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Cleveland Radio Stations Off Air due to AT&T Outage

K

kenglish

Guest
"At least three Cleveland radio stations were knocked off the air for up to 90 minutes on Friday.
They went to dead air when a major equipment failure at AT&T cut the link between the radio studios and their transmitters."
"....the AT&T malfunction also knocking out internet, various communication channels, and 911 service across parts of Northeast Ohio."

http://www.wkyc.com/news/article/280038/45/Cleveland-Radio-stations-knocked-off-the-air

Sounds like they were using IP for their STL's, and maybe no RF backup system.
 
They should clean up that studio and think about laminating their 'reminder' labels. My Hip-Hop station in my little market is far cleaner and better taken care of than that...
 
The editors must have been a fan of the pretty colors on the Airiane, since they showed it twice. Looks like a Compellor is under the Ariane. My eyes are horrible, but I think there was also a Behringer mic pre or channel mixer shown.

I guess this illustrates something, even with live beings in the building, no one realized the stations were off the air. I could understand the talent not knowing, since because of profanity delays and such, they likely weren't monitoring off air, but no PD? No silence alarm triggered? At least that's how the video made it sound. In fairness, the written article seems to have a different feel.
 
chriscollins said:
They should clean up that studio and think about laminating their 'reminder' labels. My Hip-Hop station in my little market is far cleaner and better taken care of than that...
Click to expand...

I'm guessing you also use something a little better than those "Beats" headphones that the dude was sporting! I was so surprised to see them used in a pro environment, with the horrible reviews I've read.
 
Info-warrior said:
I guess this illustrates something, even with live beings in the building, no one realized the stations were off the air. I could understand the talent not knowing, since because of profanity delays and such, they likely weren't monitoring off air, but no PD? No silence alarm triggered? At least that's how the video made it sound. In fairness, the written article seems to have a different feel.
Click to expand...

If the phone lines got cut, how would the silence sensor call you to let you know you were off air? Without keeping a silence sense (and a phone line) at the TX site, you're setting your own self up for this. Lol...

Seriously though, is it more common than I think to use a T1/ISDN solution as primary stl rather than 950 dishes? Around here the phone company is the backup. It is literally explained to newbies as "We don't trust the phone company"...
 
I am pretty sure this affected T1 circuits too.. likely why the stations mentioned went dark. Also why things like 911 saw downtime (they ride usually over special provisioned Tel co T1/PRI circuits).

Surprised it affected KNR.. their FCC info lists multiple licenses in the 94x.xx Mhz range for STLs.
 
bnzbz said:
Info-warrior said:
I guess this illustrates something, even with live beings in the building, no one realized the stations were off the air. I could understand the talent not knowing, since because of profanity delays and such, they likely weren't monitoring off air, but no PD? No silence alarm triggered? At least that's how the video made it sound. In fairness, the written article seems to have a different feel.
Click to expand...

If the phone lines got cut, how would the silence sensor call you to let you know you were off air? Without keeping a silence sense (and a phone line) at the TX site, you're setting your own self up for this. Lol...
Click to expand...

You're right, I was thinking of something along the lines of a silence alarm hooked up to a receiver or mod monitor, but perhaps the studios are in an area that doesn't get great reception of the stations. But than again, wouldn't the STL equipment at the studio alert someone that the link has been lost?

However, I do believe the staff was aware much sooner than the video story implied.
 
I think this is called having 'all your eggs in one basket.' This type of situation underscores the need for alternative stand by STL methods. Every serious radio station should have at least two. Telco and microwave or at the very least, some kind of back up programs at the transmitter that rolls when program from the studio is lost. Glad it wasn't the Ariane...

Jim Huste
TransLanTech Sound
New York, New York
 
ATT these days is really just a bad joke in so many ways. I try to avoid them like the plague they are whenever at all possible. I've went out of my way to use other services for remote stations and absolutely refuse to give up my 950 links. I also have internet backup barix units in case the primary feed dumps off the air. With all the toys available these days, a good old 950 STL is still the best.
 
OKCRadioGuy said:
ATT these days is really just a bad joke in so many ways. I try to avoid them like the plague they are whenever at all possible. I've went out of my way to use other services for remote stations and absolutely refuse to give up my 950 links. I also have internet backup barix units in case the primary feed dumps off the air. With all the toys available these days, a good old 950 STL is still the best.
Click to expand...

It depends on where you are located and the situation as to what works best. Many major market stations have fiber end-to-end T1s that have outage times measured in seconds per year. They use T1 as the primary and 950 as a backup since some RF "hacker" can take a 950 system down. No matter where you are, backup(s) are good.
 
Redundancy is the key on anything. Fiber is great, but as one of our major local TV stations found out, it CAN be cut by someone digging. They were off for several hours during news-time. Even an SD RF link (easy for them to make that path) would have been a great option instead of simply "off". If Fiber or a T-1 was my primary, I assure you I'd have at least a good internet connection via WISP or a 950mhz link, or something. Putting all the eggs in the same provider or even landline/fiber based isn't a good idea.
 
Indeed, CC here has T1 (primary), 950 STL, AT&T program loop, and a network downlink. All input a switcher and any of the sources can be easily switched to air.
 
Even if it's some kind of unlicensed 5GHz radio, I would have SOME kind of backup for the main on air signal.

At one site I have no other option than a Tieline BridgeIT on the 3G network. Use 96kbps stereo for the backup and it works fine for that application. It only connects on loss of the main T1.
 
WNTIRadio said:
Even if it's some kind of unlicensed 5GHz radio, I would have SOME kind of backup for the main on air signal.
Click to expand...

Has any one ever used 5 GHz for any distance (10 miles or more) for primary on air audio? It just looks "too good to be true"?
 
Secondchoice, I have a 5.8 ghz link that is 20 miles long. This is now our backup feed, It was primary feed for a while. It also feeds internet to the tx site. It works very good, the only problem I have is the radio and antenna are built together and located several hundred feet up the tower. If lightning takes the radio out someone has to climb the tower to replace it.
When management wanted to try these radios I told them there was no way it would ever work. Sometimes it is nice to be wrong.
Ubiquiti Rocket M5 with the 30db dish on both ends.
I have a eight mile shot at another station that is the primary link to the tx site. Over a year with 100% up time. Same radios and antennas there
 
sounds like its stemmed from the same outage that affected most U-verse customers in just about all the southeast and midwest
 
There's something about comms in Cleveland. Maybe its the age of the prevailing infrastructure. I think that nearly every telco provider and ISP in the area has experienced some sort of large outage over the last couple of years.

-- Doc
 
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