Colorado Public Radio's first use of ACCESS

  CPR Puts ACCESS to the Test.

CPR Audio Producer, Dave Fender, posted on our Facebook wall today:

"This is the first interview we conducted with our new ACCESS Portable system. I met Gov. Hickenlooper in his office at the state capitol and used my HTC Thunderbolt phone as a 4G wireless hotspot, connecting to it with the WIFI antenna on the ACCESS."

Apparently, the interview went well because it sounded great to us! Dave also added, "So far, this is one of the best equipment purchases that I've ever made and I'm really looking forward to figuring out different ways to use it."

Thanks Dave and CPR!

CLICK HERE TO HEAR THE INTERVIEW

NPR uses ACCESS 2USB and Verizon 4G LTE to help "Fix The National Debt" and follow the President

At Comrex, we love happy customers.  And these days, Washington, DC-based NPR is one of the happiest!  On the April 7th broadcast of the public broadcaster's program, Talk of the Nation, United States Senator Kent Conrad (pictured below) was able to participate in the program live and in full studio quality thanks to NPR producer John Asante who grabbed his ACCESS 2USB and a Verizon 4G LTE card (Pantech's UML290) and set up the gear in the Senator's office at the Hart Senate Office Building.

US Senator Kent Conrad on NPR's Talk of the Nation

Commented Program Producer Scott Cameron to fellow staffers,

"I don’t know how things went behind the scenes, but on the air Sen. Conrad’s connection sounded great!  Thank you for the help, and I hope we can make more use of this technology. Especially in cases like this where congress people can’t leave their offices."

LISTEN TO ACCESS 2USB being used on Talk of the Nation

NPR used the same technology combo on its flagship program, All Things Considered.  The April 21st broadcast featured a segment with White House Correspondent Ari Shapiro who was literally on the move after President Obama's visit to Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, CA. 

LISTEN TO ACCESS 2USB being used on All Things Considered

According to NPR Director of Operations, Charlie Mayer, "A month ago—before LTE—this interview would have been on a cell phone. The listening experience for our audience would not have been so good.

This is a preview of what we can expect from the 2012 election season. The campaign trail is where the mobility of the Comrex ACCESS and the speed of LTE change how we work and the quality of what we put on the air."

Calle Ocho! ACCESS is HOT in Miami!!!!

ACCESS and the new 4G LTE service have gotten together once again to benefit radio listeners and advertisers.  This time in Miami.  Comrex customer, George Corso, from Beasley Broadcasting just sent us this note:

"Sunday we used the ACCESS with our Verizon broadband card at Calle Ocho, an outdoor festival that brings over a million folks to 8^th Street in Miami. This year both our CHR station Power 96 and 99.9 KISS Country (“The Gringo Stage”) broadcast all day. We had two stages, 5 blocks apart, and cut-in live several times per hour. We never missed a break. Even with a third of the population of South Florida walking 8^th Street between 12^th Ave and 27^th Ave the Access never let us down!

Thank you,

 

George Corso,  CSRE

Regional Director of Engineering

Beasley Broadcast Group, Inc."                                                                  

WOR Rules the Air with Comrex ACCESS & Verizon 4G LTE

New York, NY – January 14, 2011 – WOR-AM successfully broadcast the two hour "Joan Hamburg Show" from the prestigious 21 Club via Comrex ACCESS utilizing the new Verizon 4G LTE wireless data service. The broadcast was originally scheduled to use a POTS codec with a 4G backup, but phone line issues forced a switch to the ACCESS system at the beginning of the broadcast, where it performed flawlessly.

"The skyscraper-lined streets of Manhattan have often presented special challenges for radio remote broadcasts," said Tom Hartnett, Comrex Technical Director, who participated in the test. "ISDN is difficult and expensive to install and 3G signals are notoriously overloaded. The new Verizon 4G service allows ACCESS to deliver incredible quality and low delay in environments that couldn't previously support any wireless remote broadcasts. The 700MHz band used by Verizon LTE provides for superior building penetration."

The WOR technical crew utilized the ACCESS portable codec with the Verizon Pantech UML290 4G adapter attached via USB. Tom Ray, Corporate Director for Engineering at Buckley Broadcasting/WOR said, "We had attempted ACCESS remotes on 3G in NYC before. It simply doesn't work well inside the city. So I was skeptical about using 4G in Manhattan. We were in an area that is notorious for poor cellular calls. But the 4G just - simply - worked. I must say that I'm impressed."

Support for the Verizon UML290 4G modem is included in ACCESS firmware version 2.8, available from the Comrex website at comrex.com