ACCESS In Holland is a hit with BNR

(photo: Reporter Wouter de Winther interviews VVD-leader Mark Rutte with the Comrex Access.)

BNR Nieuwsradio switches over to Comrex Access

"Prinsjesdag" (Day of the Princes) is the day on which Queen Beatrix of_the Netherlands addresses a joint session of the 'Tweede Kamer' (Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament) in the 'Ridderzaal' (Hall of Knights) in The Hague. The 'troonrede' (Speech from the Throne) sets out the main features of government policy for the coming parliamentary session.

AMSTERDAM
On the Day of the Princes, BNR Nieuwsradio successfully used the wireless live connections of the Comrex Access. After the Speech from the Throne, politicians were interviewed by reporters from BNR.

"The interviews were done in the main hall of the building of government. Even in this surrounding built with many concrete and steel constructions in combination with very little bandwidth and fieldstrength, acceptable live connections could be made. The Comrex makes analog transmitters as good as obsolete."

Richard van der Veen, head of technicians with BNR: "One week before Day of The Princes we bought three handhelds and two 19 inch rackunits with Triple Audio. This way we can have three reporters on the road on the same time and have two of them contributing simultaneously. The users are very enthusiastic, because they can now go wherever they want and still do live reporting with broadcast quality.

The success of the Comrex Access at other broadcasters convinced BNR to start using this system for the BNR reporters. With this, BNR can increase the number of live contributions from reporters on studio quality, where before we were forced to use cellular phones."

With this important step BNR moves further towards using IP connections. "We shall probably use the Comrex Access during the election tour in America", says Richard van der Veen.

Tom Gleeson's Great Walk to Work and the Great Wall!

Tom Gleeson is a huge star in Australia. He's a professional comedian, radio personality and a Metro. To be more specific, he's part of Two Women & A Metro heard mornings on Melbourne's Mix 101.1. Not long ago, Tom became a part of Olivia Newton-John's "Great Walk to Beijing 2008" which strives to raise $5 Million for cancer research in an effort to find a cure for this disease. So, earlier this year, Tom started walking. The video below is self-explanatory. But since it was a long walk and he had to be on the air at 6 a.m., he (and his friends that joined him) decided to use the station's new ACCESS Portable using a 3G card to get on the air. (You'll see the glowing screen of the ACCESS in Tom's hand as he tries to get on the bus).



Since then, Tom has used his ACCESS to broadcast from the Great Wall of China! CLICK HERE for some photos of Tom on the Great Wall and to find out more about the "Great Walk to Beijing 2008" and how you can help the fight against cancer. We'll update this blog with his audio when we get it. Nice work, Tom!

WGN's HomeTown Voices are heard thanks to ACCESS

For a couple of years now, Chicago's WGN Radio (720 AM) has been traversing Greater Chicagoland on a trek they call the HomeTown Voices Tour. Oak Park, Aurora, Naperville, St. Charles, Geneva, Skokie, Downers Grove are just a few of the stops they've made. WGN's Director of Engineering, Jim Carollo, put the ACCESS Portable to the test by sending it out on the road to cover some events where ISDN was not available. Jim was kind enough to send us a report AND some audio with video!

"Recently, we were at the Memorial Opera House in Valparaiso as stop #35 on our Home Town Voices monthly tour. As I told you when we spoke the last time, I was not able to get an ISDN line. That part of Indiana is Verizon territory and they need at least three weeks notice to provide ISDN so it was not feasible for this broadcast. Instead I ordered three POTS lines and a DSL line, which they can provide in a few days. The DSL was a stand alone line for our use and there was nothing on it but our Access portable. The Opera House also gave me access to their DSL as a backup but there are other things happening on their system such as ticket sales and office internet connectivity. I did not want to take the chance that some sudden peak on their system could cause a problem for us so I set up the Access unit on our line and used theirs for our laptops to check email and communicate with our studio.

I had a Matrix unit running as backup on one of the POTS lines but as far as I know, it was not needed. The dedicated DSL had plenty of issues though. The delay time kept varying from 30ms to 350ms on the peer stats monitor page of the portable. I guess I need to understand better what that means. Our total delay for this remote stayed pretty constant. It was almost totally in sync with the Matrix delay so I am guessing it to be around 0.25 second. In any case, it was not a problem and they tell me there were no glitches. I attached a sample of the first couple of minutes of the show. As usual, feel free to use it as you wish. Later this week, I'm going to try Wrigley Field using the fixed delay setting we set up."

Jim

James J. Carollo

Director of Engineering

WGN Radio

Chicago, IL

For audio from the June 6th Valparaiso remote CLICK HERE.

For audio from the July 11th Skokie remote CLICK HERE.

Cape Town FM Has ACCESS at the "Heart" of it's Outside Broadcasts

We'd be lying if we didn't admit that we think we've got one of the coolest products on the planet in our ACCESS Portable codec. But we are obviously and admittedly biased. So, nothing makes us prouder of our efforts than unsolicited praise and adoration such as the note we recently received from our new best friends in South Africa:

Access works like a charm for Heart104.9FM on the move!


Cape Town's Heart 104.9FM recently became the first South African broadcaster to acquire a Comrex Access system. The result was a complete rejuvenation of our outside broadcast strategy that left our competition literally standing still.

The ability to deliver digital quality from any location with 3G coverage saw Heart 104.9FM successfully broadcast the breakfast show on the move in the traffic with our audience in our OB van. Other OB locations included a sailing yacht, the top of Table Mountain, and live presentation while walking the streets of the CBD [editor's note: that's "central business district"...fyi].

ISDN services have always disappointed, so we explored alternative options. Key concerns were reliability, user friendliness and genuine portability. An advert for the Comrex Access in Radio World International sparked my interest and we contacted the local agent, Tele-Media. In response to our doubts about local reliability of the 3G network, 3G Data cards and others; Tele-Media offered a trial-basis deal allowing us to return the system if we weren't blown away.

Their confidence was well founded. Setup was a breeze. The system manual is very detailed, and the Comrex support team is informed and helpful.

The COMREX ACCESS has opened new horizons, allowing the Heart 104.9FM sales team to sell creative remote broadcasting packages. Our clients are excited, creating innovative and entertaining programming from locations that suit our advertisers better than our rivals offerings.


User-friendly operation enables more presenters the opportunity to explore new technology without the assistance of qualified technicians. ACCESS can be configured via the touch-screen display or online using a web browser.

The heart of the Comrex access is called BRIC (Broadcast Reliable Internet Codec). BRIC technology has been engineered not only to be robust enough for the Internet, but usable in really challenging Internet environments like 802.11x Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, 3G cellular and satellite based Internet connections.

ACCESS comes with a series of profiles that are optimized for the majority of IP and POTS connections. Many users may never have the need to define their own profiles. But many advanced options are available to help with troublesome remotes, or remotes with special requirements. In this way, you can build a profile having these advanced options and assign them to one or all remotes you've defined.

Technician Babu Parker adjusts some ACCESS audio levels before sending it out in the CBD with Koketso Sachane.

Those of us who have been remote broadcasters have been wishing for a system like this for a long time, and our Programming and Sales teams are reaping the benefits as well.

Babu Parker
Sound and Broadcast Technician
HeartFM
Cape Town
South Africa

You can find out more about Heart 104.9 FM by visiting their website: www.1049.fm