[time-nuts] can of worms: time-of-day in a community radio station

[paul swed]

Have no idea if they exist still but what you need is time of day clocks
and what are called shot clocks. A shot clock is a clock thats preloaded
with a segment duration and counts to zero. No thinking is the key. These
have been used for years and years.
That makes talents job very very easy.It also is up to them to get on time.
Most are good at that actually.
With respect to network feeds they simply do very generally towards late.
But they rubber band from my experience.
Regards
Paul


On Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 6:02 PM Bob kb8tq <kb8tq at n1k.org> wrote:

> Hi
>
> A very normal internet based NTP setup will do what you wish to do. The
> main task is to make
> sure that your devices are *really* running NTP and not some odd thing
> built into their OS. The
> more devices / operating systems / OS versions / system configurations you
> have the more
> exciting this gets.
>
> Bob
>
> > On Oct 18, 2019, at 3:20 PM, Eric Scace <eric at scace.org> wrote:
> >
> >   I fear that I am developing a reputation for bringing to the list
> rather oddball questions. In my rôle as agent provocateur, therefore, here
> is another such problem.
> >
> >   Questions for you are at the end. Thanks for your thoughts,.
> >
> > — Eric
> >
> > Issue:
> >   A community broadcast radio station with multiple studio locations
> wishes to improve the display of time-of-day throughout the station’s
> operating environments. Its current legacy approaches (described below)
> cause problems such as:
> > on-air presenters fail to smoothly segue into scheduled program feeds
> (e.g., BBC news) because the studio clock is “a little off”… and because
> the studio clock is digital. [Quick: how many more seconds can you speak
> before the top of the hour when a digital clock shows 4:59:42? Watching an
> analog stepping second hand is much easier in this situation.]
> > computers that automatically capture audio programs to files in storage
> sometimes truncate the start or end of the program because the computer’s
> idea of time-of-day disagrees with that of the program source.
> > desktop computers throughout the station, including in production
> studios, all render slightly different versions of time-of-day to their
> users.
> > servers (e.g, for streaming, for archiving shows) are similarly in
> cheerful disagreement as to time of day.
> > wall clocks studios in one city show a different time to their engineers
> than the studios in another city, rendering handoffs more complicated.
> Ditto for remote broadcast sites, and even between studios in the same site.
> > requires manual intervention to bring the most egregious systems back to
> some semblance of reality
> >
> > Background & existing situation:
> >   Commercial broadcast stations have more money and technology to solve
> these problems. In contrast, “community radio” stations have limited funds
> and are largely staffed by volunteers (like me!).
> >
> >   In this case, the existing systems are a hodgepodge:
> > mostly Windows OS PCs, with a couple of Macs
> > Linux servers
> > mash-mash of wall clocks, the best of which is a LaCrosse WWVB digital
> in the primary on-air studio. The WWVB signal is more than adequate but the
> LaCross display format is sub-optimal for studio use.
> >
> > Goals: (first pass)
> > minimum accuracy requirement: time-of-day displayed within ±0.1 second
> of UTC timescale. (Two clocks both falling outside this range will cause
> program handoffs to be uncomfortably tight or loose.)
> > no manual intervention required for summer/winter time transitions
> > no manual intervention required for leap seconds
> > leap second:
> > no smearing (minimum requirement)
> > accurate leap second display (desirable but unlikely to be achievable)
> > desirable consistency goal: time-of-day displayed within ±0.025 second
> throughout each site. At this level, two adjacent clock displays will not
> be perceived as out of step by a person.
> > presentation goals: studio/remote broadcast control point time-of-day
> displayed in both analog (with stepped seconds hands) and digital form
> (preferred H:MM).
> > If digital form includes seconds, the seconds digits should be visually
> separated; e.g..smaller. A presenter can then, at a glance and without
> confusion, announce the time (“four twenty-three”) from the digital display.
> > Date in form “Oct 17 Thu” available.
> > medium-term desirable: displays continue within specs for
> accuracy/consistency across power cutovers (to/from generator) and public
> Internet outages.
> > maintenance goals:
> > "eschew emergencies”: no one should have to rush to the station in the
> middle of the night, nor drop what their doing during the day, because
> time-of-day display has failed or gone out-of-spec.
> > standardize on the same hardware/software everywhere
> > identical hardware allows more cost-effective 1:N sparing
> > identical hardware/software means less confusion and less training for
> volunteers. (There are a large number of volunteers who use these systems,
> and most contribute time less than once per week. Consistency and
> straightforwardness in the toolkit improves the quality of on-air results.)
> > not too costly
> > try to avoid stringing a lot of new cabling around… but such cabling
> needs are recognized as a one-time investment, so this preference does not
> eliminate a cable-based solution that has other operational/maintenance
> advantages
> >
> > Potential approaches:
> > potential short-term:
> > desktops and servers: better NTP configuration
> > NTP checks:
> > at least hourly?
> > verify NTP utility employs reasonable averaging of multiple NTP servers
> > use time.nist.gov <http://time.nist.gov/> and similar higher-quality
> NTP servers
> > some systems are on in-house Ethernet; others on in-house wi-fi
> > clocks:
> > replace with refurb iPads running a dedicated time-of-day display app
> providing both analog and digital form. A refurb wall- or desk-mounted 13”
> iPad in locking frame runs about $100. Smaller sizes can be mounted
> immediately adjacent to or atop a studio mixing board.
> > remote field broadcast site: iPad over local wi-fi or cellular data?
> > IRIG displays could be awesome, but seem far more costly per display and
> require pulling coax — and integrated analog + digital displays appear to
> be less common. Two displays (one analog, the other digital) in each studio
> provide some redundancy but costs go up fast.
> > NTP-clocks powered over ethernet could similarly be awesome, but are
> similarly more costly and few integrated analog + digital displays exist.
> > medium term:
> > add in-house NTP server (with GPS and reasonable holdover plus battery
> backup) on each city’s on-site LAN/wi-fi networks as primary source, with
> remote public NTP servers as secondary. Many suitable models appear to
> exist, including the ESE E-911 units mentioned recently. Only a few are
> needed: one for each site plus sparing.
> > potentially increase the frequency of NTP synchronization for each
> computer/display clock when a local NTP server has been installed.
> >
> > Questions:
> > Are there other approaches that should be considered?
> > What NTP software should be used on Windows OS machines? Linux servers?
> > Mac OS allows one choice of NTP server but does not seem to provide for
> choice of NTP update frequency. Is there a 3rd party software solution, or
> some other parameter within MacOS that an admin can change to (a) establish
> a primary and secondary NTP server, and (b) set the frequency of NTP
> updates?
> > If one were to use an iPad to display time-of-day, what iPad apps
> provide the needed display formats, frequency of NTP checks,
> primary/secondary NTP sources?
> > For example, Atomic Clock Gorgy updates hourly and allows the user to
> choose one NTP server group (e.g., time.nist.gov <http://time.nist.gov/>).
> It has an analog seconds display format (circle of dots), digital H:MM
> (optional :SS), and MMM D DDD — although one could quibble over the
> typography. However, the display shows “SYNC” for a couple of seconds each
> hour while the NTP update occurs, which would be disconcerting if it
> happens when a presenter/engineer is in the midst of joining/cutting away
> from external program sources.
> > What have we overlooked?
> >
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