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Why are we still using POTS broadcasts?

PTBoardOp94

PTBoardOp94

I took a jaunt to Indianapolis this weekend and thought it would be interesting to restrict my listening to the non-commercial band.

I happened to catch college stations WICR 88.7/Indianapolis, WGRE 91.5/Greencastle, and WHMD 90.7/Terre Haute all airing ballgames when I turned them on, and each had poor audio quality, even for a POTS broadcast. A lot of distracting HF noise in there. On my way back home, I sampled these same stations and they all sounded fine.

POTS technology has been in use since the time of Major Armstrong. Can't we go to something digital? At least get a 2 band equalizer in the audio chain to eliminate some of the HF? Are budgets really that tight? Might some equipment donations be in order?

Unsurprisingly, WFYI, WQRA, and WFIU all had very clean audio, all running syndicated programs at the time I listened.
 
Unfortunately sometimes there's just no other option. They probably don't have the kind of money to drop on a Comrex. Plus, sometimes one gets on site and can't get the codec to work for whatever reason (IP won't work due to firewalls, can't get 3G signal, can't make POTS codec work due to VoIP system on site), so POTS dial in it is, as opposed to not airing the game at all.
 
Whenever I'm in Terre Haute, WMHD is running jockless, with a computer serving up the music. What's the point?
 
Because POTS is still the cheapest and most readily available back haul system around. As wireless internet speeds up and becomes more reliable, you'll see a shift to that eventually.
 
Bengalsfan said:
Because POTS is still the cheapest and most readily available back haul system around. As wireless internet speeds up and becomes more reliable, you'll see a shift to that eventually.
Click to expand...

I don't understand why the sound quality being broadcast is often so much poorer than the POTS is capable of. It sounds like they're broadcasting by pointing a speaker at a typical poor quality cell phone on the transmitting end.
 
dfwrunner said:
Bengalsfan said:
Because POTS is still the cheapest and most readily available back haul system around. As wireless internet speeds up and becomes more reliable, you'll see a shift to that eventually.
Click to expand...

I don't understand why the sound quality being broadcast is often so much poorer than the POTS is capable of. It sounds like they're broadcasting by pointing a speaker at a typical poor quality cell phone on the transmitting end.
Click to expand...

Because people don't know how to set them up. I have used a couple of Comrex blue boxes as a back up STL and unless you knew it was on the air, you could not tell. They can pass full 15kc audio and there is no reason not to let it go as fast as possible on connection.
 
The Comrex LXTR is no longer being manufactured.
I realize they were a more economical solution, but if you are an an analog land line (there is no headoom on cell phones to support their compressed signal so it offers little or no gain if you're using a cell phone), they sound great, nearly as good as a Marti.
There is no replacement for the LXTR so nothing in that price range exists. We will be purchasing another POTS compatible compressor so I'll be looking for something similar to the LXTR, although Comrex dominates that market so the Blue Box (much more expensive) may be my only option.
Interesting thread, and one that's been discussed many times in the hallowed halls of our offices.
 
We utilize the Comrex Access for most of our remotes anymore. It provides a variety of connection options, but, in some places where it's not possible to get a reliable cell signal and the telephone line signal strength doesn't support the Access for a connection in that way, it's necessary to pull out the old Zercom Max-Z.

We will likely use it at Pike High School on next Tuesday for a basketball game where there is a POTS line, but there's no reliable cell signal or a phone line that can at least give us 12,400 kps out of our Comrex.

Hope that helps...
 
Jon Easter said:
We utilize the Comrex Access for most of our remotes anymore. It provides a variety of connection options, but, in some places where it's not possible to get a reliable cell signal and the telephone line signal strength doesn't support the Access for a connection in that way, it's necessary to pull out the old Zercom Max-Z.

We will likely use it at Pike High School on next Tuesday for a basketball game where there is a POTS line, but there's no reliable cell signal or a phone line that can at least give us 12,400 kps out of our Comrex.

Hope that helps...
Click to expand...

Even Freetown, a tiny town in the Hoosier National Forest in rural Jackson county has 3Mbps DSL now...:)
 
Even Freetown, a tiny town in the Hoosier National Forest in rural Jackson county has 3Mbps DSL now...:)
Click to expand...

That's pretty good, since they just got electricity last week. ;)
 
dfwrunner said:
Jon Easter said:
We utilize the Comrex Access for most of our remotes anymore. It provides a variety of connection options, but, in some places where it's not possible to get a reliable cell signal and the telephone line signal strength doesn't support the Access for a connection in that way, it's necessary to pull out the old Zercom Max-Z.

We will likely use it at Pike High School on next Tuesday for a basketball game where there is a POTS line, but there's no reliable cell signal or a phone line that can at least give us 12,400 kps out of our Comrex.

Hope that helps...
Click to expand...

Even Freetown, a tiny town in the Hoosier National Forest in rural Jackson county has 3Mbps DSL now...:)
Click to expand...

Well, Freetown is ahead of most Central Indiana locations that we broadcast from.
 
RDO said:
Even Freetown, a tiny town in the Hoosier National Forest in rural Jackson county has 3Mbps DSL now...:)
Click to expand...

That's pretty good, since they just got electricity last week. ;)
Click to expand...

Actually, that was sometime around 1938. I believe they're about to get their first cell tower though, woo hoo, my phone will work when I go home to visit. :)
 
Just like audio carts, E-V 635A mikes, Betacam SP and U-matic 3/4" videotape, POTS will never completely die! Go to any market at any size radio and/or TV station, and if the engineers are smart, you'll see any or all of the above ready to go in hot standby mode.
 
dfwrunner said:
RDO said:
That's pretty good, since they just got electricity last week. ;)
Click to expand...

Actually, that was sometime around 1938. I believe they're about to get their first cell tower though, woo hoo, my phone will work when I go home to visit. :)
Click to expand...

Woo hoo, the cell tower is up!!! (not functional yet at last check). They're movin' on up...
 
butlerguy03 said:
We use POTS for every broadcast because our school's phone system hasn't ever been updated. In fact, we just got the email this week that they have decided to splurge for voicemail and automatic extensions.

So....

we use this: http://www.jkaudio.com/remotemix-sport.htm with this: http://www.jkaudio.com/autohybrid.htm

It is OK quality and we won't bother to upgrade until the school does...it's just pointless.
Click to expand...

You could have the phone company install a temporary jack on the nearest pole outside (in a lock box)...that's usually pretty cheap.
 
butlerguy03 said:
We use POTS for every broadcast because our school's phone system hasn't ever been updated. In fact, we just got the email this week that they have decided to splurge for voicemail and automatic extensions.

So....

we use this: http://www.jkaudio.com/remotemix-sport.htm with this: http://www.jkaudio.com/autohybrid.htm

It is OK quality and we won't bother to upgrade until the school does...it's just pointless.
Click to expand...

Hey, an old phone system is more likely to work with a POTS codec. It's the new VoIP garbage that won't play nice with a Comrex.
 
mobilene said:
Whenever I'm in Terre Haute, WMHD is running jockless, with a computer serving up the music. What's the point?
Click to expand...

You have to understand, WMHD is at Rose Hulman. An engineering and technical school. The whole operation is run by a bunch of WAY smart computer expert kids. To them, having the computer sit there and run it all is better than a phone conversation that you would have to pay for by the minute, even better than Elvira or the Playboy channel. ;D
 
Like everybody's saying, "why fix what isn't broken?" Hey even the Komet hockey broadcasts on WOWO are on POTS. Even what they feed over the Internet is on POTS. That's the way the team wants it, and for years WOWO had a Marti feed, with a permanent antenna mounted on the Coliseum. (someone correct me if I'm wrong; I happened to see one up there once and based on where it was aimed I made an assumption.)

When I was doing games for CC's WJHS-FM we used Comrex into another school's phone line for away games, we used Martis if we couldn't run a long enough cord, and then we got the first era Cellcast (the big heavy honkin' box.) They all worked one way or another.

When it works keep with it until somebody reinvents the wheel.
 
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