Remotes

[Hawkeye]

My college radio station is looking at getting into doing remote broadcasts from games and I have worked to increase my knowledge in this area. However, I am looking to see if there is a better solution than what I have come up with so far:


Portable Mixer: JK Audio RemoteMix 4

Transmitting methods: Using either the standard phone hookup, cellphone interface (either wired or using the proper bluetooth cellphone connection), or using something such as iMic plugged to a laptop and use a program (Skype?) to send back to a computer with Skype installed at the station.


I looked into the Tieline Commander, but is it worth it to go ahead and take the initial cost to buy a pair of these?


Unfortunately, I do not much about remote broadcasting solutions or codecs as well and what not, so any pointers would be highly appreciated.


Thanks

[OKCRadioGuy]

Don't forget Tieline either...  Are you games normally on your campus where you can get a good net connection all the time?  Also, are they phone lines generally available where you're trying to broadcast from?  ISDN by chance?

[PTBoardOp94]

Tielines are very solid equipment.  Versatile too: you can work them off of 3G cell service, POTS, and ethernet.  I think Tieline sells even more modules than that, but I've not got any of the others.

They are a bit expensive, though.  Skype can do it, although I prefer to use Skype only for short-form remotes when the Tieline is occupied elsewhere.

[OKCRadioGuy]

Yes... Long-form is a harder thing to do really.  A guy can cheet and use something like Skype and many other solutions for quick drop-ins.  In many cases these days a guy can come up with a way to record the break and send it back to the station for air slightly later too.  I've got an app on my iPhone that will do just that. Many stations either due to IBUZ or corporate policy pre-record before airing remotes. When it's not real-time it just makes more sense to record it on something like a iPhone or laptop with internet connectivity and send it to the station for air.  Why pay for tower rent for Martis or even Tielines for short breaks?  Now when it comes to long-form, that's a whole other animal, like what you're wanting.

[Hawkeye]

Currently, phone lines is unavailable and Internet connection can be iffy. The option until those can be improved is to use the Bluetooth pairing feature with a cellphone to send a call back to the station and route on-air via the telephone hybrid. However, this problem exists only at our soccer field.

ISDN, is not available.


For volleyball, and other sports, they are located near wi-fi covered areas, which is the where the idea of using a laptop with Skype came to be.


My first question regarding the Tieline field unit is: Can you use more than two connectivity methods? For instance, I thought you were limited to only two modules (ex. POTS and USB) or can you have the two modules (POTS & USB) plus ethernet/wired Internet access (probably the best way for us)?



Thank-you OKCRadioGuy and PTBoardOp94 for your help so far (and to others who may add to this).

[OKCRadioGuy]

The newer tielines have a pots and net connection built-in on most units.  There is one. Slot on the right hand side can allow you to install isdn, 3g wireless, etc.  Personally I'd consider getting something like a Cradlepoint router and just plug your USB modem into that and hook a cat 5 between the Cradlepoint and the Tieline Lan.   That way you could pick what wireless carrier worked better at any given spot and use it.

[OKCRadioGuy]

You might also want a thing called a gaming adapter to work with the available wifi.  Www.frys.com has both. 

[gunterm]

You might also want a thing called a gaming adapter to work with the available wifi.  Www.frys.com has both. 

Ditto on that, many of them have removable antennas too so you can purchase a high gain 2.4ghz yagi if you've got low signal.  Also some high end access point devices can be configured to act this way as well: WAP4410N from Cisco is what we have.  Wireless N and MIMO.

[Hawkeye]

Management isn't sold on the Tieline, yet. The big roadblock is having to buy the field transmitter and studio receiver units, although for reference, the campus IT guys told me they don't think the bandwidth would be an issue, but no guarantees since QoS is not available.

For now, the JK Audio is probably going to be the option carried forward.


Sidenote: Using our Gentner SPH-3A phone hybrid, our listeners are having a hard time hearing the studio. Is this a unit or another problem floating about?

[whitfm]

Having used a TieLine Commander for several years by utilizing a wireless connection, let me offer one suggestion: Do not, under any circumstances, get the AT&T card. Verizon, Verizon, Verizon all the way.