What is the Z/IP Stream R/2

A Bit of History

It started with the telephone…

For over 30 years, Telos has led the industry in telephony and audio encoding technology for broadcast. When Steve Church developed the first digital telephone hybrid for broadcast in 1984, it was the beginning of a revolution in how the industry would get audio from the field on the air. Telephone calls had never sounded so good.

MP3 and ISDN

This revolution continued with the introduction of the Telos Zephyr ISDN codec in 1993. It was the first codec to make use of the (then relatively new) MPEG Layer III codec to send full 20 kHz mono audio across a single 56 or 64 kbps data channel. Broadcasters could finally bring full-fidelity audio to their listeners from the field (or between facilities) without dedicated equalized program loops or RF links. The Zephyr quickly became the de-facto industry standard for ISDN codecs, used by studios around the globe for transporting audio.

Streaming…It begins.

While ISDN was becoming popular for broadcasters to transport audio from the field or between facilities, the next frontier was exploring new methods for getting audio to the listeners. The Internet was still in its infancy, but it had developed to the point where streaming audio (even over dialup) was becoming viable. In 1997, Telos introduced the very first dedicated hardware encoder for MP3 streaming over the Internet, simplifying what was a bit of a cumbersome process and dramatically improving the audio quality.

Omnia: A Legend in Audio Processing for Broadcast

During this same period of time, Frank Foti was working tirelessly to improve the sound of audio processing for broadcast. His dial-dominating innovations in audio processing at Z100 were the foundation of what would ultimately become Omnia. The audio processing developments didn’t stop at the FM dial, however…It quickly became apparent that there was considerable benefit to be gained from specialized audio processing for streaming as well.

Telos Encoding + Omnia Processing = Z/IPStream

As streaming continued to gain in popularity, the demand for an “all in one” solution to handle both processing and encoding for streams grew tremendously. In 2009, Omnia launched the A/XE software package, combining the best of Telos encoding technology with 3-band Omnia audio processing tailored specifically for streaming. In 2012, Telos introduced R/1, a new hardware appliance designed specifically for stream processing and encoding without a dedicated PC.

The Z/IPStream family gained yet another powerful option with the availability of acclaimed Omnia.9 processing in 9X/2 streaming software. Z/IPStream represents the latest in encoding and audio processing developments from The Telos Alliance and supports a wide variety of streaming technologies including adaptive bitrate streaming for a seamless listener experience regardless of network conditions, or listening platform.

About Z/IPStream R/2

Up to 8 Channels of Z/IPStream, one box

The R/2 is a dedicated multichannel processor/encoder appliance for streaming, designed for applications demanding the ultimate in reliability, with the highest possible audio quality and channel density per rack space.

Features

Z/IPStream R/2 supports up to 8 simultaneous audio channels, including the latest generation of licensed MP3 and AAC codecs for streaming, with signature Omnia 3-band processing included or powerful (optional) Omnia.9 processing. Flexible configuration allows multiple processing and/or encoding instances per audio channel.

Audio I/O includes AES/EBU, Livewire Audio over IP, and multicast or unicast RTP. Supported server platforms include HTTP, Icecast, Shoutcast, Wowza, Adobe RTMP, and others.

Triton Digital Integration

R/2 includes direct support for the Triton Digital streaming platform, which allows users to take full advantage of their content distribution and dynamic ad replacement technologies while streamlining hardware and software implementation.