Among the themes at the NAB Show for Broadcast Electronics will be the latest version of MDCL, or Modulation Dependent Carrier Level.
BE said it can save most AM radio stations up to half of their electricity costs. “For a station operating 12 hours per day (excluding nighttime savings), with a transmitter power output of 10 kW, and with an average electricity cost of 20 cents per Kilowatt/hour, the savings can be more than $6,000 every year,” the company states. “Even for a 1 kW AM transmitter, savings are typically over $600 per year.”
It adds that some locations, including Alaska and Hawaii, have considerably higher power rates and so stations there will see more savings in energy and cost.
“MDCL works by reducing transmitter power during periods when the program is louder and quickly recovers power during quiet periods,” BE notes. “Any increase in received noise is masked by the louder program content. Compression is easily adjustable to ensure the best power savings are obtained without affecting received audio quality.”
The company said it takes less than 30 minutes to install MDCL on most of its transmitters. “The savings are the same on any brand of transmitter not currently employing MDCL.”
BE will be in NAB Show Booth W2864.
