Voltair Hot Box Banned In Canada

Numeris, the Canadian Ratings Service, has ordered radio stations to unplug their Voltair units.

A letter from the Numeris Board of Directors has been shared with Radio Ink. The letter says Canada's level measurement playing field must be maintained and, "Numeris requires that any Voltair unit be physically disconnected from the Numeris encoder, and the output of the Numeris encoder be routed for transmission without further processing or manipulation. We ask that this task be completed no later than Sunday, June 14th by 11:59 pm."

The letter says the dictate does not include the usual audio processing and limiting devices employed by all stations and installed prior to the Numeris encoder, but includes all devices that access the output of the Numeris encoder and in any way alter the audio that has been PPM encoded

One Canadian broadcaster tells Radio Ink that this isn't about Voltair or a level playing field, stating it's about Nielsen-Numeris wanting to control processing and protect their monopoly. He also believes this is a trial balloon to test the reaction before the same thing happens with the units here in the United States. Nielsen says it is testing the unit to see what, if any, impact it has on ratings. Some broadcasters believe Voltair's processor is most definitely impacting their ratings in a positive way and Telos-Alliance is selling them like hot cakes.

Telos-Alliance will not divulge who is buying the unit and some broadcast companies in the US have instructed locals to keep the unit-use confidential.

Meanwhile, American broadcasters continue to wait for the results of Nielsen's testing of the Voltair unit, to see how it's impacting PPM ratings.

Voltair is manufactured by Telos-Alliance,  They insist the overriding purpose of Voltair is to increase station confidence that PPM ratings accurately reflect the habits of your listeners.  They add Voltair won’t increase station's actual listenership, but it will help them be more confident that listeners to their station participating in the watermark-based ratings process are correctly measured.