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Airwave console issues??

T

taylorengineer

Anybody out there running PR&E Airwave consoles? What has been your experience with the Airwave,in terms of reliability?
I'm wonderin' if my mojo's workin' or if I'm not shakin' the chicken bones right.....I have a Airwave 20 and 12, both digital. DSP boards failed in the 12....factory said it was defective chip sockets. Now the 20 is belly-up!!
The board has been, in the past, one of the pieces of equipment that just didn't fail, at least not totally. Mechanical problems like switches and pots were normal.....lightning would do it's thang every now and then, but "sunny day, out of the blue" failures were rare.
Now I've had two "off the air" failures in three years. Is it just me, or is it just Harris PR&E consoles?
Why does dealing with anything Harris ALWAYS turn out like a vist to a French Whorehouse???
 
Having seen an early one, I am thoroughly underwhelmed. Brand new console with button caps flying hither and yon...heard that not long after I saw it (at a competitor's station) about 2/3 of the beast bit the dust. Leaving morning man who later relayed the story to me very unhappy at the time.

I would look at Wheatstone for a stand-alone digital console,(if that's what your heart is set on--I prefere analog for this use).

If I was putting in multiple studios there look like several manufacturers that use the control surface and central switching unit approach, which to me seems the more logical reason to look at digital in the first place.
 
> Anybody out there running PR&E Airwave consoles? What has
> been your experience with the Airwave,in terms of
> reliability?
> I'm wonderin' if my mojo's workin' or if I'm not shakin' the
> chicken bones right.....I have a Airwave 20 and 12, both
> digital. DSP boards failed in the 12....factory said it was
> defective chip sockets. Now the 20 is belly-up!!

Only Airwave I dealt with was for 6 months...only used in afternoon (rest of day, station was sat fed or automation)...was a nice board from what I saw..but thought it could have been built heavier like the older RadioMixers.

> The board has been, in the past, one of the pieces of
> equipment that just didn't fail, at least not totally.
> Mechanical problems like switches and pots were
> normal.....lightning would do it's thang every now and then,
> but "sunny day, out of the blue" failures were rare.
> Now I've had two "off the air" failures in three years. Is
> it just me, or is it just Harris PR&E consoles?
> Why does dealing with anything Harris ALWAYS turn out like a
> vist to a French Whorehouse???

Since Harris took over PR&E, Pacific's quality has gone downhill...I know a few places that bought Harris' new Vistamax...only to throw it out because Harris could not make it work right..(one former station I worked at had such a beast..it was constantly bypassed with patches because it could not be trusted...the owners were idiots to buy it and the Digital consoles with it..
I would have gone with Logitec myself....better and proven design! In fact we proposed that...and it was rejected but the Logitec system would have been $30-50K cheaper!) AT last report, the Vista was gone, and the consoles (according to the current Chief) were POS with the things falling apart...oh well..
Now as for the transmitters, I cant say the same there...A HT35CD will be a great box and run and run and run and run..much better than most of their previous designs.....but then I also like Continentals..
 
> Anybody out there running PR&E Airwave consoles? What has
> been your experience with the Airwave,in terms of
> reliability?
>
I've got one in Milwaukee that's been a nightmare. DSP boards going bad, Telco modules crappin out and now it needs to be power cycled each day because some of the channels go dead. It's only abou 6 months old and Harris won't replace it with a new one, they just keep trying to prop it up with replacement parts.

On the other hand I have 2 Airwaves in Chicago that have been very quiet and peaceful. No problems at all...

go figure....

Dr. Dave
 
> I've got one in Milwaukee that's been a nightmare.

Dave, I'm nominating you for an Understatement of the Year Award.

> DSP
> boards going bad, Telco modules crappin out and now it needs
> to be power cycled each day because some of the channels go
> dead. It's only abou 6 months old and Harris won't replace
> it with a new one, they just keep trying to prop it up with
> replacement parts.

You left out the best part: the day it started smoking!

> On the other hand I have 2 Airwaves in Chicago that have
> been very quiet and peaceful. No problems at all...

Wanna trade stations?<P ID="signature">______________
narniabanner.jpg
</P>
 
> Anybody out there running PR&E Airwave consoles? What has
> been your experience with the Airwave,in terms of
> reliability?

WREK is using PR&E Impulse consoles, which are similar to the Airwave but non-modular. I haven't heard of any problems with them since they were installed in Aug. 2004.

It would have been nice if the channel buttons were lit by LEDs instead of light bulbs...
 
I have several analog Airwave 20s. No major problems. The headphone jack is plastic. The threads get stripped and it falls into the console after a few years. Just replaced it with a metal one.

Also, the last one I got (about 3 years ago) had one of the holes on the rail that you screw the module in at the top, was not drilled in the right place, and that module dosen't sit right and the PGM lights dont always light.

I had one of the first Impulse (20 channel) consoles. Had lots of problems. After a power failure, it would not pass audio until you cycled power a few times. One analog pgm output got all distorted, and the Phone module (which is on the mother board) started to fail. After months of calls to Harris, they finally replaced the main motherboard for free and it's been fine since. I understand after they made some major modifications, they worked much better.

I also wish they would have LEDs instead of those light bulbs for the on/off switches. They last 2 years if you are lucky. I find lights out every week.

> Having seen an early one, I am thoroughly underwhelmed.
> Brand new console with button caps flying hither and
> yon...heard that not long after I saw it (at a competitor's
> station) about 2/3 of the beast bit the dust. Leaving
> morning man who later relayed the story to me very unhappy
> at the time.
>
> I would look at Wheatstone for a stand-alone digital
> console,(if that's what your heart is set on--I prefere
> analog for this use).
>
> If I was putting in multiple studios there look like several
> manufacturers that use the control surface and central
> switching unit approach, which to me seems the more logical
> reason to look at digital in the first place.
>
 
> I also wish they would have LEDs instead of those light
> bulbs for the on/off switches. They last 2 years if you are
> lucky. I find lights out every week.

I think our engineers have given up trying to keep up with the burned out bulbs. I know it's not the top priority when I call them because something needs to be done. Although now I'm getting to the point that I can handle a lot of stuff on my own, or at least with one of them on the other end of the phone line.<P ID="signature">______________
narniabanner.jpg
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