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WVRC4 is it worth the hassel?

K

krush99

Hey everybody.

I've been considering upgrading our transmitter remote control.

I've been looking hard at the SICON 8 by circuitwerkes. I've also kept my eye on the Broadcast Tools WVRC4.

Is the WVRC4 a total pain to program? What does the web interface look like? Does it work well on an iphone?

It's a single FM transmitter site, so I don't need a lot of inputs/metering.
What would you go with? I've got a 5.08 software version Sine Systems RFC-1B

Thanks
JR
 
Parallel the WVRC4 with the Sine and use it for web browser monitoring. The touch tone interface is far better on the Sine. Used to pair Sine's with ARC-16's all the time.
 
It is easy to program. The web interface seems to be Java, which takes a few seconds to load up after you have connected. I hate to wait, so I wish it popped up faster. The display is easy enough to read. Anyone, including non technical people, should be able to figure it out. You can label the various indicators and switches any way you want, so if it is hard to interpret, it is probably your own fault.

I have had instances where it has "forgotten" it's IP address. This seems to be the result of nearby lightning strikes. It is quite inconvenient, but you can still access it through a serial port to reset it. Other than these minor gripes, I've been a happy camper.
 
If it's like the Site Sentinel 16, you'll do fine as long as you're a whiz at Port Forwarding (I'm not). Had to call in an IT guy who fiddled with the router for 45 minutes before he got it right (he finally gave up and set it to DMZ). But once it's set up, it's pretty cool to keep an eye on your transmitter from anywhere via you smartphone.
 
If you're going to keep the Sine for dial-up, why not use a Web only product to suppliment the Sine instead of paying for a feature that you won't use? Broadcast Tools makes some and so do we and they're all less expensive choices.
 
Kmagrill said:
If you're going to keep the Sine for dial-up, why not use a Web only product to suppliment the Sine instead of paying for a feature that you won't use? Broadcast Tools makes some and so do we and they're all less expensive choices.
Click to expand...

Who is "we"?
 
Bengalsfan said:
Who is "we"?
Click to expand...

CircuitWerkes. We make one called the SiteSentry4 and there's a 2 channel version as well. Broadcast Tools makes the Site Sentinel 4. There may be others out there as well. I haven't looked recently.
 
Web-based remote controls are so much easier for the end user to use it's not even funny. We switched out to Sicons a while ago and have never looked back. In our case we prefer to plant a computer at the site with their software on it and VNC into it. With a VNC app on our iPhones and the real vnc licnesed (encripted) program on the transmitter computer, we get meters and full control. If the computer fails, we can fall back to the pda web interface. We also have a phone line for the unit to call out it's alarms. We found that the way the Sicon sends out emails to be not as reliable as we'd like it to be. It won't do SSL itself (at least the version we have) so we have to use the computer's email client (outlook express) to send out email stuff. In our case just getting a phone line and having redundancy makes the most sense.
 
SSL takes a lot of horsepower to run. It's also built into the TCP stack so the Webserver has to have the SSL functions incorporated for it to work. In the case of many products, SSL is just too big to fit on an embedded processor and leave room for the intended functions. That's why you don't see it very often on small Web enabled products.
 
Ahhh.. That makes sense. So, I guess the real question of the week is what free mail service do you recommend with the Sicons to just send email alerts out? Is there one that can be used without all the SSL stuff? I'd just as soon eliminate having to use the computer's email client to send alerts. :)
 
There are some free mail services out there which use standard unencrypted connections. I have not tried any of them recently and most are paid services that charge monthly or yearly fees to use SMTP, so I don't feel qualified to make a suggestion at this time. Maybe someone else has explored these services and can chime in.

Times are changing with low cost, high performance, 32 bit processors flooding the market from a host of suppliers. When we add hardware-based SSL to our products we plan to make the SSL capable Webservers an upgrade option for most products, so one idea would be to just sit tight a while longer. I anticipate that, in a few months, there may be an upgrade option for the product that will do what you want. Then you'ld be able to use free, SSL encrypted, mail servers like Gmail.
 
Kmagrill said:
Bengalsfan said:
Who is "we"?
Click to expand...

CircuitWerkes. We make one called the SiteSentry4 and there's a 2 channel version as well. Broadcast Tools makes the Site Sentinel 4. There may be others out there as well. I haven't looked recently.
Click to expand...

Ah, OK. I had no idea you worked for CircuitWerks and had seen you refer to "we" on a previous occasion. ;)
 
Bengalsfan said:
Kmagrill said:
Bengalsfan said:
Who is "we"?
Click to expand...

CircuitWerkes. We make one called the SiteSentry4 and there's a 2 channel version as well. Broadcast Tools makes the Site Sentinel 4. There may be others out there as well. I haven't looked recently.
Click to expand...

Ah, OK. I had no idea you worked for CircuitWerks and had seen you refer to "we" on a previous occasion. ;)
Click to expand...

I believe he actually owns CircuitWerks. I am quite amazed, but pleased that he has been so helpful with a competitors product. I have several CircuitWerks devices in daily use. They are a class act.
 
Yeah. They offer real customer support when calling too. That was a huge determining factor in going with the sicons. I have been responsible for the purchase of seven units so far (three at my station and four at contract stations), and I'll be adding at least four more this year. We used to have VRCs at our station. I have one left. I'll be never so happy to dump it. I'm just waiting around for a wireless internet company to finish their contract with us and move on the tower. Then we will be ordering one there too. Burk wanted 500 dollars just to upgrade my software to the newer version so that they'd continue to give me support. I opted to spend 940 dollars and get a real upgrade. I have been extremely happy that I did.
 
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