, antennas and guy wires. In the northern part of the country this is a normal maintenance item, but since this was a rare occurrence in the south, engineers may not think about damage from ice buildup on these structures.

Gray Media upgrades ATSC 3.0

Gray Media has announced they will be deploying HDR10+ and Dolby Vision ahead of Feb. 9 Super Bowl.

The station group has tested and is deploying transmission of HDR10+ and Dolby Vision high dynamic range in multiple markets, including Atlanta; Las Vegas; Davenport, Iowa; Mobile, Alabama-Pensacola, Florida; Birmingham, Alabama; Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina; and Portland, Oregon.



What Gray has tested is inserting the metadata required to drive both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ high dynamic range in the same ATSC 3.0 transmission.

ABA Engineering Webinar



Ed Czarnecki from Digital Alert Systems was our special guest on last Tuesdays ABA Engineering Webinar. Ed did an excellent job of explaining some of the proposed changes in EAS system operation. 

As most know there has been a lot of post in social media about migrating the analog EAS system over to IP and maybe even into a virtual arena.



If you missed the webinar, it is archived on the ABA Engineering Academy YouTube channel, along with all the past webinars and seminars.

ABA Engineering Academy

The ABA Engineering Academy will offer our Radio Engineering Class the week of February 24 – 28, 2025. The Television Class will be held the week of April 28 – May 2, 2025. We will offer a second round of classes later in the year.

The class will cover basic electronics, analog and digital audio, history of radio broadcasting, AM and FM transmitters/antennas, EAS and FCC rules. We also offer the opportunity for students to take the SBE Certification exam on Friday.

Classes will be held at the ABA Training Center 2180 Parkway Lake Drive Hoover, AL (Birmingham). Classes are offered at no cost for beginners or seasoned engineers from across the country.



Daily class outlines and registration is available at the ABA Engineering Academy website.

Audio Level vs Loudness

Level is an objective electrical measurement of a single variable such as SPL. Watts, Volts, etc.

Loudness is perceptual and subjective, the result of many factors…pitch, balance, tonality and dynamic range.

Level and loudness are related, obviously, the more level the more loudness. But tracks with identical levels have entirely different loudness. Remember too that loudness can and does vary with the listener. What one thinks is too loud may be just right to someone else.



The take away point is to pay attention to loudness especially when it involves stream audio and that quality is much more important that quantiy.

 Pro Audio – Self Confidence

If you are a Front of House (FOH) audio engineer at a church, here is a reminder that there is a fine line between developing self confidence and not letting it turn into an Ego problem. The rush of moving thousands of people, whether as a musician, worship leader, or audio engineer, can quickly shift from confidence to ego if we’re not careful.

We all want to use our training and experience to do the best job we can. How do we tap into our experience and wisdom, do our jobs well, and lead without becoming arrogant and egotistical?

That rush comes with a huge responsibility, knowing that the choices you make affect the entire room. But that same feeling can easily affect your view of yourself.

To avoid this, first you need to remember what the goal is. Its not about you, its not about the Church…its all about serving the Lord.  Our role should be to lift up the worship team, including the pastor so that the message reaches everyone in the congregation with the most intelligibility possible.

It is also important to be a member of the worship team, getting to know all the members and gaining their confidence knowing you have their back. Any changes that you feel would improve the service should be shared with the team as a suggestion, not an order. Soming like, “I was thinking if we change the placement of the drum kit it might add to the overall mix quality or if we use a direct box on the bass might remove some of the stage noise, why don’t we try it see how it works”.



Remember to always be a good listener, especially for suggestions from the members of the worship team. You all are working toward the same Goal! 

History 101