ATA Audio's Scoop Reporter II delivers audio practically anywhere

AETA Audio's Scoop Reporter II delivers audio practically anywhere

Written by Sean Caldwell, Sean Caldwell Broadcast Services, Tampa Florida.
16209 Hoylake Drive, Odessa, FL 33556. www.seancaldwell.com. (813) 926-1250. seancaldwell@usa.net

Sean is a voice-over and imaging talent for radio and television stations across the world.

ATA Audio has come to market with an impressive remote audio unit that combines ISDN and POTS to deliver audio under many circumstances. The Scoop Reporter II is a portable unit that has the capability to send 20 Hz to 20 kHz bi-directional audio to any location that supports ISDN. The Scoop would be a great choice for remote broadcasts, sporting events, club broadcasts, and as a backup studio to studio unit. What differentiates the Scoop Report II from other ISDN codecs on the market is the ability to still send quality audio when ISDN is not available by sending data down a standard phone line to another ATA Audio unit. It operates on AC power and automatically adjusts from 85 to 265 volts at 47 to 440 Hz and works on DC power with D cell backup.

The Scoop is delivered in an attractive heavy-duty carrying case, and the unit itself is housed in rugged metal that appears to be ready for the road. It measures approximately 11" wide x 11" deep by 4" tall and weighs less than 12 lbs. The front has an XLR mic input, and an XLR line input & line output, and a headphone jack. There’s also a 5-pin headset input that has send and receive on the same cable. The mixer is built into the unit, allowing you to adjust input volume, and headphone volume. There’s also a pot to adjust headphone mix between send and receive audio. The back of the unit has a power jack, ISDN and POTS inputs, and a modem port for computer profile programming.

Just like other ISDN units, the Scoop Reporter II must be programmed to communicate with the telco switch before it’ll let you talk over ISDN. Input the ISDN spid numbers, director numbers, and some other parameters and you’re ready. ISDN has never been simple, but once you get the proper settings input, the unit happily connects to any compatible unit. So, what is it compatible with? Quite a few. It supports G.711, G.722, ISO/MPEG Layer II and J.52. If all that sounds confusing, it is. Simply stated, this unit should connect to any other ATA, Telos, Comrex, or CCS unit out there. J.52 helps to auto-establish the algorithm when the two units start talking, saving lots of headaches.

The POTS capability is what was most intriguing. This could be a unit primarily used over POTS (plain old telephone service). You plug the Scoop Reporter II into any phone line, and an internal modem dials out and connects with another ATA audio unit. I did quite a few tests in the POTS mode and the audio quality was surprisingly good. It sounded better than G.722. Almost as good as single channel ISDN! The users manual quotes 7.5 Khz audio for POTS, and it sounds quite good. News or sports over AM would sound great; there would be noticeable roll-off on FM. Music definitely went beyond the capabilities of this algorithm. If you want to broadcast music or other high-quality audio, you’ll want to stick with ISDN. The coding delay for the pots service is short as well: 40 ms.

The Scoop Reporter II is easy to program using the supplied computer interface. Connect the cable up to your PC, load the software, and you’re ready to input all the different locations you might be calling. If you’re sending a reporter out to feed back audio, it’s a snap to press a few keys and be connected to any of your pre-programmed locations.

There are a couple areas that could be improved. The two-line LCD screen could be expanded to provide more data. Connection speed, algorithm in use, or other parameters could be displayed for easy troubleshooting. You can view the settings by pressing a few keys on the front of the unit, but continual display would be even better. A call to ATA’s 24-hour technical support number informed me this features would be implemented soon. The keypad could be shifted slightly away from the edge of the unit…right handed people will have no problem.

Overall the ATA Audio Scoop Reporter II unit is an excellent entry into portable audio delivery.