3G Broadband Cellular Wireless Freedom

The days of calling a telco to run an ISDN or POTS line weeks in advance of a remote broadcast are over. Now you can deliver reliable wireless FM quality remote broadcasts from wherever you can get a cell phone 3G broadband signal.

With a Tieline G3 Commander Field codec (or iMix G3) plus a wireless Tieline 3G module and a portable battery, you can deliver 20kHz mono, dual mono or stereo broadcasts from wherever you’re standing without any wires.

Tieline 3G enabled codecs are revenue generators. Your sales people can sell many more remote broadcasts and advertising packages to customers and you don’t need to worry about what you have to connect to on-site.

The secret to Tieline’s superior audio, high reliability and low delay over wireless IP broadband networks is the use of specialised algorithms that have been engineered to manage lossy networks plus a tailored combination of IP congestion management and forward error correction strategies.

You can trial it free right now. Call and order your free wireless demo codecs today.

1. What products do I need to get connected at the remote site? 2. What products do I need to get connected at the studio? 3. Useful information for getting the best results. 4. 3G Data Usage Table

Christian Vang Clear Channel St. Louis Chief Engineer on 3G Wireless Cellular Broadband

Bob Boxer, Engineer and John Hurni, Chief Engineer for WMVP-AM, ESPN Radio on Tieline IP

1. What products do i need to get connected at the remote site?

There are 3 options for getting connected from the remote site:

The Tieline dedicated 3G module slots neatly into a Commander G3 field codec or Commander G3 Studio Rackmount codec or an Imix G3 codec. The module supports the two main 3G protocols. Choose from a HSDPA/UMTS//GSM module or an EVDOrev2/EVDORev1 module. For US customers, Sprint and Verizon support EVDORev 1 and 2 and AT&T/Cingular support HSDPA/UMTS/GSM

It is capable of making both 3GIP high bandwidth calls and it can fail back to a standard 3G voice call if the internet link is down.

Tieline also offers a USB master module that enables you to plug in a range of “approved” off the shelf USB 3G modems. This is a lower cost solution which delivers excellent results and still allows you to use the USB modem with your PC for other applications. Click here for the list of approved USB modems.

Alternatively you can use the Tieline USB master module and attach a small range of “approved” 3G cell phones. Click here for the list of approved phones.

2. What products do i need to get connected at the studio?

In the studio all you need is an internet router plugged into the back of your Tieline codec LAN port. Call your ISP and ask them to issue you with a public static IP address. Configure the router firewall ports with these basic instructions for TCP and UDP and you’re ready to go. It’s pretty simple or you can call the IT guy. Once it is setup, you can make a wireless or wired IP call from anywhere in the world to your studio.

3. Useful information for getting the best results.
How to order the right plan for your 3G service: There are many data services offered by Telcos. At the time of writing this, HSDPA and EVDO Rev1 offer the highest bit rates and therefore the best opportunity for delivering stable high quality audio.

One of the most expensive mistakes you can make is borrowing a 3G sim card for a broadcast that will last a couple of hours. Chances are the 3G plan is optimised for voice and not IP data. We learned this the hard way. We recommend you purchase a plan that includes unlimited data for a fixed price per month. Then you can broadcast for as long as you need for a fixed price per month. If that is not available then estimate the number of remote broadcast minutes/hours you need per month and buy a plan that bundles large blocks of data for one price. Some telcos also offer timed or minutes plans which offer unlimited data for fixed amounts of time. Refer to our 3G data usage table to understand how much data you will use at different bit rates.

Warning: Some 3G network providers prohibit streaming multimedia of any kind on certain accounts. Also, some plans charge very high rates for data, or may throttle your available bandwidth after a certain amount of data has been transferred. Check with your Telco before subscribing to the plan.

Choosing the Right ISP: Many 3G service providers also offer ISP internet services For your studio you will get better results choosing an internet account from your 3G service provider. This will can substantially increase reliability, audio bandwidth and reduce audio delay. If that is not possible we recommend you choose your Studio DSL account from a First Tier ISP who has a direct link into the Internet backbone. Second and third tier providers sublease bandwidth from first tier providers and can result in connection reliability issues due to multiple switch hops.

Dedicated studio IP link: We recommend you buy a dedicated internet connection for your studio codec. If you use the “general office” internet connection while others are surfing the net and downloading emails, the performance of your broadcast link will be significantly reduced. We also recommend DSL links over cable modem links as DSL gives you a direct link with the telco exchange whereas all cable links are shared and performace can degrade. For best results buy an SHDSL where the upload and download speeds are the same. Eg 512kb upload/ 512kb download or more.

Antennas: The antenna is your 3G lifeline. The quality and gain of your antenna will make the difference between a good and average connection. Tieline supplies a multi-band antenna which is designed to work over many different frequencies in most countries around the world. However, we have learned that each telco around the world usually recommends specific single band antenna which is optimised for their specific network properties. Therefore we recommend purchasing a high gain single or dual band antenna recommended by your telco for optimal results. For telcos that support 2100mHz and above, we recommend a small Yagi or high gain antenna. You’ll really see the difference when you get into low signal strength areas.

Battery Kit: The Tieline TLBMOD lithium ion battery is a 2300mAH hour module which will power a Commander G3 Field codec for around 2 hours and 15 minutes over a wireless connection with good signal strength. Lower signal strength may affect battery life.

Algorithms: Tieline codecs automatically manage the link quality for you but there are a few useful tricks for getting the best result for your broadcast. Tieline offers two optimised algorithms for wireless connections. The Tieline Music algorithm is optimized for audio bit rates as low as 19.2kbps to 256kbps with only a 20 millisecond encode delay. It offers 15kHz mono from 24kbps to 48kbps and 20kHz mono from 48kbps upwards. It can also deliver 15-20kHz stereo from 64kbps upwards. In rare cases where a wireless broadband IP connection will only support 16kbps or below we recommend using the Tieline Voice algorithm which delivers 7kHz G.722 audio quality with low delay.

Tieline Tested Phones and Services

3G-Compatible Phone Table

If you wish to use an existing model phone or purchase an alternate brand, guidelines are provided in the following table.

3G Cell-Phone Compatibility Assurance Levels

Tieline Tested USB Modems In the USA the following USB modems have been used successfully to connect over 3G networks:

1. Sierra Wireless Aircard 875U (HSDPA); and
2. Sierra Wireless Aircard 595U (Sprint & Verizon EV-DO).

4. 3G Data Usage Table

Following is a table which is helpful for calculating approximate data usage while connecting over 3G mobile networks using Tieline codecs.

Please Note: Kilobyte usage has been summarized to two decimal points.

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