Tech Notes from the Field

Yup, still no good idea on a title.  Actually I really haven’t thought much about it!  There, the truth.  Mostly routine stuff again this week.  I like it slow as I can spend a bit of time relaxing and getting ready for whatever big thing that may strike.

Had our Telos Console Director go batty again.  Just doesn’t want to communicate with the Studio I/O.  Emailed Telos.  No response.  I know they are busy and have bigger things to worry about like marketing the Omnia processor or Axia studio systems.  I let it set for a few days and then reconnected.  It works again.  Hmmmm?  As a new test I placed an in-line power supply on that sucker with the thought that if I buffer it from the I/O we may see less trouble.  So far we are good this week.  Well, I should say no reports as the folks are pretty much trained to disconnect and reconnect at will.  We will not discuss the concept of using the Desktop Director through the console as this seems to go way over the operators’ heads. For those interested this issues has been with us for coming up on 3 years.  No solution has ever been found.  Very annoying.

AT&T bummed our remote control line again this week.  False alarms have stopped, so maybe they fixed it again.  Also spent some time checking and ISDN (yes they still exist) at a venue.  I replaced the block.  Have you tried to order ISDN recently?  It is nearly impossible with AT&T.  Lead time is 4 weeks.  Good thing we do not use ISDN much anymore.  IP is our main transport of remote audio now.

Had a timed relay replaced on the transfer switch at a transmitter site.  It works for the time being.  While that was done we dug a trench for conduit getting ready for a new STL line pull.  The landlord is preparing to “organize” the site’s STL dishes.  I’m looking forward to a less than 600-foot run and no more iso-coupler.

Sorry for the boring update.  Seems that the start of the year is follows the end of a year: slow.  I will give an interesting report of the new iMedia logger we just purchased as soon as it comes it.  Should be interesting to see how that goes.  After 8 years, the old system just can’t cut it any longer.  Why iMedia?  It is the system we currently have and we will be getting the Websecure feature.

Till the next update, have a good weekend.