AMERICAN Gets SCOOP From Harris

AMERICAN Gets SCOOP From Harris

by Paul Donovan
Director of Engineering
American Radio Systems
Reprinted from Radio World

BOSTON The year was 1972 and it was my first remote broadcast. I nervously connected the remote mixer to the wires on the telephone block with the station's call letters written out on it. At precisely 10:06 a.m.. We went on the air live from a local shopping mall. I ran outside to my car to take a listen and was horrified by the tinny and distorted sound. The telephone company in the area could not provide a temporary equalized broadcast loop.

Antarctic remote
For years we put up with barely intelligible remote. The remotes sounded like we were in Antarctica, when instead we were only two miles down the road. Through the years I sought ways to improve fidelity and eliminate two or three-week lead time. RPUs seemed like the solution until the taxi radio calls got on the air the transmitter would not stop blowing fuses.

Most recently, I have relied on multiline telephone or ISDN-type devices to a reliable broadcast quality product. Station management was still hampered from doing broadcasts without the proper planning and notice to the telephone copany. My life was complicated with remote setup problems because we cannot always send highly skilled technicians to the remote. Some of the people who set these remotes up have trouble operating their clock radios, let alone an ISDN CSU/DSU. My knees are worn out from begging the phone company to get service installed for our many "By the way, we forgot to tel you" and "Didn't you get the memo?" remotes.

It was at the Spring ' 96 NAB Convention that I was first introduced to the A.E.T.A. Scoop Reporter from Harris. The folks at the Harris booth showed me this little box that looked like a mixer and was connected to a regular telephone line. Its controls were so simple that any one of my children could operate it. When I put on the headphones, I tensed up ready to hear some scratchy, tinny sound. What I hear was astonishingly terrific, I was told that the Scoop Reporter was dialed into a radio station several states away, immediately ordered a pair.

Broadcast from afar
Radio talent has discovered telecommuting over the past few years and many of our stations' shows are originating from afar on a regular basis via ISDN service. When I returned from the NAB, I was greeted with the news that the ISDN line for our most recent talent addition would probably not be ready in time. The talent is about 250 miles away so she cannot just hop in the car and drive in, "No problem," I said "we can just use the telephone that she already has." I called Harris and the delivery of the Scoop Reporter was expedited.

We tested everything the day of the broadcast. Everything sounded fine on the test, but I was worried how the show would sound when it finally got on the air. I forgot to mention that the co-host for the show is located in our main studio. Visions of long pauses created by delay times and the unit codec being trashed by the station processing flashed through my mind. I began to see visions of myself bagging groceries in a supermarket, telling tales of my old radio career. What had I done? I decided to leave the radio station and listen to the broadcast elsewhere. This way I could hear the show the same way all of the other listeners would. I headed out and drove to nearest supermarket. After picking up an employment application, I sat by the radio and waited.

It was now broadcast time. First came the recorded show opening and then the local talent came on the air. When the remote talent appeared, I could not believe my ears. She sounded like she was right in the studio. When pace of the banter picked up, I could not perceive any problems with the delay time. The quality was so good that I was having trouble picking out whose voice was originating from where. Not only had the Scoop Reporter saved the broadcast, but my career as well.

As I mentioned before, the Scoop Reporter is compact and simple to operate. The mixer has two mics, one line input and a headphone jack. The unit operates full duplex so providing reverse cue of IFB isa snap. At 24,4 kbps you will get 7 kHz fidelity, and the scoop reporter is capable of up to 8,4 kHz response where telephone facilities of 28,8 kbps are fully deployed. The Scoop Reporter will negotiate the best baud rate for the phone service you are on. Just like your computer, if you do not like the baud rate you ended up with, hang up and try again. We have never had trouble achieving a decent baud rate and fidelity on the first try.

The codec uses a code-excited linear prediction algorithm (CELP), which is optimized for speech only. Because most stations only originate voice at their remotes, this is no problem at all.

Flawless performance
It is now approaching mid-July and the Scoop Reporter has performed flawlessly since the beginning of May. I recently ordered a second pair of Scoop Reporters, as my first order is constantly tied up whith this show. Once the new units arrive, we will begin to enjoy the flexibility of doing spontaneous broadcasts with real studio quality. As the name "Scoop Reporter" implies, I see some serious quality actualities for our news department as well.

Many thanks to A.E.T.A. for producing a real problem solver that we can really use.

Paul Donovan
Director of Engineering
American Radio Systems