Archive
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 Convention Is Upon Us!
I sit here gathering up my “notes” and listening to my Blues channel on Pandora; NAB is around the corner. No way, it is here! I leave tomorrow! Wow. I have an agenda. The company has an agenda. The show has an agenda. My job is to make them all mesh. Of course it will not prevent me from doing some “vendor disruptions”.
I need to visit vendors regarding remote controls. Burk, Audemat, and Davicom come to mind. Any other suggestions? I’m familiar with Burk. I like the concept and white paper by Audemat, though some reports from the local boys across town will curl your hair. Davicom I’ve seen via web meeting and should be usable. How far do I want to go? This could be fun.
We will attempt to crash the NexGen, so be prepared RCS. We like to dig and we want to push buttons; simultaneously. We did this to WideOrbit and they passed. Others failed in an endless loop in the past, so maybe everyone is robust compared to then. Should be fun.
I will be at the NUG (Nautel Users Group) on Sunday. Hey, that app you posted in the Waves newsletter does not work through VPN. I look forward to seeing what’s new and how things are. I also want to see the advanced AUI presentation.
To bad Verizon won’t be there. Maybe even HTC and Samsung. No VPN through hotspots? NAT issue? Come on, now. How do we run our stuff securely, leave it on an open network? Security first, people. If WiFi is available on the floor or nearby, I will be happy to show you a VPN connection w/VNC to my Nautel transmitters on an eReader, a.k.a. cheap tablet.
I will be talking with SAS (Sierra Automated Systems) regarding my system and integration with our next automation system being mandated by the company. (I’ll elaborate later, and will be a subject of review) I have a studio upgrade coming.
Tieline will get a visit. I see a new box and they did not send me one to play with. Does that mean I can break it at the show? Also I noticed an application to manage the Tieline remote gear. Well, where is it? I know I have 8 boxes I could manage. I like pushing updates. I also like to add and subtract profiles as necessary. Let’s have at it! Oh, and where is the Android app?
I will visit Sage and ask to tear about the Digital Endec. EAS and CAPS is coming and we are to upgrade this year anyways. Just a few questions and a look at the box. This is the one we have decided on.
I’ll visit with Studer as they want to meet with me regarding consoles. This is not a formal thing, but would be cool if it led somewhere. I am quite happy with my SAS Rubicons and SLs. If it leads to anything, it is design, like I know anything about that; I install and make ’em work.
It just piles up. I notice a hard time for Audemat. Hopefully we are discussing remote control and not that stupid Golden Eagle box. I had to reboot that thing 3 times yesterday just to get diversity delay readings! Ouch. The multipath at the studios isn’t much help either.
I think I will swing by Harris and tell them that my Flexstar dropped off once again without any reason. Once in 1 year is a major improvement! Of course a week after that occurred I get an email talking about their new transmitters. WT>>>> I have a “young” transmitter, I cannot get another. There is other competition out there! 😉 (See my article in the Waves newsletter….) I want to see the STL solutions provided by these guys, too. This means I will be visiting Moseley, too. I have Moseley and Intraplex.
Gosh, I just remembered I wanted to look at some audio test gear and modulation monitors that work. The ones I have are in a word, worthless. They will make good air monitors for HD, though.
I will hit the usual suspects as time permits. I have a lot to do with only 2 days on the floor. I’m a bit disappointed I may not get to see interactive and video. I want to delve into some of that and see what ideas I can come away with.
Hope to see you all at the show! Walk up and smack me if you wish to talk.
Cheers!
Phone or Office-mate?
The two year plan was up. Wow, I have had the Blackberry Bold that long? Usually I will break a phone within a year. I went through 3 Blackberry’s in 6 months once. This time we decided to jump to 4G. The decision was to try the new HTC Thunderbolt.
The bottom line is I like it. Nice screen size. Quick. Touch screen is one of the best I’ve user. The list of applications on the Android Market keeps getting better. At this time I can do pretty much all my work on this device. Will I is the other question. Oh, did I mention the 32GB microSD card that comes with it?
After a week of poking around I still like it. I just downloaded a Mind Mapping app to try. I started using a desktop app and this one is claims compatibility. This post is being typed on my device. This gives me the feel of the keyboard and I can check the auto correct feature. So far I like it better than the Apple key pad.
Technically speaking it is fast. 4G wireless and WiFi keeps you connected. It does drop to 3G when 4G is unavailable. It uses WiFi over wireless when available. We did discover, and Verizon is checking it, is what I call wireless confusion. I have gone to a place where both WiFi and wireless are available and the device indicates all good, but I receive a “no data service” available. The trick we use to break this confusion is to with to “Airplane Mode” and the back. As I said Verizon is working on that.
We are experimenting with the WiFi hotspot. We have used tablets, computers, and an iPADs for testing. Surfing and basic stuff works well, but we did find an issue: VPN connections through the hotspot.
A VPN tunnel is created, but we cannot do anything across it! No VNC. No telnet. No ping. Needless to say, Verizon is working on that. I believe they are quite surprised at that finding.
The other thing that bugs me is the VPN client that is on the device. It does not connect to Cisco VPN concentrators! What is up with that Android folks? Apple can do it, so what’s your problem? In either case I still need native Flash capabilities. Apple won’t do it. Android claims it can, but I cannot get to the device I wish to control to test it! Crazy.
Overall I really like the Thunderbolt. It should make Apple a bit squeamish. As I learn more I will pass along my findings.
Weekly Update 1/28/2011
Once again another week winds down. No major work is planned on Fridays. How about you? Do you start anything new on a Friday?
Anyways, we had a good week. We attacked our first Nautel NV20 modification. Having the earliest boxes off the line, we get to do field modifications to match the current generation of transmitters. Ours are now two years old and running great. The modifications this week are the AUI/controller cooling fan and the PA modifications. If you have a box without the PA modification, definitely contact Nautel and get the instructions for it: IS10001 is the document number. Our DC-RF efficiency as indicated on the transmitter went from 56% to 70%. We dropped the PA volts down from 45.7V to 33.8V. Even the controller ambient temperature dropped from near 38C to 27C. I cannot wait to take care of the second transmitter.
We did a real world “test” and live segment using the Tieline Field Unit and a new Verizon LTE modem. We purchased a CradlePoint CTR500 3G/4G router and downloaded beta software “engineering release” for the unit. The USB modem supplied by Verizon is the Pantec ULM290. I tweeted earlier in the week, or was that last week, during a bench test we reliably connected the Tieline at 192kbps and took data hits based on movement and proximity to the antenna. Otherwise it was rock solid. In the real world, we ran the same 192kbps. Again one data hit during the segment. We were in a crowd of people smashed into a burger place. Nice and clean with little latency on the network: 60ms. Couple that to the Tieline encoder latency of 70ms and you have a winner. 3G uses the latency ranged from 250ms to over 1s at times. We will continue to look into this as the future of remote, live broadcasts is changing rapidly and the need for a licensed RPU is becoming less of a requirement. Then again, in our city and RPU is only good if you have many receiving points. Terrain is a killer!
A note to Tieline: Upgrade your USB interface to allow a direct connection with a USB modem for LTE! Built in would be real nice, as they say. Maybe even create a little WiFi hot spot with your device to route talent laptops with built-in QOS to favor the broadcast stream. Just a thought. I know, it’s only money!
I checked in with a subcarrier client. It is a shame they cannot get some cleaner equipment. Anyways, a basic clean up job eliminating the need of a second mixer with poor mic-pre’s. I told them to retire their main mic and they came up with an SM58 which actually sounded much better than the old SM7 that was falling apart.
Ending the week with a Radiothon for St. Jude’s Cancer Research Center for Children. What a great cause. I love our SAS and the ability to create the “remote” from our conference room. We aren’t like certain unnamed (CCR) companies that have a “performance” space. We just aren’t big enough.
Next week I look forward to talking with Studer and the product development manager to discuss, of all things, consoles. Should be interesting. Anyone else ever volunteer to spread knowledge? It is rewarding. It is not always about money. Be a good guy sometime.
Have a safe and trouble free weekend!
Weekly Update: 1/14/2011
I am going to attempt weekly updates with detailed posts on those things of interest. As most weeks are pretty mundane, weekly recaps seem to be the best. This week is no exception with the added twist of politics and a day with LTE.
The daily grind stuff is like an ATS (automatic transfer switch) service at the transmitter site. I discovered that it was not switching back to commercial power once restored. I sent the model number and pictures to the company that does the service; they send a tech who did not know the model number or device he was to work on until he saw it. He determined it is a bad timing relay, and of course it needs to be ordered. Part two of the service comes when the part comes in.
The FUN, yes capitalized, was our day with Verizon (lunch), and the USB LTE (4G to those who like buzz words and terms) device and prototype LTE router. After we got back from lunch we jumped on the test bench and connected our Tieline Field Unit to the router. We ran wirelessly at 192kbps! With 3G we were only capable of 33.6 to 38kbps reliably. Now that is an improvement. The item I noticed right off was the latency when locked in was 60ms! With 3G we saw a wandering latency from 500ms to over 1sec! We saw upload speeds approaching 5Mbps and downloads at 12Mbps. Now I must add that no one is really on the LTE network, but we were impressed. The one thing we did notice as we were testing within the confines of the building that as I moved near the antenna of the device we experienced some data hits. So, the speeds are there, you just need reliable reception to maintain. I bet outside without any interfering factors will make this thing fly real well. With a little tweaking of the pre-correction, I foresee some good times. Tieline: Create a way to connect this device directly to a USB port and you have a winner right now.
The political game of business is always fun. I do not take kindly to threats; yet, the third-party company is known to play this way. I kissed and made up with the part that is actually doing the work. It involves and STL move/change. I am wary of the 5dBm margin calculated by Comsearch. If they are a true engineering company this would concern them, too, but I suspect anything that comes under 0dBm of interference passes in their book. I do have the word that the installing party will correct any issues, so we are all playing nice. In our crowded microwave market, and whose isn’t, we try to play as nice as possible.
Next week a little trenching and routine work. Soon some Nautel NV modifications (with full reports) and maybe some thoughts on processing. Have a great weekend!
4G, LTE, WTF
Verizon announces 4G rollout, but are any of these US systems really 4G? | ZDNet
So, is there really 4G networks? I saw a Verizon presentation and they call it LTE. Long-term. That is a good cover-up to “we will be expanding and this is expandable”. I look forward to it as the speeds advertised are compelling, but I remain skeptical until the system is rolled out. I really like this article as it references the ITU-R: “According to the ITU-R standard none of these current LTE, HSPA+, or WiMAX network technologies are truly 4G systems”. So, does 4G really exist? I am still not sure. “4G systems are supposed to support data transfer speeds on the order of
100 Mbps and the areas where we are just starting to see this is in
Japan and parts of Europe.” Have you seen 100Mbps on your cellular data network?
I look forward to the day of speed. I know the kids are too so they can get their music, videos, and send their pix and videos faster.
Tech Notes from the Field 