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Streaming remotes from a laptop
- Thread starter Chuck
- Start date
Goran Tomas said:
Goran,
GSM Codec equipment is now worthless, thanks (or should I say no thanks) to Cingular and T-Mobile for discontinuing Circuit Switched Data technology on their cell phone service
R
Last year we were given a VHF Marti system, which I took to Mr. Marti in Cleburne, where his technician restored it to original specs for a very reasonable price. We've never used it though. I know where I can get a UHF version as well, probably very reasonably. Either would be great for home games, but it doesn't do much for away games. We have a dedicated POTS line in the local stadium, which the school provides for us. Although not Hi-Fi, it is acceptable. I've heard quite a few AM stations that sounded worse than this phone line after it is EQ'd a bit. (We're FM). It's the away games that are the real problem, and the also ones that more people listen to. The Marti doesn't have that kind of range.
Still I think there must be a simple way to stream from a laptop, and use a phone line (if you can get one) for the time that you can't get an IP connection. I suppose you could stream from a Barix Instreamer into the public Internet. They aren't very expensive, costing a lot less than just the software for most other approaches that have been mentioned.
Still I think there must be a simple way to stream from a laptop, and use a phone line (if you can get one) for the time that you can't get an IP connection. I suppose you could stream from a Barix Instreamer into the public Internet. They aren't very expensive, costing a lot less than just the software for most other approaches that have been mentioned.
I set up a remote broadcast using 802.11g, a laptop, and the DSL at the concert venue. I used Skype instead of Windows Media Encoder - it sounded good, but had real issues with latency. Stopped twice or three times an hour to buffer too.
Sounded a lot better than Marti, and light years ahead of POTS. My boss still thought it sounded good. :grin:
Sounded a lot better than Marti, and light years ahead of POTS. My boss still thought it sounded good. :grin:
IF you have to do stuff out of range, Tieline POTS technology is the best way to go IMHO. There's just the grief associated with getting a good dedicated line to use or installing one. Tieline would be the best way to fly out of town as it's likely the most reliable way. Buffering on live radio isn't fun!
Don't be afraid of that VHF Marti! If you're in rual market radio, it'll kick butt for you. Actually VHF has more range. It's just that there's very few frequencies available to use so it's less useful for us bigger market guys in many cases. Man-made noise has a tendency to bother it a bit more too. VHF can get some seasonal skip problems that are rare but do happen occationally. I wouldn't shy way from it if you're out in a smaller town though. It's good stuff, especially if you're reciever antenna site is pretty low.
Don't be afraid of that VHF Marti! If you're in rual market radio, it'll kick butt for you. Actually VHF has more range. It's just that there's very few frequencies available to use so it's less useful for us bigger market guys in many cases. Man-made noise has a tendency to bother it a bit more too. VHF can get some seasonal skip problems that are rare but do happen occationally. I wouldn't shy way from it if you're out in a smaller town though. It's good stuff, especially if you're reciever antenna site is pretty low.
I agree...I have been struggling to find a better solution for our sports remotes. We did Marti for several road baseball games (17 mile shots) with good results. Looks like we'll be doing the same for our home and road football games with the exception of 2 or 3 which will be out of range. If we're out of range, it's analog POTS if we can get it, or cell phone via the headset jack if we can't.
The real struggle is finding a way to handle basketball season. We can't "burn through" a gym wall and don't have a 2-watt unit to make the hop to a vehicle parked outside. Even with us being in a metro area, some of our road schools have no cell phone reception inside the gym and we've had to spool out phone cable to a coach's office or classroom to make a POTS call with the Zercom.
Maybe if someone drops $8k in our lap we can get one of the EVDO card units.
The real struggle is finding a way to handle basketball season. We can't "burn through" a gym wall and don't have a 2-watt unit to make the hop to a vehicle parked outside. Even with us being in a metro area, some of our road schools have no cell phone reception inside the gym and we've had to spool out phone cable to a coach's office or classroom to make a POTS call with the Zercom.
Maybe if someone drops $8k in our lap we can get one of the EVDO card units.
OKCRadioGuy said:
Re: Use Skype-it's FREE!
I do have one of the Samson USB hand held mics, which works pretty well for "quick and dirty." For most users, it really needs a foam windscreen, but other than that it is OK. I've used it to record directly into a laptop (using Sound Forge - but anything will work). Using some remote desktop software, I can then transfer the audio file to the automation computer, and stick it in the play list to air whenever I want. With an EVDO wireless Internet card, it allows us to do "almost remotes" from just about anywhere. It does have an advantage that you can do a quick edit to delete anything objectionable, boring or just plain stupid. The down side is it is not live and part of the magic of doing a remote, especially if money is involved, is the appearance of doing an actual broadcast from your sponsor's location. Of course sports need to be live too.
Thanks for the tip about Skype. Sometimes the best solutions are the really simple ones.
I didn't realize that Skype could deliver that kind of frequency response. I guess I'd better look into it.LA_Guy said:
I do have one of the Samson USB hand held mics, which works pretty well for "quick and dirty." For most users, it really needs a foam windscreen, but other than that it is OK. I've used it to record directly into a laptop (using Sound Forge - but anything will work). Using some remote desktop software, I can then transfer the audio file to the automation computer, and stick it in the play list to air whenever I want. With an EVDO wireless Internet card, it allows us to do "almost remotes" from just about anywhere. It does have an advantage that you can do a quick edit to delete anything objectionable, boring or just plain stupid. The down side is it is not live and part of the magic of doing a remote, especially if money is involved, is the appearance of doing an actual broadcast from your sponsor's location. Of course sports need to be live too.
Thanks for the tip about Skype. Sometimes the best solutions are the really simple ones.
IMHO Skype seems like a somewhat logical choice, for AM radio use, given the 8 kHz limit. This considers the fact that POTS Codecs can get closer to 15 kHz, which is a little more ideal for FM remotes.
I still think TieLine's VOIP system looks more promising, especially if you are b-casting from an area with WI-FI internet access. We're supposed to look at this system for KEOM, this summer. It will be interesting to see how it works and how it sounds.
R
I still think TieLine's VOIP system looks more promising, especially if you are b-casting from an area with WI-FI internet access. We're supposed to look at this system for KEOM, this summer. It will be interesting to see how it works and how it sounds.
R
Robert Bass said:
8 kHz would probably be a huge improvement for most people in my market, even on FM. It's not Dallas. The standard around here seems to be dial up POTS analog. A screaming 3 kHz bandwidth. With EQ and some processing I've been able to make it sound better than most AM stations in the area, although we're on FM. The audience doesn't seem to have any problem with it. I've never had a complaint, but I'd like it to sound better.
8 kHz voice only would be a radical improvement. Very few stations in the market would sound as good.
Robert Bass said:
I tried Skype today. It sounds amazingly good. Much better than I thought it would. The next problem is using Skype on our Alltel wireless card is a violation of Alltel's Terms of Service. I guess they don't want you making free phone calls since they make their living by billing you for making calls on their system. I can understand that. I'll bet other cell carriers have similar restrictions.
If you could get a wi-fi or wired internet connection at the remote site, it might be a great way to do remotes.
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