RCS is celebrating our 40th birthday this year and a kick off celebration was held during the NAB show in Las Vegas this past April. Enjoy the recap video and we look forward to celebrating with you all year.
Broadcasting Events
NAB Show: The 13 Innovative Media Companies to Watch
By Michael Schein
It was just shy of a hundred years ago that the first National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Convention took place in New York City’s Commodore Hotel. It was attended by 23 people. Things have certainly changed. Today the Las Vegas-based NAB Show (as it is now called) attracts more than 100,000 attendees each year from around the world. In addition to myriad keynotes, panel discussions, and networking events, the conference’s exhibition hall spans more than a million square feet and multiple buildings.
RCS Wins Awards, Celebrates 40th Anniversary at NAB 2019
After months of preparation, anticipation and media hype, NAB 2019 is over, and quickly fading in the rear view mirror. During the second week in April, the Las Vegas Convention Center hosted over 1,400 exhibitors and 92,812 attendees. 24,096 of those attending were international visitors, representing 106 countries. Before too much time elapses, let’s recap some of the highlights.
For RCS, it was another great show. First, we received several accolades at NAB. Our cloud development team, led by Chip Jellison, spearheaded the Zetta Cloud Disaster Recovery rollout. For that, we received a Future Best of Show Award. Accepting the award were Jellison, CTO/EVP Technology & Development along with the President/CEO of RCS, Philippe Generali. The award was presented by Radio World’s Managing Director, Content, Paul McLane. Radio World said in part that Zetta Cloud was selected for its “design, features, cost efficiency and performance in serving professional users.”
Reflecting on the recognition for Zetta Cloud, Philippe Generali commented: “We are honored to receive this prestigious award and very encouraged that some of our largest customers around the world are enthused by our new cloud-based offerings, including Zetta Disaster Recovery. This award is also a great tribute to the leadership of Chip Jellison and his highly skilled team.”
The show also saw the world premiere of a professional radio automation system running inside a SOUND4 audio processing device. An instance of Zetta Cloud was installed and running happily on an internal CPU with storage provided by an SD card. For that achievement, we shared another Future/Radio World award with the SOUND4 team.
Rounding out the awards received at NAB, the new RCS pavilion itself earned some recognition. Radio World gave it a Best of Show award for Booth Design. And if you saw our booth, you’ll probably remember it as the one that looked like it arrived from 20 years in the future.
It occupies 900 square feet, stands 18 feet tall and takes about a week to assemble. This booth will be used exclusively for the NAB Show in Las Vegas. It was designed by Sr. Director of Marketing for RCS Diana Stokey and Exhibit Concepts.
Winning awards wasn’t the only good news at NAB. We also held our official 40th birthday celebration during Happy Hour on April 9th. Friends and customers gathered for cold drinks, chocolate chip cookies and to share stories about the past, present and future of RCS.
NAB was also where we officially welcomed the newest member of the RCS family, Athens, Greece-based online audio tech company, RCS Technology Greece. They’ve come on board to deliver a centralized, cloud-based audio playout platform that can cohesively combine the seamless elements of broadcast radio.
RCS won a Future Best of Show Award, presented by Radio World, for the revolutionary “Zetta Cloud”. The award was presented at the NAB show by Radio World’s Managing Director, Content, Paul McLane (left in our picture). Receiving the award on behalf of RCS is Chip Jellison, CTO/EVP Technology & Development (center) and the President/CEO of RCS, Philippe Generali (right).
RCS wins a second Future Best of Show Award on the final day of the 2019 NAB Show in Las Vegas! This award is for Booth Design and comes hot on the heels of the award we received yesterday for Zetta Cloud. Pictured below with the two awards are Neal Perchuk (SVP Sales, Americas) and Diana Stokey (Senior Director of Marketing).
NAB 2019: RCS Celebrates 40 Years of Innovation
Your feet hurt. All of your senses have been totally overstimulated. And your diet for the past several hours has consisted of hot dogs, cheese fries and soda. This can only mean one thing. You’re in Las Vegas attending another NAB Show.
How quickly the 12 months seem to go by. Soon it will be time to pack your bags, make the flight to Nevada, reconnect with old acquaintances, make new connections and ramp yourself up on the latest broadcast technology.
For RCS, this is a special event because at this year’s show we’re celebrating our 40th anniversary. Stop by and visit us as booth N2519. The birthday party will be taking place during Happy Hour on April 9th at 3 PM. But there’s more than cake and ice cream to be excited about.
A new member has joined the RCS family. Athens-based online audio tech company, Radiojar (now to become RCS Technologies Greece) has come onboard to deliver a centralized, cloud-based audio playout platform that can cohesively combine the seamless elements of broadcast radio and transition these listening experiences into other audio platforms.
Reflecting on the acquisition, Philippe Generali, RCS President/CEO said: “Complementing our recent announcements about our cloud-based scheduling, playout and disaster recovery services, this acquisition will help RCS bring an even wider range of sophisticated online broadcast tools to our customers. In the near future, using cloud-based technology, it will be possible to launch a brand-new radio service across broadcast and digital within minutes of the original idea. It’s the ultimate ‘pop-up’ radio station, if you will.”
RCS may be celebrating its 40th birthday, but its history of leadership and innovation is still forging ahead. We are thrilled to be sharing with our customers an incredible new way of giving your station the best possible low-cost disaster recovery insurance, and it’s based on our brand new service, Zetta Cloud.
Zetta Cloud’s Disaster Recovery system continuously backs up your database including audio and schedule, and then sends it to the Cloud. It’s an ongoing background process that never affects your normal workflow.
In the case of a serious event that disables your radio station, Zetta Cloud takes over, allowing you to stream your station audio directly from the Cloud to your transmitter, web stream or emergency studios. When your station is ready to resume normal service, it takes just a couple of minutes for Zetta Cloud to restore your database, with audio, to resume normal service.
Think of Zetta Cloud as a crucially important insurance policy. For while we sincerely hope that you never have to experience an event that severely disrupts your radio station, if something does go horribly wrong, you will be very glad that Zetta Cloud has your back.
Get Certified, Get Noticed with the new RCS Academy
How did you get started in radio? Chances are that you hung around a station, then watched and learned from other people. But Drew Bennett, National Sales Manager of Scheduling Products at RCS says there are two things wrong with that approach. “First, it’s possible that the people you learned from didn’t know what they were doing. Second, if they did know, they might not tell you because they wanted to have the edge.”
Meaningful, formalized education in the broadcast industry has always been hard to come by. That’s why RCS has launched RCS Academy, a way for you to learn about GSelector, Zetta and Aquira, and get certified for what you know.
As Bennett explains, you don’t even need to leave home: “The courses are online and self-paced. They’re broken down into segments with an exam on each. Once you pass, you earn a micro-degree. For example, when you master the library section of GSelector, you get a library badge and micro-degree. When you have completed all the chapters, you can take the final exam. If you pass, you’re certified.” The cost for online courses ranges from $300-$600.
Bennett adds that there are numerous benefits to certification. You can order a diploma to hang on your wall, a lapel pin, and digital badge that can be used on professional sites such as LinkedIn. Your name and contact info are also listed in the RCS directory of ‘Super Users’, where potential employers can seek you out.
RCS Academy is rolling out in 2019. By the end of the first quarter, the GSelector course will be available online. That will be followed by comparable online courses on Zetta and Aquira. The next step will be moving the program to college campuses, as Bennett explains: “These courses will also be available for college credit. Our first campus will be Texas A&M in College Station, Texas, and we will continue to expand to other schools.” He adds that each college will determine the tuition fees for the courses.
RCS Celebrates 15 years in Poland
(RCP, Warsaw, Poland, 2004)
As the RCS office in Poland celebrates 15 years of service, it’s a good time to reflect on some of the milestones for both our company and Polish radio. Not surprisingly, the two have become closely intertwined.
Radio broadcasting in Poland has its origins in the early days of the medium. Polskie Radio, Poland’s state-owned national public-service radio was founded in August of 1925 with temporary broadcasts from Warsaw. A permanent broadcast schedule from the capital began in April, 1926. One national channel was operated. Beginning in 1931, it was broadcast over one of Europe’s most powerful longwave transmitters, situated at Raszyn, just outside Warsaw. Polskie Radio also operated nine regional stations. All Polish broadcast activities ceased in September of 1939, with the outbreak of World War II.
In late 1944, state-owned broadcasting resumed from Lublin, and continued for the next 45 years. The state monopoly on broadcasting only ended in 1989, with the first free elections in Poland. At that time, pirate broadcasters began to operate, and some of them eventually became commercial stations. One such operation, Radio Malopolska Fun, began broadcasting in Cracow during January 1990. It went on to become the top-rated commercial station in Poland, now known as RMF-FM, belonging to the Bauer Group.
The owner of RMF FM, Stanislaw Tyczynski knew Philippe Generali, the President and CEO of RCS. The two connected, and by mid 1991, RMF FM was the first station in Poland to be using Selector. Over the next decade, other big players in the Polish market followed, including Radio Zet and Radio Eska, both signing Selector/Linker 12 contracts.
This growth spurred the 2002 opening of an RCS branch office in Poland. Tomasz Dykiert, head of that office recalls how he first came to work for RCS. ”I was an RCS customer and true evangelist, responsible for the deployment of Selector on the Radio Eska network. While vacationing in the United States, I had the opportunity to travel to White Plains NY, tour RCS headquarters and meet with Robin Prior. He arranged an interview with Kenny Lee Karpinski. It went well, and at the end of the day, Philippe came in, smiled and said ‘Join us.’ ” The RCS Poland office staff was soon expanded to include Bartek Kubacki and Wojtek Wisniewski.
Dykiert recalls that at the time, only one RCS product was widely used, Selector 12. That was about to change, as RCS exhibited at the 2004 Radio Conference Poland, a local event that was very similar to Radiodays Europe. ”We promoted Selector 15 and Master Control 15, while still offering Selector 12. By the end of 2006, we were supporting six local sites using Master Control in Poland. All of them have now migrated to Zetta.”
2004 was also an important year for RCS due to the introduction of GSelector. Dykiert adds, ”The first European GSelector contract was signed in Poland in the spring of 2006. The user was an internet broadcaster with five streams. This was easily accomplished thanks to GSelector’s multi-station management feature.” Right now, almost 600 Internet only stations use GSelector for multi-station scheduling with different projects and different entities, from one channel to 150, all using just one database.
The success of GSelector was followed closely by the introduction of Zetta, and it too had significant sales in Poland. As Dykiert notes, ”By autumn of 2009, RCS was invited by Polish Radio to demonstrate GSelector with fully automated playout options, which included Zetta.” One year later, GSelector and Zetta were selected to manage 85 internet radio channels, which are part of project moje.polskieradio.pl, founded to celebrate the 85th anniversary of Polish Radio.
After 27 years with an RCS presence in Poland, and 15 years with an office in that country, GSelector is the most used scheduling software in Polish stations. RCS clients are also migrating to RCS News, Zetta and Aquira.
Join Us at IBC in Amsterdam Sept 14-18
September marks the transition to fall, bringing with it falling leaves, cooler temperatures and kids reluctantly returning to school. It also brings the IBC conference and a trip to Amsterdam. Billed as “the world’s most influential media entertainment and technology show”, this six-day event brings together over 57,000 attendees, 400 plus speakers and more than 1,700 exhibitors. It should come as no surprise that you’ll find RCS there.
Stop by Hall 8, stand 8.016, meet the RCS staff and say hello. We’re anxious to show you all the things you can do with our software. Whether it’s automation, scheduling, sales or news, we’ve got so many ways to make you more productive, and make your job easier.
Are your format changes being hampered by your automation system? Then perhaps you’ve outgrown it. With Zetta’s modular design, combined with an ability to scale, integrate and create, perfect workflow, the possibilities are endless.
In radio, 24/7/365 uptime is not an option, it’s an expectation, and Zetta always has a backup. Each of its many functions has a launcher app, which will restart a service if it stops unexpectedly. In other words, the sequencer is separate from the audio playout, and separate from the user interface as well.
Murphy’s Law visits us all occasionally, and the most carefully crafted automation schedules may need to be revised on the fly. Good thing you have Zetta2GO. Using your smartphone or tablet, you can take control your Zetta Automation/Playout system from any place there’s an Internet connection. Then rejoin that staff meeting or finish your lunch.
Every music format has the same basic core library. So how do you differentiate yourself from the competition? The answer has a lot to do with the how that music is scheduled. If you can schedule smarter, if you can schedule better, then you’ve got an edge.
GSelector enables you to do just that. Once you’ve created a station, designed your clocks and coded all the songs, GSelector can create a schedule based on each song’s natural demand. It will analyze the library to determine the demand for certain attributes, for example, how many fast and slow songs by both core artists and fringe artists. Then, it can automatically spread out plays by fringe artists. You can come back and tweak the process by loading the results of the latest research. Then sit back and listen to the sound of your station improve in minutes.
Mobility matters to you, and it matters to us. With Selector2GO, you can log in from your mobile device anywhere, anytime, to perform tasks such as creating or editing schedules, working on the song library, or doing an analysis of the schedule.
In sales, a lot of moving parts need to work together harmoniously: accounts receivable, budgeting and forecasting, enterprise reporting, sales management and report writing. Aquira is like CRM for sales. It integrates all these components of radio sales into one package.
Writing reports can be part of the drudgery of sales, but Aquira makes it easier. Not only can you use Report Writer to create reports in a traditional, grid, pivot grid or chart format, you can also export your reports directly into a client’s database.
Aquira is a team player. It can send traffic logs to any of our playout systems or our music scheduler; GSelector. When an overnight as-run log is produced from the studio, Aquira will automatically ingest this data for full-loop reconciliation.
No matter where you go, Aquira may be only a key stroke away. Aquira2GO connects to the station through your mobile device, enabling you to build a sales proposal via real time access to your station’s inventory, then presents it to the client.
RCS News is the one solution for every news operation. Whether it’s small market radio or a network that serves newscasts simultaneously to affiliates, RCS News helps you to stay organized and handles all the tedious tasks so you have more time to be better at your job.
News reporters can receive and revise wire copy from a variety of sources, digitally record and edit in the RCS multi-track editor, playback audio, write newscasts and present them live on-air. Newscasts also may be timed based on each reporter’s reading speed.
RCS News is multi-lingual. You can switch from English to any other language on the fly. It supports multiple-language data capture. And, you can use RCS News to run multiple languages from one newsroom simultaneously.
Join Us For the NAB Radio Show in Orlando September
If you’re headed out to the Radio Show in Orlando September 25-28, don’t forget to pack the sunscreen and a bathing suit. Also, be sure to set aside some RnR time to explore the many theme parks, golf courses and nightlife the city has to offer.
And when you’re at the show, be sure to stop by and visit RCS at Booth 30. Say hello and meet our staff. We’ll be delighted to show you the latest versions of our award-winning software.
You want to be in control of your music, and with GSelector, the possibilities are endless. You set the targets and let the goal-driven, demand-based scheduling engine in GSelector schedule songs according to their natural demand. Down the road, you can tweak those goals by loading your music research scores into GSelector. Hear the sound of your station improve in minutes. If you have multiple stations to schedule, GSelector can make your job easier. The native multi-station database allows you to schedule multiple stations at the same time, while the Format Parent feature ensures that child stations can inherit all the parent’s attributes, saving you even more time.
Does it seem like those great creative moments and unexpected changes happen when you’re away from your desk? Not a problem. Gselector2GO enables you to edit schedules, manage the song library, or perform an analysis using your mobile device from just about anywhere.
If you’re in sales, you probably know the feeling of needing to be in two places at once. In the field, meeting with clients and making new contacts. And, at the station, writing proposals and reports. RCS Aquira is like having CRM for the sales department. Aquira integrates all the components of radio sales into one package, accounts receivable, budgeting and forecasting, enterprise reporting, sales management and report writing. Whether you’re an AM daytimer or part of a group with multiple locations, there are clear benefits from Aquira’s Traffic and Sales system.
Sometimes you need to create proposals on site, but the information you need is back at the station. Aquira2GO connects to the station through your mobile device, then builds a proposal with real time access to your station’s inventory, and presents it to the client.
RCS News, a state-of-the-art radio newsroom system is the one solution for every news operation. It helps you stay organized and handles all the tedious tasks so you gain more time to be a better journalist.
News reporters can receive and revise wire copy from a variety of sources, digitally record and edit in the RCS multi-track editor, playback audio, write newscasts and present them live on-air. Newscasts also may be timed based on each reporter’s reading speed. Use RCS News to deliver live newscasts, or insert recorded news into any studio automation system. Completed newscasts may be sent to one or many websites.
We speak your language. RCS News supports multiple-language data capture. You can also use it to run multiple languages from one newsroom simultaneously. And the archiving feature gives you legal protection when you need to verify what was in a story, who wrote it, and what day it was broadcast.
Our cutting-edge studio playout system, Zetta, is in demand all over the world. With its modular design, combined with an ability to scale, integrate and create perfect workflow, the possibilities are endless with Zetta. That makes it the perfect choice for small, medium or large enterprise broadcast operations.
You know what type of workflow works best for you, so who are we to argue? The RCS Living Log® offers an advanced level of integration which enables an infinite variety of workflow concepts, starting with the ability to arrange the studio UI anyway you want it. And there’s no need to wait for a refresh, because updates are instantly reflected everywhere. As with all RCS products, you don’t need to be sitting in front of your computer to be in control. With Zetta2GO, you can control your Zetta automation/playout system from any mobile device. Use it to manipulate what’s on the air wherever there’s an internet connection.
So, enjoy the show, have some fun, get a tan, and apply all that newly-acquired knowledge when you return to work.
RCS at NAB
NAB was the perfect place for RCS to simultaneously honor our legacy and future and we look forward to participating again next year.
RCS at NAB: “Where the Global Content Economy Thrives”
Exhibiting in the Radio section of the NAB Show, join RCS and other media, entertainment and technology professionals looking to empower one another and exchange groundbreaking technology and content strategies.
The show takes place at the Las Vegas Convention Center from April 7-12, 2018 and will explore the trends shaping the future of entertainment through a range of on-floor programs, attractions and educational conferences.
From cultural themes examining podcast content to business topics dissecting the broadcast industry, RCS looks forward to participating in NAB’s extensive programming. As the show highlights, content is diverse, complex, and transient, and we consider such analyses and discussions critical to our continuation as a leading software partner.
Based in the North Hall (N2524), RCS encourages fellow radio enthusiasts to stop by, say hi, and continue the conversation. Come learn about our latest products in automation, scheduling, traffic, and news and discover the latest tools advancing the world of radio.
As the company that invented computerized music scheduling, RCS is fortunate to work with the most respected names in broadcasting and wants to use this opportunity to share ideas with you.
Whatever your expertise or interest in the radio industry, we look forward to meeting you.
See you there!