ATA Scoops Concerts

Article from September 27, 2000 issue of Radio World

"ATA Scoops Concerts"

by Glenn Jones
Producer and Chief Engineer WFMU (FM)

Pulling off a live radio remote is not an easy task when you produce a rock & roll show on a public station. There is no budget for such things and one must pull it off with little or no staff support. This summer I had a crazy idea that I would produce a series of live programs which would tour the summer resorts that surround the listening area of WFMU radio. This task would involve scouting and securing sites; recruiting volunteer staff, transporting and setting up equipment and countless details that pop up along the way.

The tour was planned one stop at a time. Amusement parks and boardwalks were the chosen setting. Every three weeks a live show in a new venue; Wildwood, Asbury Park, Coney Island and even a listeners poolside back yard. A three line comrex was used at these events. It did the trick but it created difficulties as it is not easy finding a suitable venue with 3 standard telephone lines. The unit is old technology. Hell it's even been discontinued by the manufacturer. With summer quickly fading I frantically tried to find a venue in the most popular of summer locations, Seaside heights, N.J. But boardwalk venues generally don't have three phone lines and I couldn't find a suitable location.

It was time to update the equipment and make this remote happen. After researching the many codecs available on the market I settled on and secured ATA Audio's Scoop reporter II. Complex enough to operate via either ISDN or POTS lines and simple enough for a DJ to operate. For my immediate purposes I would utilize the Scoop Reporter II on one standard telephone line. One phone line that would allow for 7.5 khz, 2 way transmission. Scoop not only provides me with the same bandwidth that I was getting with a three line but a return feed? This was a remarkable feature for me. For the first time ever 2 way communication would be available to the on site engineer. The possibilities are now endless. I could secure one POTS line almost anywhere. Now I have mobility.

The Scoop Reporter II is portable and allows for a remote broadcast using little more than the unit itself and a couple of mics. It has a mixer built in but I use a full rig of CD players and turntables so I bypassed the built in mixer and went with a portable 8 channel. Plugged into the Scoop's line-in, turn the channel on and plugged the phone line in. Viola we have a broadcast.

After running cables everywhere for my board mix it couldn't have taken more than 5 minutes to establish continuity to the station. The return line allowed me to confirm the integrity of the broadcast. That was useful being as we were out of the station's range. The broadcast itself sounded crisp and clear. To the untrained ear we sounded good enough that we could have been in the studio and most of our listeners have an untrained ear.

Technology has improved greatly since WFMU first purchased the 3-line Comrex and the Scoop reporter II is quite representative of those improvements. The broadcast was a big success. A huge crowd and best of all the easy set up allowed me to relax and do what I do best which is broadcast.