Remote equipment

[stan928]

For remotes, like many small markets, we're using a simple mixer into a cell phone. The quality isn't quite horrible but I think we can do better. The expense of a Marti type unit puts it out of the question. Here's my idea: record breaks at the remote into a laptop and email, via Verizon/ATT/Sprint wireless card, completed breaks to the station for airing.
Does anyone have any experience with wireless cards? What size files can they handle?

 

[OKCRadioGuy]

Sounds like a great game plan for normal commerical remotes. ATT on their 3G stuff and Sprint on their EVDO would most definately get the job done for you. I've seen a speed test on ATT that exceeded 2000. What someone needs to come up with though is a real simple little program to idiot-proof the process. A nice little program with a record button and a send button that blasts it back to the studio where it just "shows up" on the other end and the jock clicks on it to play would be ideal.

I think, if the price was anywhere close to right, many stations out there would buy it.

Clear Channel and many others these days pre-record their breaks on-site via a Marti or whatever(many HD stations do because of the delay in monitoring). It wouldn't be much of a stretch to send a jock out with a nice EeePC laptop with a USB mic and a ATT 3G card with some software to do some pretty damn cool remotes.

 

[Sgeirk]

The only thing missing once you go HD with a remote is interaction with the talent...a real IFB would come in handy.

One jock I know, just takes his remote card and laptop out, records the breaks on the laptop, using a good mic...and shoots them off to the radio station via e-mail/mp3...and the board op puts them in the system.

I've seen one station running NexGen on site, with the on-air talent running their whole show in the field...with the marti receive as an input on the sat box. There's just no way I could ever bring myself to trying that without a human back in the studio. But, they do it all the time.

Sometimes just because you can do something without a human, doesn't mean you should.

 

[busyradioguy]

Wait, wait, wait... Doesn't this product already exist??? I think it's called tin cans and string. ;D

Sorry, I couldn't help it It just popped in there. :-[

Anyway I agree.... There oughta be something that is simple, stable and inexpensive, that could be used for live remotes.

 

[techie2]

I wish for that too. My worst problem is high school sports remotes during basketball season, when we are indoors and can't get a Marti shot. We have a Marti antenna at our "home" site, but on the road we are stuck with borrowed analog POTS lines if we are lucky, or cell remotes if we are not. Maybe I need to talk the IT nazis at the road schools into letting us borrow some bandwidth. Riiiiight....We would probably have better luck getting the facilities dept's to let us mount Yagis on top of each gym.

One site's gym has PVC tubes installed to an equipment room and then outdoors so they can run cables for a TV truck. I am getting tempted to string a very long XLR cable from the scorer's table to the mechanical room and then stash the Marti in there and put up the antenna outside.

 

[stan928]

Thanks for the replies and ideas. I looks like this could work.
The biggest problem with tin cans is they rust and you have to keep replacing them

 

[nmoore6676]

Thanks for the replies and ideas. I looks like this could work.
The biggest problem with tin cans is they rust and you have to keep replacing them

Use beer cans they're aluminum and more fun to empty. ;D

 

[SirRoxalot]

TeamSpeak

You might want to take a look at TeamSpeak. TeamSpeak is a VoIP client and server that gives you some control over issues like bandwidth, latency, audio quality, etc. You can set up your own server, and easily control access. It works on Windows and Linux, and there's a Beta version for Mac. Both the server and the client are quite small, and don't require a lot of resources.

You can try it for free to see if it will do the job. In fact, I don't think that you'll need to pay for a licensed copy for doing remotes, etc. If you do, the pricing is likely to be minimal.

Check it out at TeamSpeak.

 

[Chuck]

For remotes, like many small markets, we're using a simple mixer into a cell phone. The quality isn't quite horrible but I think we can do better. The expense of a Marti type unit puts it out of the question. Here's my idea: record breaks at the remote into a laptop and email, via Verizon/ATT/Sprint wireless card, completed breaks to the station for airing.
Does anyone have any experience with wireless cards? What size files can they handle?

We've done that quite a bit. The laptop has Sound Forge installed in it, and we either use a USB mic or a small battery powered mixer to get audio into the laptop. We do the bit, edit it on Sound Forge, and using a program such as "Go To My PC," we email it back to the station. The same program will allow us to access the automation, insert the remote break to play next, and go about our business.

It sounds very good and nobody really knows it isn't live. You can usually get it on the air in about five minutes after you finish recording the break, so it can be timely.

I am also considering using Voip for this falls' sports remotes. It tends to sound a lot better than a cell phone, and usually beats a dial up connection too. Skype to Skype calls have about 6 KHz bandwidth, which is quite adequate for the local football game. What scares me is I've had occasions where I've lost connectivity using my EVDO card. Sometimes it just disconnects. I haven't found too many football stadiums with a hard wired Internet connection, but it is becoming more and more common. We also do some local basketball remotes, and hardwired connections seem to be more common in these indoor venues. Still, it isn't 100%.

 

[techie2]

I think I'm going to start sniffing some of our indoor venues for Wifi access, but I'm not going to push my luck about getting wired drops. Most IT types don't take well to allowing strange machines onto their LAN. However, I figure if they are running open Wifi it's fair game.

The other problem is figuring out how to remote control the other end, as we do remote control via DTMF decoder on the phone line right now with no board op at the studio.

 

[Chuck]

The other problem is figuring out how to remote control the other end, as we do remote control via DTMF decoder on the phone line right now with no board op at the studio.

Try "Go to my PC." It works.

 

[techie2]

I've got VNC on the machine, firewalled behind a Linux machine so that all access must be passed through an SSH tunnel. I'm hesitant to leave any sort of "mission critical" computer open to the Internet.

 

[Chuck]

I've got VNC on the machine, firewalled behind a Linux machine so that all access must be passed through an SSH tunnel. I'm hesitant to leave any sort of "mission critical" computer open to the Internet.

I had VNC on our automation computer for a while. It was fire walled behind a Linux machine as well as a second firewall in the router. There was also Zone Alarm on the actual machine. We got hacked big time. It was a real mess.

Using "Go to My PC," we've had no problems, although I suggest shutting it off if you don't anticipate using it. There is no point in leaving the door open if you aren't using it.

 

[gunterm]

With the proliferation of people leaving their Wifi wide open, I've often wondered if anyone has tried this: get one of those Dish Wifi antennas and scanning around you for a good signal to latch onto. A friend of mine that uses dish wifi antennas point to point says you can get miles of range out of just a regular 20mW output...