• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Suggestions for a phone-in guest to sound in-studio

dreamlady

dreamlady

Hello!

My name is Lauri Loewenberg. I am a sleep and dream expert and I do 3-7 radio interviews from my home every morning. I'm interested in aquiring equipment that would help me sound more like I am in the studio rather than on a phone. I know the stations I currently do on a regular basis would appreciate the upgrade and I'm hoping this would make me more appealing to the big markets like LA and NY who have expressed interest in me if I can come into the studio. sigh.

I have been told the Comrex Hotline might work for me as well as an ISDN line. Unfortunately my local phone company doesn't deal with ISDN lines. Is there anything you can suggest or do I need to make a large investment into a home studio?

Any used equipment out there any of you are interested in selling?? I noticed there is now forum for buying and selling.

Thanks in advance and... sweet dreams!
 
www.audiotx.com

This devices uses IP so as long as you and the station on the other end have pretty good upload speeds it should sound fine. At 64kbps mono, voice sounds much better than through a phone line.
 
Lauri...

My suggestion would be to find out what the stations already have. Since most stations don't have an engineer on duty during the morning show it would be best to have a unit that the morning show personnel are familiar with.

ISDN would be my first choice. I know you said it wasn't available...That is becoming more of a problem...

My guess the Telos Zephyr and Telos XStream are the most popular ISDN units. There are two big problems with trying to use these units. One would be setup. You would need to know how the far end is setup. Both ends need to be the same. You can program those settings in the Auto Dialer. The other issue is making sure you are receiving a mix-minus. In other words they are sending you everything from the studio minus you. There is a delay which would drive you nuts...

A POTS codec like the Comrex Hotline would be my next choice. I would choose the Blue Box as it is capable of connecting to all of Comrex's POTS codecs (Hotline, Vector and Matrix)...Settings are not that important with the Comrex units as it more or less automatic. Mix Minus is necessary as the delay is present with these units as well...

I doubt many stations have PC based IP codecs like the audiotx setup. Cool idea though...

Bottom line is there are more chances for problems when using these types of devices. A good phone interface with a good mic would be most reliable...

Testing123
 
test123 said:
Lauri...

My suggestion would be to find out what the stations already have. Since most stations don't have an engineer on duty during the morning show it would be best to have a unit that the morning show personnel are familiar with.
Click to expand...

That's excellent advice. You need to get equipment that works with what the stations already have - not what they have to buy. You should be able to make contact with the engineers at your client stations either directly or through your other station contacts.
 
We have - and use - Telos ISDN gear, Comrex Matrix, Hotline, and Access, and the Tieline stuff. All work well and sound better than dialup. The Telos stuff is the gold standard, but if there's no ISDN, you are relegated to either an i.p. solution or one of the POTS CODECS. As the other posters note, I'd get whatever your client stations have already. Presumeably they know how to use it best. Depending how close the station is to you, don't overlook the ol' reliable program delivery radio - Marti being the best known maker.
Also, consider that if one of your clients is local, they might have ISDN service and a CODEC you can use to feed your distant clients. Everything is, after all, negotiable.
 
Hi Dream Lady

I hope I hear you sometime, that is a fascinating subject.

In most cases (but not all) when the people at the Telco say they no longer have ISDN they have no idea what they (or you) are talking about.

So, to find out if ISDN is *really* available in your area here is what I would suggest you do.

Got to the web site for your state utlity regulator (usually they are called the "Public Utility Commision").

There will be a section for Telephones and a file a complaint form you can fill out.

Write a friendly letter that includes your existing telephone number (they can use this to determine if it really is available in your area) and say that you have been told by your Telco's representative that "ISDN BRI service is not available in your area". Tell them you have been told this may not be true and wanted to find out for sure if you could get this as it is important to your business.

Within a few days you should have an answer.

If you CAN get ISDN then you will want to look into getting a codec as John mentions. They are available used if you call rental places or look on ebay.

Pleasant dreams ;)
 
Another alternative would be to use a program like Skype...which is what we use for our link to the tv station for weather broadcasts. Works well most of the time...and since it is just voice grade shouldn't be a problem.
 
For talk, ISDN is really overkill. 15kc POTS should do fine.

I have a client that has a couple of preachers call in to do their 30 minute shows from their pastoral offices. They both use a Comrex Blue Box. http://www.comrex.com/products/bluebox.htm
The Blue Box gives 15kc audio over analog phone lines. Sounds great.

There is also the Tieline Patriot. http://www.tieline.com/Tieline_04/codecs/LegPatG1.html
I have another client that uses this as their STL. No microwave path and Bellsouth has priced themselves out of the program loop business here.

I would check with the stations you do interviews with to make sure, but chances are, they will have the ability for you to dial into their studios with one of those two boxes. You can try the ISDN route, but again that is a bit overkill for just a short segment with just voice. Also, be advised that most telephone companies are trying to get out of the ISDN business. Therefore installation and startup costs are going to be high.
 
I would concur, I tested out skype yesterday and it worked great. Even when you send music through it the quality isn't terrible like most voice codecs. Multiple stations could be in at the same time with the conferencing feature. One thing to remember though each station would need to make sure their skype computer is wired into the board with a mix minus like a phone hybrid.
 
Question... one of the guys at work was mentioning some device that allows you to connect to two Internet connections, and port audio back and forth.

The example he gave was that the station could have a cable modem, and an employee could take his equipment to a location where there is internet connectivity, and send a signal back to the station.

I've never heard of that. Is he pulling my leg?
 
dreamlady said:
Hello!

My name is Lauri Loewenberg. I am a sleep and dream expert and I do 3-7 radio interviews from my home every morning. I'm interested in aquiring equipment that would help me sound more like I am in the studio rather than on a phone. I know the stations I currently do on a regular basis would appreciate the upgrade and I'm hoping this would make me more appealing to the big markets like LA and NY who have expressed interest in me if I can come into the studio. sigh.

I have been told the Comrex Hotline might work for me as well as an ISDN line. Unfortunately my local phone company doesn't deal with ISDN lines. Is there anything you can suggest or do I need to make a large investment into a home studio?

Any used equipment out there any of you are interested in selling?? I noticed there is now forum for buying and selling.

Thanks in advance and... sweet dreams!
Click to expand...

A telos xport works with a regular pots line and so long as the other end has a isdn telos xstream. The quality is amazing.
 
FredRichards said:
The example he gave was that the station could have a cable modem, and an employee could take his equipment to a location where there is internet connectivity, and send a signal back to the station.
Click to expand...

The Barix instreamer/extreamer combo would do this. There would be issues with latency.

Check out www.barix.com.
 
Re: Skype

When it is working well Skype is considerably better than phone quality. When workiing OK it is similar to a regular phone but with delay.

Your problem is that with anything other than a regular phone connectivity is a 2 way street.

If you go the ISDN route odds are very good you can talk to most, if not all, of your stations. This is because ISDN codecs are quite flexible. So once you determine what you will be using and configure your stored auto dials it becomes easy

If you go with a POTS codec then it will be crucial to find out what you stations are using. Probably some combination of Comrex, Telos and Tieline. THere is only limited compatibility between these boxes, so there is a good chance you won't be able to talk to you all of your clients.

When you get to something like audio-TX or Skype odds are all of your present and future clients will need to do something special just for you, and that may very well not be practical.

Assuming you want to add stations in the future, this problem will only be multiplied. These is why I suggested you explore ISDN in depth since that will work with the most clients!

Pleasant dreams ;)

RC

dreamlady said:
LA_Guy said:
Skype (www.skype.com)

It's free and can sound quite good in a skype/skype call.
Click to expand...

I do have skype. Hubby uses it to talk to our tech guy in Australia... it sounds better than a phone line on air??
Click to expand...
 
Here is a question no one has asked...

When you are on do you only talk with the talent or do you take questions from listeners that call in?

If you have to interact with listeners I would stick with the regular phone.

Any and all of the options that have been presented have some delay. Some more than others. The delay will cause problems.

t123
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom