Archive
First Post On Asus Transformer
We decided to deploy some tablets for work. Testing stage as we call it. IT guru JR chose these ASUS Transformers, so I get to test one, too. This led me to think about the applications I use for work. There are a couple that I just like and use on multiple devices. There is one that is the main reason we are testing the ASUS.
We use Google Apps, so the GMAIL app is the major winner. Email is the app of daily use, multiple times a day. We all know that. How much of you email is done on a computer today? We all seem to have smartphones, tablets, and i-Somethings.
The Messages App for text messaging is used too. How else can you get info in a a timely manor and in 160 characters or less and not disturb them with a phone call. Say what you will, but I find text messaging efficient over the phone call formality, especially if what you need is not need it now moment. That’s when the phone comes in the best.
Speaking of social media apps, I use TweetCaster for tweeting on Twitter. It allows me to post to Facebook simultaneously. Even though I do not use FB much anymore, it is there. The interface is nice. It is easy to use. I’ve tried HootSuite, but grew tired of it. I may try again because the first company that incorporates Google+ into the mix will win my business, at least to start. Google+, or G+, is my first choice of social media over FB, now. The G+ app is on all my devices. Rounding off social I have Foursquare which is just fun to use sometimes and I do have LinkedIn. This one is a good connection site and some of the groups do have interesting topics under discussion.
Productivity leads me to Evernote. How does anyone in the connected world not get by with this one. Sure I have Google Drive for documents and the like, but Evernote seems to be there for everything. Hmmm? Thus the “Ever?” With the desktop app and a web interface my notes are synced to all devices in a jiffy. I mentioned Google Drive. That is now getting more use as we expand to our mobile world. For me, I upload and sync important manuals since they all seem to be in PDF format today. That way if I’m at a transmitter site I have the latest information with me.
Now for a very big one that comes with the ASUS and I find almost indispensable now. It is called SplashTop. With the VPN connection, and soon to be a Flash version (yes we are beta testing), you can connect to your desktop from anywhere and operate it as if you were there. Very similar to Remote Desktop. Full control. All you do is install the desktop app to run in the background. Very cool, very useful. As for the VPN, as we use “legacy” Cisco concentrator JR discovered the one VPN app that actually seems to work properly called VPNcilla. It works. It’s easy. As we upgrade to Pix or other more modern devices, then the phones will get access too.
Now for a list of other apps I use:
DolphinHD browser. I find this one has worked the best in the smartphone and tablet world. I can even connect directly, yes, directly to my Nautel NV transmitters. I use this to connect to the web interfaces of my Burk ARCPlus remote controls. The new version 3 has a cleaner look and looks to be promising. I plan a write-up on the Burk soon.
Maps by Google is very useful, too. Locating sites and getting to where you need to go.
Under a folder I made named Utilities I have Ulysse Gizmos the BEST GPS compass ever. Used this many times and it is pretty accurate. Satellite AR for when I need to quickly spot a satellite for rough dish alignment. Intel’s CPU Decoder if you ever need to get specs on Intel CPUs. ElectroDroid when I need to cheat on some electrical thing be it simple calculation because my old brain doesn’t work any longer or need a quick pin-out on a connector. IP Calculator quick subnetting if necessary. RealCalc is a full featured scientific calculator. It even does RPN, so it feels like my HP calculator. I even have FuncGen, an audio function generator if I need quick audio for tests, sweeps, and various waveforms.
Any geek would not be complete without WolframAlpha. This one is pretty fun to use. I live in earthquake country so I have Earthquake Alert. My optional field of work would have been geology. Also we need our coffee, so yes, I have the Starbucks app. I use Pulse as a news reader.
I can go on. What useful apps do you have? I obviously have WordPress as I am writing on my ASUS right now using the app. Please share your discoveries.
As for this ASUS, I’ve had it 5 days. I have grown very attached to it this weekend. The optional keyboard that doubles as it’s case is great. The tablet itself is smooth and does what I need. You might say I’m digging it.
Device list:
HTC Thunderbold Smartphone
ASUS Transformer
B&N Nook Color, hacked with CM7 android so it works as a tablet.
Amazon Fire for books.
Apple iPad for the child and games.
Cheers!
Travels, Work, and More Work
Wow, it seems to be forever since I posted. Forgive that. I bet you expect juicy details on super secret stuff. Well, not exactly. Recently I did travel, and since being back I have been busy. Shoot, I was busy before the travel. Does work get in the way of vacation or does vacation get in the way of work? Will we ever know?
Vacation was great. Part of that was to visit the Elenos factory in Italy. I enjoyed meeting the crew out there and talking shop. What I saw was quite impressive and the dedication and passion behind the product is amazing. With that we may see Elenos become a player in the transmitter market, so stay tuned. From what I understand I may be receiving one to test. Did I mention they did win a Cool Stuff award at NAB this year?
Of course I get back from vacation, IT Dude goes on vacation. This always equals some trouble. In this case it is Marketron vs. Windows 7 and a Ricoh printer. After a whole week, we still cannot print from the new machines. They print locally, but not through Marketron. I think I am overlooking something that IT Dude will notice right off. That is the true difference of dealing with something day-to-day versus only on occasion.
Do I dare mention the Harris Flexstar? I should write a whole post on just this. Yes, I continue to have Exciter muting issues, though not as bad as before. To make a long story short, we know for a fact that the Flexstar cannot handle too much data. It bogs down and eventually chokes. The only way to recover from the mute is to reboot. I wired up my remote control to the Flexstar restart input. This is pin 13 on the Remote User Interface of the Flexstar itself. A contact to ground and the Flexstar will perform and cold boot.
I have been fine tuning my Burk ARC Plus installation and utilizing the AutoPilot program a bit more. Now if we can only get Burk to support SNMP within the ARC Plus removing the need for AutoPilot they may be on to something. In the meantime I have created a fine custom view that shows the basics of all my transmitter sites. Attached to the touch screen monitor, all it takes is a touch of the screen to execute a function like STL switching or rebooting the Flexstar exciter. In addition I am utilizing SNMP with my Eaton-Powerware UPS’s by adding a network management card to the UPS. Currently four are up and running and I monitor on AutoPilot input and output voltage, UPS load, time remaining, and battery charge level. As I learn more about SNMP I may have status notifications if a self test fails or whatever else I can find!
Maybe my next post will get into some dirty details. If there is a subject you wish to see covered, drop me a line.
Cheers!
PPM Qualifying
I know this may sound simple, stupid, but this turned out to be the best method for me to respond to the Arbitron request to make sure the PPM encoders are working. Record your off air audio on your computer and email it to them!
I am able to monitor in my office our stations’ air feeds, HD feeds, program feeds, etc. This came in quite useful yesterday when I finally got around to responding to Arbitron’s request. In the past we placed a phone by a speaker and stepped through each station. Not this time. I fed my computer, fired up Audacity, and recorded 5 minutes of each station. After I was done with the main encoder, I have remote access via my Burk equipment and switched to the backup encoders. Again, recorded 5 minutes for each station. When I was done I emailed off the recordings properly named for easy reference.
If you are running a logger and feeding it via an air signal, this is acceptable, too. Now you already have a recording, you just need to edit down to about 5 minutes, and email off to them.
I sent 128kbps mp3 audio files. A bit better quality than they request, but it definitely gets the job done and it beats wasting the time of two of us on a phone.
Any other tips? Let me know!
NAB Observations
Back from the NAB convention. It is always great to see people and see what is going on. Here are four observations from a list of many. What did you see, hear, or ignored?
1. Radio was slow. Lots of elbow room on the floor. No real “wow” factor items on the floor. I did see stuff to improve the plant, but with no money one can only wish. Seems once the subject of money came up no one wanted to deal with you. That is a shame as I am always looking to integrate items into capital projects.
2. Manufacturers selling analog only transmitters. I found it quite interesting the number of smaller market folks were looking at transmitters. They were not looking at HD, either. This was quite evident at the Nautel booth where they were showing the NV LT, an analog only version of the NV transmitter. I even stopped by and saw John Bisset at the Elenos Booth. Seems it is too expensive too license from iBiquity, both for manufacturers and end users.
3. GoPro booth was hopping. I could not miss this Booth as it was right next to the radio section. Oh, and I have a friend that works for them. I own a Hero 2. It is fun. The buzz around their booth escalated around 3pm at their drawings. The NAB decibel police even monitored what was going on.
4. Way cool interactive signage by Cisco and Verizon. Wandering the South Hall was interesting. We started at the upper level which seemed slow. I was looking at data delivery options, so I here’s up there. Maybe it was early, thus the lack of activity. Once downstairs we hit more crowds and happened on the Verizon booth. We talked to a Cisco Rep who showed us a great interactive display with a media player. What we saw is great for large office buildings and campuses, but we saw potential for clients. JR has medical clients so he immediately saw a unused there. Coupled with Verizon’s 4G LTE we saw potential display possibilitiiies for radio station lobbies showing live shots from remotes or a guest in studio.
I enjoyed meeting with everyone there. I can see how another day for me would have been worth it. I did not have time to talk with Orban or Omnia. Maybe next year I will take a different approach to the madness.
Cheers!
NAB 2012
I have been lacking on posts this year. Personally it has been tough with family issues culminating in the passing of my Dad. It adds to the lack of motivation. Now it is time to get back on track. A kick start: the NAB show is back! I’ve printed some floor maps this year and I have a list of 32 vendors I want to harass, I mean talk to and look at. All for various reasons from the obvious to the “what they He** would I want to look at them” is on that list. What are your agenda for this year?
1. Talk with those of which I still have some issues. Harris is one. Do they intend to make a new exciter that is a bit more reliable? Am I looking at having to budget for a new Exporter that may correct some of the issues? BTW, I received an email that specifically states that I “should have no need to move the equipment to the transmitter site,” so I hopefully am on track to eliminate or better manage my issues.
2. Telos: I am going to ask you point blank and face to face: Why do I have 2 Console Directors that just go to sleep and you guys cannot help with a solution? Only two. I am going to swap one out today with a different one just to see if the problem follows again, though I have done it before.. Gotta do though.
3. 305 Broadcast. A new distributor on the block. I figure I will see what they have to offer and how they compare or plan to compete with the likes of BGS and BSW.
The list goes on, but you get the gist. I will also just wander around aimlessly because I can. The largest road block to moving forward is money. No budget. I can plan and think and plan and think. Ouch, maybe not so much thinking!
Hope to see you there!
EAS and CAP
Here is the link to the FCC Federal Register: Review of the Emergency Alert System
It looks like I have some reading to do. Hopefully someone somewhere will know how to implement this crap. If you have any pointers we would like to hear!
HD Equipment Placement
Feel free to respond to this one. I should make a poll and get info that way, but I’m lazy, or not.
Where do you prefer to place your Exporter and HD equipment in general? Mine is at the studio. I have many issues with Harris, but none with Nautel. I have been asked, and I hate to admit it considering, to place the Exporter at the transmitter site. Of course they I will have to do another GPS installation, but that’s life.
Do you have any compelling feelings either way? If you would like I will post results after NAB.
Cheers!
Fiber Optics Information
Saw a tweet and a link to Brad Dick’s post on Fiber Optics. I found it a very good primer. Good information. Check it out here: Fiber Optics, Part I He posts through Broadcast Engineering.
We use fiber between our RioLinks and 32KD frames. You can purchase Plenum rated and multi-stranded combinations as necessary. Gepco is my first choice, but we have used Clark after a little lesson they learned. Amazing what pictures will prove.
I can’t wait to see Part 2 of his post.
Cheers!
Remote Controls: Burk Technologies ARC Plus
As you have seen tweeted over the last few months, I have installed and now tweaking our new remote control system. I decided to go with the Burk Technologies ARC Plus as it was a logical move from the existing ARC-16 system plus I was able to integrate components from the ARC-16. Moving over to an IP based system was not too bad, though I do have to wonder what others do for data at their transmitter sites. Well, here are some things that I thing you should be aware of if you are considering the Burk ARC Plus.
1. It works. That’s nice. Make sure you get the latest firmware if you do not have it yet. Right now that is version 2.3.0.5. It is up on their website: Burk>Downloads>ARC Plus. This takes care of a flash memory corruption, that if attacks, you end up having to send the unit back to the factory. I did not need a loaner, but be prepared. Since the update my boxes have been running well.
2. Tech support has been very good, though response can be somewhat slow. Based on severity response is quick, but for some of the fun I’ve had email and screenshots have helped resolve some stuff.
3. Networking and having sites see/talk with each other. Talking with Burk, about half of the installs request or require sites to communicate with each other. I do it for convenience. If I’m on one site I like to be able to see the others. Keep your network simple, and since the data rate is not a huge demand, not too many issues with busy networks. We even have an older Moseley LanLink to one site and it works 90% of the time. Also, configure the ARC Pluses correctly the first time. I actually got confused and did not bother worry about the configuration of the Public IP Address field in the units. I though, hey, I’m not using a public network, I”m on extended LAN, why bother. I learned quickly that the sites will not talk unless everything is configured properly. In our situation, the Public IP Address and the Private IP Address must be the same. Research your installation and configure accordingly.
4. Build that site list right the first time. As tech support told me, think bees and a behive. Build the first site to start the hive. From there add new sites (bees) to the hive. Do not connect to other sites and start the process over again. Start with one and you will be safe. I have four sites (ARC Pluses) along with a couple of ARC-16s attached. Everything talks well, thus my delving into automatic switching of STLs and eventually switching to our auxiliary site. See point #3 above about configuring them private and public IP addresses. It is very important to make these sites talk.
5. When using AutoLoad 2010 and all the Plus-X devices, make sure the latest definitions are downloaded for the devices. Again, those are available on their web site (see link above).
That is what you need to make these things work. Since my installation, Burk has introduced the Plus-X IP-8 adapter which takes the actual cable used between the IP-8 and ARC-16, eliminates the ARC-16 and now talks with the ARC Plus via IP. Confused? Simplified: Keep existing IP-8, remove ARC-16, add IP-8 Adapter. Ethernet cable on network, configure ARC Plus. No rewiring of the IP-8. I wish I had that as I still have 3 ARC-16s on my system. I’m looking forward to updating that portion over the next year, money pending.
Note that all channel assignments when using the ESI (Enhanced Speech Interface) are 3 digits. Since you can have up to 256 channels monitored on the ARC Plus, 3 digits are necessary. Alarm reports are 300 now versus using 30. Status is 350. Logging off is 999, not 99. As you can tell, if you can get connected via VPN and a computer, that is the way to go versus using the phone, but that functionality is there. I am just starting to use the hidden channel feature so will update this post when complete.
Logging with the AutoPilot 2010 is similar to the older AutoPilot. I am still not happy that I cannot print to a file a daily log for each site as a dialog box continues to pop up to confirm the print to PDF. This may be a function of the PDF printer I am using, but still an annoyance. I’m open to suggestions and thoughts. If and when I figure out what I’m doing I will update this post. Overall the reports are definitely in-depth and you can pick and choose what you want in the report. I’ve used this to change a log for a week to track down a potential issue. Didn’t find one, so back to my normal reports.
Overall I like what we have. Not sure how others compare to this, but I would say the complexity level is about the same among them. I like the fact that I can access each ARC Plus directly via ESI, web interface, AutoPilot, and as a backup via modem. I also like that I can have AutoPilot on my computer for quick access from home while the application running in the shop continues doing it’s business. I will follow up as I create more macros and delve into the Jet Flowcharts which is next on my list of to-dos. BTW, there is new firmware update coming out, but no date yet that will make macro and flowchart processes run based on status and limit changes. At the moment you need to configure a monitoring loop to notice these changes.
Hope this information is helpful. I will update accordingly as mentioned. I plan to write more about other network devices and SNMP. Stay tuned for a short post on how I configured my silence detection using the feature in the SAS 32KD.
Cheers!
Hell Week or Just Plain Busy
As promised a recap of a busy week. If you follow my tweets, your sure already know we had a busy week. Harris, RCS, AT&T, and the regular stuff just piled on.
My Harris Flexstar RF mute issues sprung up on me this week. It has been on hiatus for a couple of months and then an outage on Monday and two within 15 minutes on Tuesday. So, in answer to a phone call today, no there is nothing really to do but make sure the latest and greatest in software/firmware release is installed. If you do not have that, you will not get much in return from tech support. I updated the Flexstar to Exgine 4.40 and DSP to 8.33. Since this had to be done, I had to upgrade the Exporter to 4.3.1 and the Importer to 4.3.2. This now sets the clock on if I continue to have issues, and knock on wood I have not had an issue since the update. On that note I still need a good answer to why HD data should be able to knock me off the air? So if you have issues with your Flexstar, update it. Then document exactly what the issue is. Once you have all that ammunition, give tech support a shot and see what answers you get. Do not be surprised if you feel a bit helpless. The HTHD+ as an RF amplifier is great, they just need to fix the most critical piece, the exciter.
While transmitter issues were occurring we were hit with an RCS NexGen crash. All 3 station decided to play the game. Console control stopped, database communications became sketchy, and the whole system was just sluggish. No apparent reason. We noted it had to do with network traffic, so some box is flooding the network or we have a physical device that has an issue. On that assumption we changed out the brand new Cisco switch purchased from RCS with an old 1GB Dell switch used on the old DAD network. Everything began to run much more smoothly. IT and RCS check the switch and all seems good. We still have yet to switch back.
If this was not enough, concurrent failure of a T1 to a transmitter site happened. I was on the phone with AT&T when the Flexstar decided to drop off. It must have been a funny picture having me on the phone with AT&T while I was poking the remote control switching us to our Aux transmitter. Multitasking at its best. AT&T replaced a repeater and a snap-jack in the CO. No dispatch to the site. This particular CO seems to be having many issue of late. We seem to cycle through which T1 goes down. Annoying, but they were on it and problem is solved for now.
In addition to running around dealing with this, I still am working details on the Burk remote control system. I have the sites up and in theory they should all see each other. Reality is a different story. I can see one site from the shop, but not another. While at the “offending” transmitter site, I was unable to see the other sites from the ARC Plus. Here is the odd part. With AutoPilot I can see all the sites. I get readings and all the good stuff. With AutoLoad I can see all the sites. Even at the transmitter site I had to visit I was able to see all the sites. Why the ARC Plus does not see the others, and the site list is in it, is beyond me. I have an inquiry to Burk on that one. I am also going to contact Moseley to delve into a potential issue with the LanLink. I need something a bit more robust. A 6 mile shot should not be that difficult.
I can say at least I was busy and not bored. Mix this with home life and it was quite a week. I’m glad to be able to sit down and spew this out. If you have experience with any of the items discussed or have any items you wish to see a discussion, please drop a line, leave a comment, or give a call. Now let’s see what next week brings!
Cheers!
Tech Notes from the Field 