New to this

[KNEO Radio]

We are a non-profit radio station that has been in existence for over 35 years. We are just now getting to the capability of being able to use metadata for car radios and things. We recently purchased ENCO automation system and set it up to be metadata ready. We have been searching high and low to see what we need to make all this happen and we are having a hard time finding anyone that knows how this works. I know we need an RDS encoder to make this work. What else equipment wise do we need to get our metadata going? We have a Broadcast Electronics FM10S transmitter with an fX50 Exciter. Beyond that we don't know what we need. Can someone help? Thanks!

[Jan]

Your exciter accepts RDS signal from external RDS encoder so basically the situation is good. It is however preferable to order an expert who will consider it locally. The interface between different equipment in the broadcast chain has never been standardised so well. As the result, each installation is unique and simple connect-and-go solution usually does not exist or it is not safe. We are therefore concerned about making decisions and recommendations through the internet forum.

Especially you need to consider:

• How the RDS encoder will be physically connected into the chain, with respect to existing solution of MPX/stereo signal generator
• How the RDS encoder will be connected to the broadcast PC in order to accept the short text messages - requires establishing a serial or Ethernet data line