Tech Notes from the Field

As I labeled my arrival at Day 1, this must be Day 2!

I would say it was busy on the floor, not like I’ve seen in the past, but definitely busy.  One social thing that stood out is the number of people that I have not seen in years popping out of nowhere.  Around every corner it was, “Hey!  Long time!  What’s up?”  Then it ran into conversations about things: catching up.  While talking with someone, another would show and next thing you have is a reunion.  Social networking at its best.

When we first walked in the door we stumbled right into the Tieline booth.  What a coincidence.  It is interesting to see people look at your badge and recognize you; then you get to meet people who you talk with on the phone.  Very cool.  We spent a little bit looking at Tieline’s new iPhone app.  Now this was pretty darn cool. Makes news gathering amazingly simple.  You can feed real time to your G3 over WiFi or 3G networks, or record and send later.  Talk about handy little gadget.

We looked at a couple of logger solutions, again.  This seems to be an ongoing thing with us.  For intuitive operations from an end user standpoint, I still like the OMT iMedia Logger.  Where the intuitive part comes is the front-end Websecure+ storage and distribution device.  As we have a number of “users” needing access to our skimmed/logged content, it keeps taking our logger down.  With a device like this, we would be able create user access and store the audio on a device designed to handle high traffic volumes without needing a separate software package to install on a user’s computer.

But, we did see, actually talk with others.  The Telos, or Axia, iProfiler shows promise, too.  Now this one does require a software “plug-in” on user computers to access the audio, but it would make for an easy transition for some users.  The iProfiler is fed using an Axia node, while the Profiler is a stand-alone box requiring sound cards.  We need anywhere from 12-15 mono sources at any one time and 3 stereo feeds along with that.  Crazy, eh?

I dropped by many of my normal contacts to meet and greet.  SAS, Econco/CPI, and DaySequerra.  We had a good meeting with Harris.  From what I get is iBiquity stuff is really not designed for real-world networks in terms of transmitter sites.  Network capabilities at sites vary greatly and in many cases is quite limited.  We did come out of the meet with a game plan to narrow even further any potential causes of trouble.  It will be fun to do this double and triple checking while building a new studio.

For Day 3, I plan on doing a bit more nuts and bolts digging.  Of course that is subject to more run-ins with people!  It is a shame I cannot stay an extra day to see the “toys” and technology that does not pertain to radio specifically, but does contain potential future applications.  Maybe I will sneak over to the south hall early.  Ha ha ha.

Enjoy!