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.

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.