ACCESS is Working For The Weekend!

If you're a Comrex customer, you probably know that we love remotes. Radio is in our blood and sometimes, much to the chagrin of our spouses, if we see one happening we've got to find out what's going on. So, it was really cool to spot the WNGC-FM/Cox Radio Athens, GA outside of the Georgia Spa Company when we were out and about this weekend. We noticed that the Yagi and telescoping mast weren't up so we had to find out what they were doing. Maybe using a cellphone to call it in? Much to our surprise and delight, right there on the remote table was a shiny new ACCESS Portable IP codec!

You know, it kind of makes us giddy to know that our customers are so happy with our technology. Shana Vaughn, WNGC's Midday Host, and here broadcast team were set up inside the Buford, Georgia store on a rainy Saturday afternoon broadcasting live to their listeners all over the Atlanta Metro area. And the listeners kept on coming in to see Bullfrog Spas, Green Egg cookers and of course, their favorite radio station. WNGC was broadcasting back to their Athens, GA facility using a Verizon U727 3G Wireless USB modem. They been using it for remotes all over the Atlanta area and couldn't be happier! The management at Georgia Spa Co. seemed pretty thrilled also!

It looks like WNGC's ACCESS Portable has been getting a pretty good workout having recently been used at the St. Jude Radiothon, the Atlanta Home & Garden Show, a couple of Dickey's BBQ remotes and the WNGC Roadshow with George and Scott. You can see photos of these remotes by clicking HERE.

"I must say that the Comrex ACCESS unit has allowed us to really open up and take our stations on the road anywhere we want. Before we were tied down to a phone line or would have to stay within Marti range," says David Ratz,Promotions Director for Cox Radio Athens.

Our good friend and syndicated morning show host, Moby, is a Comrex ACCESS user, too! He can be heard weekday mornings 6a-10a on 106.1 WNGC.

Bryan Sheets and Shana Vaughn from WNGC show off their ACCESS.

We recorded some of the audio of the broadcast taken off air. WNGC was using our BRIC-HQ1 Mono algorithm for the broadcast over Verizon's BroadbandACCESS (EVDO Rev.A) service and you can hear it by clicking HERE.

Update your ACCESS Codecs to FW 2.5 p4! The future of our civilization depends on it. Go to comrex.com for details.

Comrex ACCESS on the XOHM WiMax Network: WOW!

ACCESS Tested on Xohm WiMAX!
By Tom Hartnett
Technical Director, Comrex

We’ve long heard rumors of a new, ubiquitous wireless data network on the way called WiMAX, and have been longing to spec out its performance using ACCESS IP codecs. I got my chance recently when I received a WiMAX Express card for testing.

The first widespread commercial deployment of WiMAX technology is coming from a division of Sprint Wireless dubbed Xohm. They currently offer commercial service in the Baltimore market only, with several other cities coming on-line around the end of 2008. After enough begging, we got hold of a sample card, shown below, with intention of 1) finding a way to have ACCESS Portable utilize the card and 2) finding a friendly broadcaster in the Baltimore are to help us spec it out.


Fig 1- Xohm supplied WiMAX express card with PC Card adapter

As it turns out, the card offers literally no Linux support at this time, so the project of including direct support for it was shelved for a different day. For future tests, I’ll recommend using the available external modem, which should theoretically have no such interface issues. It may have an advantage as well, since building penetration at the 2.5 GHz frequency used by Xohm can sometimes be challenging. Utilizing the external modem would allow you to position it near a window, and run an Ethernet cable to where the action is.

Fig 2- The Xohm external modem

Before I booked my flight to Baltimore, a little Googling produced some reports that Baltimore WiMAX users have migrated to some other “soon to be covered” cities and had success with their Xohm hardware there. Since one of the reported cities was Boston, I ventured out on a little site survey to see if I could conduct the testing closer to home. Lo and behold, the card in my laptop lit up in various areas in the city and around the Route 128 technology corridor.


Fig 3- This will be easier than I thought!

So I found a convenient location to our office in Devens, which turned out to be the shopping area in Burlington Massachusetts. I went back a few days later, staked a location in a shopping center parking lot, and began testing...

Are you sitting on the edge of your seat? Want to know the results of Tom's testing? You can download a .pdf file of his complete "white paper" by clicking here: ACCESS Tested on XOHM WiMax

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.