Tech Notes from the Field

Are we losing our vision?  Are we not looking forward?  Forward: Part I.

All we hear is “do not spend money.”  All we hear is “can we doing it cheaper?”  We make due to keep our stations on the air.  That is all we do.  A live broadcast here, a broken button there, and the spilled coffee.  All parts of our daily lives, but how many of us take the opportunity to move forward? Even though we do not have the money, do we take the time to look on how to improve our systems we currently have and when the time does come, are we prepared?  It seems I run out of time to make my lists to submit for another budget.  I must improve on this so I can move forward.  How do you move forward?

I discovered recently that our Lanlink (Moseley) is “outdated”.  Purchased by my predecessor only 3 years ago, it was never implemented to its fullest due to bandwidth limitations.  It was never used for telemetry.  It sat there, stagnant.  A simple call and a question and I find out the bandwidth can be doubled by purchasing an upgraded radio.  If I knew this, it would be in the budget, but it is not.  Will I drop it?  No.  I can use it.  Is it the best system for what we do today?  No.  Until we can make the case we need to use what we have, so in this case a backup segment.  Slow, but useful.  There is always room to improve.

Audio over IP is everywhere today.  Some systems use it as their main backbone and others use it as an extension of their existing, proven systems.  Bandwidth is the limitation.  How much can we squeeze through this pipe?  How much are we willing to give up in quality to make it happen today because we are the first?  There are webcasts on audio over IP (AoIP).  Hit This Week in Radio Tech as Kirk Harnack  talks with engineers who live this stuff every day, and learn what we do.  Almost all of these fall during times I cannot “attend” and what do we do, AoIP!  We do it successfully, everyday.  (Good thing they all have sites for replaying and reviewing.)  I am now testing and evaluating a new AoIP box.  Will this be the next STL?  Can it be used in conjunction with existing STLs?

Do you keep looking for room to improve?  Do you give suggestions to manufacturers on what you would like to see or use?  Do you look or do you wait?  How does the NAB convention help or hinder your decisions?  Where do you think this industry is going.  My thoughts are coming….

Cheers!

Coming soon:
Forward: Part II
A different line on a similar topic.