Company Info

About Smarts Broadcast Systems and On Air Digital .

These two diverse digital audio companies came together in 2001 when Smarts acquired On Air Digital. While there were many similarities, there were also many differences. Smarts Broadcast Systems was steeped in small to medium market radio. The Smartcaster Digital Audio System and the SecGen traffic system had been developed in a small market radio station, and was marketed primarily to those markets. Smarts was primarily an automation company whose products saved small market stations money by allowing them to operate more efficiently.

On Air Digital, on the other hand, was initially a division of TM Century, and based in Dallas, Texas. When TM spun the company off in 1999, On Air continued to work on products for medium to large market radio stations. Coming from the TM roots, On Air had developed systems that primarily were designed to play music in live operations. Initially their software controlled external devices such as CD players, but by 2001 they were developing something extraordinary, a Linux based computer system that would play audio, replacing CD players and other audio systems that they were currently using.

Smarts wanted to develop a Linux product because the Smarts developers saw the limitations of developing in Windows, and Linux virtually removed all those barriers. It therefore made sense for Smarts to acquire On Air Digital, and the companies work together to develop the new Linux product. In the meantime both companies continued to manufacture and sell their legacy products, the Ultimate Digital Studio, and the Smartcaster.

Linux was slowly integrated into existing products. Even using the original software code, Linux offered the opportunity to vastly expand hard drive storage and open up connectivity to the products on the Internet. The hybrid products have been in the field now for a number of years.

But developers from both companies continued to work on the "new product", one that would combine the experience of both companies into a single entity that would work well in any size market, and with any programming format.

The product was designed from the bottom up, using only the knowledge base and experience gleaned from the legacy products. Skylla is a totally new product designed by a crackerjack team with combined experience of many years in digital audio and automation.

The development team consisted of virtually every employee of both companies. The primary developers, however were:

Bob Nelson of On Air Digital, primary developer for the Linux audio system and web based interfaces to music and traffic systems.
Johnny Schad of Smarts Broadcast Systems, developer of the Linux user interface
Jim Broadwater of On Air Digital, Coordinator for the project
Todd Montag of On Air Digital, in charge of Windows based production suite software
Wes Shaw, formerly of Smarts Broadcast Systems, developer for the SecGen traffic system.
Pete Cervasio of On Air Digital, developer of the Skylla Linux code.
One other team member who became very well known in the Digital Audio Industry, Dane Roach, died in June of 2004.

So, While Skylla is brand new, the Linux technology on which it is based has been used by both companies now for a long time. Skylla, in many ways is the icing on the Linux cake, and will make a big difference in the way radio stations are programmed in the future.