Just Add Audio: Nautel GV2 First to Host Complete HD Radio Air Chain Inside

In an Industry first, Nautel’s GV2 Series transmitters can host the full Digital Radio Air Chain including all HD RadioTM coding and all Audio Processing on the GV2 transmitter platform without any external equipment.

Hackett’s Cove, Nova Scotia; NAB Booth W2843 – Nautel has unveiled its new GV2 Series transmitters, the first in the industry to integrate all HD Radio™ components inside the transmitter. The extensive updates to Nautel’s flagship FM transmitter series provides the full hardware platform to support HD Radio™ with Xperi Gen4 Importer, Exporter, and Exgine implementations for HD radio encoding, station logo and artist experience. Omnia® for Nautel covers all FM and HD Radio audio processing needs and provides Livewire® AoIP inputs for all audio streams. No additional hardware is required.

GV2 is updated with transmitter technologies including new power supplies, solid state storage, a new interface card, and dramatic increases in internal computational capacity. A new generation Nautel AUI based on HTML5 enables the integration of new software components through virtualization technology.

GV2 natively incorporates the software-based radio air chain architecture presented by Nautel at the 2022 NAB Show, which demonstrated the air chain hosted in the AWS cloud; the same software components can also be hosted on the HD MultiCast+ platform and now natively within the GV2 platform. A key component of the architecture is an air chain selector which allows the GV2 to select one of many air chain inputs (FM and all HD) and gracefully change from one feed to another, no matter whether the feed originates from the studio, the cloud, or the internal platform; perfect FM/HD1 time alignment is always guaranteed through the blend lock function without the need of GPS antenna connections. All components can optionally be activated to suit each station’s specific needs.

“As long as there is an IP Audio feed available at the transmitter site, operation is Audio In and RF out,” said Philipp Schmid, Nautel CTO. “FM stations currently operating digital modes or considering a shift to HD Radio will benefit from this ultra-streamlined deployment as well as elimination of time alignment issues.”

Nautel will begin accepting orders for the GV2 hardware platform in Q2 2023, with first deliveries anticipated in Q3 2023. Early adopters are expected to be able to test drive the software components by Q4 with a maturing and expanding software feature set expected into next year.

“Nautel led the industry with initiatives to create simpler and less expensive HD Radio implementations starting with the first embedded exporter over a decade ago, then with the first combined and software implemented Importer/Exporter, and more recently with research to perfectly time lock the FM and HD signals to eliminate blend drift,” said Schmid. “Now the GV2 continues that evolution by bringing all functionality and even audio processing into the transmitter.”

“This new product exemplifies Nautel’s passion for digital broadcasting and simplifying life for our customers,” said Nautel President/CEO Kevin Rodgers. “This advancement speaks to the innovative spirit of the Nautel design team and demonstrates the power of collaboration with an industry partner like Telos Alliance.”

About Nautel
Nautel is the world’s largest manufacturer of AM and FM radio broadcast transmitters with key contributions in the field of digital broadcasting. Focused on making transmission worry-free for users worldwide, Nautel transmitters employ advanced control, monitoring, and instrumentation tools which simplify management of transmitter sites, both locally and remotely via web access. More than 20,000 Nautel transmitters have been deployed in over 177 countries since 1970. For more information visit www.nautel.com

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For more information please contact:
John Whyte
Head of Marketing
+1 902-823-5174
[email protected]