KLKS Got The Scoop With The Scoop

ATA Audio - February 2004

KLKS Got The Scoop With The Scoop

Breezy Point, MN- I visited the NAB Radio Show last fall in Philadelphia looking for a device which would allow us to carry local theater live on K-Lakes here in Breezy Point, MN. A microwave RPU wasn’t going to work for us, and we didn’t want to string a lot of line for a phone pick up. While walking the floor, I visited ATA Audio. I talked to Alvin Sookoo who was doing live demonstrations with an audio codec over a wireless (GSM) network. The model was called the Scoop E-Z and it was very small (4lbs) and ran on C-cell batteries. I was impressed with the audio quality I was hearing and also the portability of the unit. Alvin told me when I am ready, to request a demo and he will send me out a pair of free demo units to try in my environment and applications. A few weeks later I contacted Alvin and ATA to arrange the demo units. He sent me a Scoop E-Z (portable unit) with the built-in GSM module and a Scoop Studio (rack version) for the Studio. He was also kind enough to send me his T-Mobile SIM card to use it as long as I wanted. I was concerned that the GSM would not work because we are in a small town, but Alvin told me I should not have a problem based on his research.The day we received the units, we had a breaking story on our hands. Dru Sjodin, the 22-yr. old that was abducted in North Dakota was from our town. They were having live news conferences at a police department the very next day in Grand Forks, North Dakota. I said to myself we would truly put these units to work because it was too late to access a phone line. I sent my News Director David Alan Pundt to cover the news conference. Mr. Pundt, while an excellent newsman, is no techno-god, but after a short primer course, he felt comfortable using the units.

At the police department in Grand Forks, David set up the unit next to 60 to 70 other broadcasters at the media conference. Being that the unit has two mic/line inputs, he used one input for the podium microphone and the other for our live mic. He then dialed the studio unit at the station that was connected to an analog line. We were surprised with the audio quality we were receiving, being that Grand Forks was about 200 miles away. It did not sound like a cell phone, the signal was strong. The entire broadcast was a little over an hour and the call did not get dropped. We only had an occasional interruption on the commentary. Later in the day, David drove to the sorority house where Dru Sjodin had been a member. He put the unit’s carry strap around his neck and hung the unit about mid-chest. He felt very comfortable with this because the unit only weighed 4 lbs. with the batteries. He wore headphones and used one of the mic inputs for his hand held mic. He did several interviews from the house and on the street which we used actual cuts on our broadcasts. Overall, the sound quality was as good or better than we’ve used from analog lines. The sound quality seemed to be better than most cell phone interviews we’ve done.

The Scoop E-Z also has the ability to do POTS and ISDN also which I did not get a chance to try. However, I am very impressed with what I saw and heard and will recommend a purchase. The E-Z is truly a piece of gear every news station should have.