[cma-l] mobile technology and community radio
Alan Coote
alan.coote at btinternet.com
Mon Sep 5 17:19:18 BST 2011
We¡¯ve used, a number of solutions as below;
1) We borrowed an AudioTX codec which worked well over 3G and DSL ¨C A
latency of 3 to 4 sec is typical so 2 ways are not practical.
2) Barix Instreamer and Extremers have a latency of about 1 second over
normal DSL. Not tried them on 3G but I suspect it would work Ok.
3) Skype works great, we even did an OB from Spain and used it locally
over 3G. There is no real control over quality and latency so will dropout
without warning when network gets busy.
4) COMREX Access was used for a big OB over several days a couple of
weeks ago. It worked well with 3G until 50,000 people descended on our
location. I didn¡¯t have a chance to use Vortex¡¯s V3X Intelligent 3G
Booster which may have helped.
We also do non-realtime OBs by Voice Tracking directly into the Myriad log
¨C works brilliantly for presenter led shows and gets over most of the
vagaries of the internet. A gotcha is that Myriad doesn¡¯t like Remote
VT-ing into its current hour ¨C it can be done but care is needed to hit
hard timing markers.
Solution not tried;
1) Luci Live iPhone / PC ¨C used to some extent by the BBC¨C I heard
BBC wanted better licensing terms
2) Tieline Report IT Live for iPhone ¨C requires the Tieline Bridge IT
codec which pushes up the price. I had a demo by a radio journo¡¯ as we were
both at the resent Red Arrows crash.
Hope that helps.
Alan
Alan Coote
The Bay Radio
Office 01202 580200
Studio 01202 571028
Mobile 07801 518858
Email alan.coote at thebayradio.com
Web www.thebayradio.com <http://www.thebayradio.com/>
The Bay Radio, 25B Elliott Road, Bournemouth, BH11 8LQ
Description: The-Bay-logo-small.gif
From: cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk
[mailto:cma-l-bounces at mailman.commedia.org.uk] On Behalf Of Martin Steers
Sent: 05 September 2011 4:22 PM
To: Clive Glover
Cc: cma-l at commedia.org.uk; London Chinese Radio
Subject: Re: [cma-l] mobile technology and community radio
Clive,
I have heard that you can get special / better streaming codecs that a)
reduce the size of the stream and b) reduces the delay.. I think places like
this http://www.audiotx.com/
I also think there is going to be a session on something similar to this at
this years Radio Festival, about low cost OB solutions instead of expensive
commercial / BBC setups.
2011/9/5 Clive Glover <clive.glover at lineone.net>
Peter
We have been experimenting over the Summer with various ways of doing
Outside Broadcasts. Essentially we have mikes, mixer and music source(s)
plus a laptop PC creating a stream broadcast over the Internet which is then
picked up in the studios. In theory we can use a direct Ethernet connection
or WiFi if available at the remote location or 3G otherwise. However
Ethernet is rarely available and we have found WiFi unreliable so have opted
for 3G which works well. We got a 3G dongle for ¡ê30 from 3 which lasted us
through the whole Summer!
The only major problem with this setup is that there is a delay of several
seconds which can cause problems if we are interacting with a presenter in
the studio. We tried various combinations of presenter in studio with
reporter on remote site, presenter at remote site with music coming from
studio and broadcasting the whole programme from the remote site. Perhaps
surprisingly the latter worked best as it avoided problems working with the
delay.
The technical solution to the delay is to use special "black boxes" called
Instreamers and Extreamers although these are expensive (¡ê200 or so each).
But running the whole programme from the remote site works very well as long
as the broadband link stays up.
The other main lesson is that it is essential to have a technical operator
at the studios all the time during an OB, with a direct communications link
(mobile phone usually although it could be Skype).
I think we have been surprised that this setup can produce such a good
quality link from an external site using just a few ¡ê100s of equipment.
Only a few years ago such things required van fulls of equipment and a staff
of dozens - at least for the BBC!
regards,
Clive Glover
Radio Verulam
St Albans
On 4 Sep 2011, at 22:42, London Chinese Radio wrote:
Hi everyone,
Sounds a bit vague, but I would be interested in hearing what use community
stations are making of mobile technology.
So the first question is "what do I mean by mobile technology", to which the
answer must be "somehow using a mobile phone to interact with a radio
station or it's output"
I once saw a presenter who used to take calls to his mobile which he had
plugged into the mixing desk (that was on Sound Radio) it worked really
well, and he did get quite a number of calls.
Some of our presenters come and want to play music from their iphones, so I
guess that's another use. Once, before we had a telephone hybrid, we had a
presenter who did a phone in, and held the mobile up to the mic, that worked
pretty well too....
But more importantly, listeners - do you take texts, SMS, facebook messages,
etc. How about people listening with their mobile phones?
Or what about using SMS services to contact large amounts of people en
masse...? Anyone had experiences with that?
Does anyone know of any way to broadcast to mobile phones and avoid huge
costs to listeners on mobiles?
I'm about to start a mobile technology project, and I'd like to hear any
success stories, maybe we can all share what works well. I certainly will be
more than happy to share any results from the project.
Best regards to all,
Peter Vautier
London Chinese Radio
--
Ò°»ðÉÕ²»¾¡£¬´º·ç´µÓÖÉú
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