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Arrakis Digilink Xtreme problem
- Thread starter shure
- Start date
Hi OKC,
Those are excellent questions and we appreciate the opportunity to hopefully help answer them.
Not to make it sound too much like a sales pitch, but our Xtreme automation system doesn't have any up front costs. The $100 a month includes hardware and software and the customer only needs to purchase a PC for the on-air. At $100 a month it also includes customer support, software updates as well as hardware replacement. At a price of most automation support contracts, it's really not a bad deal. It's also risk free since the user can send the hardware back at any time and we will stop charging them. There's also a buyout option of $6,500.
We do not charge for telephone support on any of our electronic products. We are fortunate to have technical support people who have been with us for more than 25 years, so we are able to continue support on all product lines back to serial number one. We have electronic versions of all of our manuals for all of our consoles on the website for free going back to the 1980s, starting with our 1200 and 12000 series consoles. The SC series consoles starting in 1979 are on paper only and available for about $75 (which includes our handling fee). There was some controversy when we first introduced our ARC series consoles because the manuals included IC level part placement and functional block diagrams for IC replacement only. Access to detailed part level schematics required talking to the factory. We have since placed those schematics on our website.
We have no proprietary parts in our products. Some switches or fader assemblies are configured to our specifications so they are not easily sourced outside of the factory. We make every effort to keep these parts in stock, and in most cases have replacement parts for products as far back as the early 1980s. We never remove part numbers from parts. In fact, we make every effort to design using parts commonly available from at least 3 manufacturers.
RFI and surge protection are their own issues and I'll try to very briefly address them here. To improve the reliability of slide faders in the '80's, all Arrakis console designs used VCAs to remove the audio from the faders. These VCAs were sensitive to RFI and ground plane voltage surges. Because slide fader designs have become almost bulletproof, all of our current analog consoles use audio on the fader which eliminates the RFI and surge problems of earlier designs. The ARC series have been field proven in all RF environments and are performing very well.
I hope that this is helpful. We will try to review the radio boards periodically but please always feel like you can contact me directly about any concerns or any helpful advice. We are a family business that has been around for 30 years and we have always valued our customer's input. Have a wonderful day!
Sincerely,
Ben Palmer
970-461-0730 x309
[email protected]
p.s. I also like our studio furniture, but of course I am biased.
Those are excellent questions and we appreciate the opportunity to hopefully help answer them.
Not to make it sound too much like a sales pitch, but our Xtreme automation system doesn't have any up front costs. The $100 a month includes hardware and software and the customer only needs to purchase a PC for the on-air. At $100 a month it also includes customer support, software updates as well as hardware replacement. At a price of most automation support contracts, it's really not a bad deal. It's also risk free since the user can send the hardware back at any time and we will stop charging them. There's also a buyout option of $6,500.
We do not charge for telephone support on any of our electronic products. We are fortunate to have technical support people who have been with us for more than 25 years, so we are able to continue support on all product lines back to serial number one. We have electronic versions of all of our manuals for all of our consoles on the website for free going back to the 1980s, starting with our 1200 and 12000 series consoles. The SC series consoles starting in 1979 are on paper only and available for about $75 (which includes our handling fee). There was some controversy when we first introduced our ARC series consoles because the manuals included IC level part placement and functional block diagrams for IC replacement only. Access to detailed part level schematics required talking to the factory. We have since placed those schematics on our website.
We have no proprietary parts in our products. Some switches or fader assemblies are configured to our specifications so they are not easily sourced outside of the factory. We make every effort to keep these parts in stock, and in most cases have replacement parts for products as far back as the early 1980s. We never remove part numbers from parts. In fact, we make every effort to design using parts commonly available from at least 3 manufacturers.
RFI and surge protection are their own issues and I'll try to very briefly address them here. To improve the reliability of slide faders in the '80's, all Arrakis console designs used VCAs to remove the audio from the faders. These VCAs were sensitive to RFI and ground plane voltage surges. Because slide fader designs have become almost bulletproof, all of our current analog consoles use audio on the fader which eliminates the RFI and surge problems of earlier designs. The ARC series have been field proven in all RF environments and are performing very well.
I hope that this is helpful. We will try to review the radio boards periodically but please always feel like you can contact me directly about any concerns or any helpful advice. We are a family business that has been around for 30 years and we have always valued our customer's input. Have a wonderful day!
Sincerely,
Ben Palmer
970-461-0730 x309
[email protected]
p.s. I also like our studio furniture, but of course I am biased.
Hello Shure,
I haven't had a chance to hear from you yet, but I wanted to check in and see if we can assist in any way. I checked with our support department and the only issue that we had last week that sounds close to what you are describing was with a station that was working on their power just before their problems occurred. We have confirmed with that station that the problem was resolved when all equipment in the station was rebooted. Let me know if this was your station and that your issues were resolved, or I would definitely be very happy to assist you with any issues that you may be having.
Thank you again to everyone for your time. Please always feel free to contact me directly if there is anything that I can help you with. Have a great week!
Sincerely,
Ben Palmer
970-461-0730 x309
[email protected]
I haven't had a chance to hear from you yet, but I wanted to check in and see if we can assist in any way. I checked with our support department and the only issue that we had last week that sounds close to what you are describing was with a station that was working on their power just before their problems occurred. We have confirmed with that station that the problem was resolved when all equipment in the station was rebooted. Let me know if this was your station and that your issues were resolved, or I would definitely be very happy to assist you with any issues that you may be having.
Thank you again to everyone for your time. Please always feel free to contact me directly if there is anything that I can help you with. Have a great week!
Sincerely,
Ben Palmer
970-461-0730 x309
[email protected]
Thanks for your response Ben. I have found that this very message board can be quite a "aircheck session" for manufactures and how customers precieve their products. It certainly seems several of our concerns over the years of previous products have been addressed at this point. That's comforting. I can think of at least a couple manufacture reps that have come on this board and their products or policies have directly been altered in a positive light. Even though most of us engineering guys can seem negitive in our comments, taken the right way they can be positive. Many times poor policies that garner a very bad light on a company can be changed for the overall better, most of the time at not that much expense. These days reputation is everything when it comes to broadcast equipment. Price plays a part, but reliablity and customer support is what will get a tarnished reputation every time it's not handled properly. I'm looking foward to seeing in the next couple years how a friend's client's new low-priced Arrakis holds up. So far the RFI at least seems to not be an issue as it was on previous models. Lack of input adjustments and lower output levels on P1, etc. are about the only thing so far they seem to have complained about. A audio amp after the console corrected the output issue. Several years of good reports from others might change my mind about the product. Thanks for your input!
Hi OKC,
Thank you again for your feedback. I agree with you completely. The best companies will listen to their customers and make the changes necessary in order to excel. I will definitely try to check the pulse of the radio-info boards, but please always feel free to send me your thoughts directly. My door will always be open to hear feedback of criticism and praise.
Have a wonderful week, and take care!
Sincerely,
Ben Palmer
970-461-0730 x309
[email protected]
Thank you again for your feedback. I agree with you completely. The best companies will listen to their customers and make the changes necessary in order to excel. I will definitely try to check the pulse of the radio-info boards, but please always feel free to send me your thoughts directly. My door will always be open to hear feedback of criticism and praise.
Have a wonderful week, and take care!
Sincerely,
Ben Palmer
970-461-0730 x309
[email protected]
If I am ever in the place of building-out a new studio, again, (I pray that I will, someday!) Arrakis is on my short list for the furniture, for sure! 
I really *DO* like it, A LOT!
The only change I had to have done to the WFIF studio furniture (which was from Arrakis) was to have a cabinetmaker friend of mine put LARGE doors into two of the solid panels, for easy access to the inside of the cabinets. Before he did that, I had to remove the panels... which was a pain, since I had to get into them at least a few times per month. He also cut a few ventilation openings into the other panels, so that the computers could "breathe" down in there. I drilled a few holes into the bottom for cable access, as well.
Overall, I'd give Arrakis studio furniture a 9 out of 10.
I really *DO* like it, A LOT! The only change I had to have done to the WFIF studio furniture (which was from Arrakis) was to have a cabinetmaker friend of mine put LARGE doors into two of the solid panels, for easy access to the inside of the cabinets. Before he did that, I had to remove the panels... which was a pain, since I had to get into them at least a few times per month. He also cut a few ventilation openings into the other panels, so that the computers could "breathe" down in there.
I drilled a few holes into the bottom for cable access, as well.Overall, I'd give Arrakis studio furniture a 9 out of 10.
Isn't that their original business? (studio furniture)
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