Chicago (August 30, 2006) - At one time
or another, we’ve all played the “stranded
on a desert isle-what if” game. You know, “what
if” you could only have one book to read or one
song to listen to or one friend to be with on a desert
isle, what or whom would you pick?
Recently legendary Chicago radio station WMVP-AM (ESPN
Radio 1000) was faced with its own desert isle question:
if you had to do a remote from a small island, which
codec would you choose?
To be fair, Blarney Island, located in the middle of
Grass Lake, one of the many lakes in the Chain-O’-Lakes
in Antioch, Ill. isn’t exactly deserted …
in fact, Blarney Island is a very lively place (its
motto is “boats, beer & babes!”) and
really one of the world’s best “floating
bars” in which patrons can boat, shuttle (from
Port of Blarney on the mainland) or swim to in order
to hear great music and enjoy some of their favorite
thirst-quenchers.
Tasked with doing a four-hour remote from Blarney Island
for the popular “Mac, Jurko and Harry” show
- the station’s flagship program which dominates
the ratings for the Chicago afternoon drive time slot
for the men age 25-54 category - WMVP engineer and technical
producer Bob Boxer had to play the “island/what
if” game. What codec would you use to provide
a wireless IP solution from an island to the mainland?
Boxer chose Tieline and he was able to pull off the
island remote, not once, but twice, each with a different
IP set-up and both remotes had one thing in common:
the Tieline codecs provided flawless audio.
“The question was how to get the audio off the
island as there were no phone lines,” Boxer said.
For the first remote, on July 27, Boxer and Chief Engineer
John Hurni chose to establish a Moseley LanLink IP connection
on each end of Blarney Island and Port of Blarney, which
is directly across from the island. The LanLink transports
bi-directional Ethernet and RS-232 serial data over
a license-free 900 MHz RF link. The LanLink can be combined
into an existing 950MHz antenna system using a built-in
duplexer. For this remote, Tieline Commander G3 codecs
were plugged in on each end.
Once back to the shore, the Commander G3 was hooked
to an ISDN line and the audio was fed back to the studio
in Chicago. The Tieline Commander is the first codec
to offer broadcast quality audio over POTS, ISDN, GSM
and IP for wired and wireless networks.
For the second remote, on Aug. 4, Boxer decided to
not use the LanLink but to utilize only the Tieline
Codecs. The Commander G3 on Blarney Island was hooked
into the island’s own Internet drop - via a DHCP
connection - and the audio was then sent straight to
the studio where another Tieline received it.
“We had a nice stable connection with minimal
delay and there were no apparent audio artifacts,”
said Boxer.
The Tieline’s were preconfigured before being
sent into the field saving time once at the remote site.
In the first remote, with the LanLink, the signal was
fairly weak with the audio sent at 16.8 Kpbs but Boxer
was “amazed that there were no real artifacts
in the audio at that speed.”
In the second remote, just using the Tielines, the
connection was at a brisk 96 Kpbs.
“I always said that I’d use an IP solution
when there was one as good as an ISDN connection and
this remote was as good as ISDN,” said Boxer.
“I see IP as a quicker way of getting last-minute
events done and at a lower cost.”
Boxer and his engineering crew are pleased enough with
the Tieline’s performance that they will use the
Commander G3 for a weekly radio remote done at NFL player
and coaching legend Mike Ditka’s restaurant in
Chicago.
Answering, of course, that age-old question -- If you
were stranded with Mike Ditka, which codec would you
use for a remote?
About Commander G3
The Tieline Commander G3 studio and field rack mount
codecs are among the worlds most successful and widely
used audio codecs for remote broadcasts. The award-winning
multi-network Commander G3 codec can be found in radio
and television stations throughout the United States,
Canada, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle
East and Australia. Commander G3 codecs can be configured
before they are sent to the remote broadcast site so
all the talent has to know is how to plug in power,
a Telco line, an audio input and then dial a number.
Commander G3 now offers wireless broadband cellular
connectivity enabling reporters to connect from anywhere
they can use a 3G cell phone.
About WMVP-AM (ESPN 1000 Radio)
WMVP-AM (ESPN 1000 Radio) is an ABC-owned station in
Chicago that broadcasts live sporting events, both locally
and nationally. The University of Illinois has some
of its games broadcast on the station. The Station also
broadcasts ESPN Radio national events including baseball
and basketball games. Daily programming consists of
talk shows that are both national and local including
Mike and Mike in the Morning, Dan Patrick and Jim Rome
shows which are done by ESPN, while Salisbury and Rosenbloom,
Mac, Jurko and Harry, and Silvy and Carmen are more
focused on Chicago sports.
About Tieline Technology
Tieline Technology (www.tieline.com)
is the world’s leading supplier of high-quality
remote broadcast digital audio codecs. In fact, Tieline
derives its name from the popularity of its award-winning
codec line as the company changed its corporate moniker
in 2001 from Audio Video Communications (AVC) to Tieline
Technology. Tieline Technology today is supported by
a global distribution network spanning the Americas,
Europe, UK, Africa, Asia, Middle East and Australasia.
