CHARLESTON, Ill.–For the last 15 years, I’ve worked as a broadcast engineer for WEIU Television and Radio, the PBS-affiliated broadcasting stations at Eastern Illinois University (EIU). This means I do everything from transmitter maintenance and desktop computer support, to streaming live events (like commencements), to supporting newsroom operations. Additionally, I provide engineering support for the sports television broadcasts produced by the EIU Athletic Department for ESPN+.

When ESPN began working with the athletic department, they wanted EIU to provide live coverage which included the university’s soccer, baseball, and softball teams. Most of these games take place on fields that are on the edge of the main campus, and campus Wi-Fi coverage in that area was spotty at best. 

Cheaper than Fiber 
We initially proposed to run fiber-optic cables across the campus to the playing fields, but after examining the cost of installing fiber, it was clear that this wasn’t within our budget. We then examined wireless IP, but this would require students to aim antennas and still require the addition of long cable runs at the receive site. Finally, we decided that the best option would be using cellular—half of the cell towers in our county are located on EIU’s campus, so we’ve got the benefit of a reliable data network. 

I looked into various wireless IP video platforms, and Comrex’s LiveShot was the clear choice for us. Because we’re eligible for a reduced-cost data package through the state of Illinois, it’s a massive plus to not have to subscribe through an equipment manufacturer. The complete LiveShot system was 20% of the cost of running fiber to the playing fields, and it was a plus that we would own the equipment outright. Additionally, because we have a Comrex ACCESS NX audio codec for our radio station, I knew that Comrex equipment and customer support were reliable.

We use a remote truck for our broadcasts, so I built up a mount for our LiveShot portable unit in our equipment racks, where it’s easy for students to access. Since all of ESPN+ sports programming is student-run, everything we use needs to be intuitive, so that our students can learn the ropes.  

It’s been very easy to teach them how to use it. I pre-configure the equipment so that once the students are in the field, they can just push a button to get connected. I’m able to show them the interface, and they generally don’t struggle to understand it. Plus, LiveShot comes with the “LiveShot Control” smartphone app which allows me to check on the unit configuration from my phone and make adjustments as needed without needing to be in the field with them. If a student calls me in a panic, I’m able to identify the problem and walk them through it immediately. 

Rock Solid
With LiveShot, we’ve also benefited from the reliable quality it provides. We use CrossLock, the network management tool that’s included with LiveShot. We use just two modems, and once they’re connected, it’s rock solid. Per ESPN+ standards, we broadcast in 720p, and we’ve never had an issue with the connection breaking up. Plus, the video quality is excellent.

I’ve used Comrex equipment in one form or another since 1980. Without a doubt, Comrex has met our needs on every occasion, both in radio and in television. LiveShot is an incredibly well thought-out device that comes with a great price, solid reliability, and excellent support. There’s a lot of competition out there, but I’m always eager to choose Comrex when the need arises.

More information is available at www.comrex.com.

NORTH ATTLEBORO, Mass.—North TV is a community media station serving North Attleboro,Mass. With three channels dedicated to community, government and education-related programming respectively, we provide a wide range of PEG content for our audience. We do everything from high school sports to news to school events and government meetings—altogether, about 600 hours of programming annually.

In the past, we performed most of our remote broadcasts from cable drops located in various parts of North Attleboro. We have five live drop areas from which we can do programming, but we’ll never be able to add to that. If we wanted to cover a school graduation, we could only do it if it was indoors—anything away from those drops was not possible.

We knew we needed a new solution that would let us broadcast from anywhere. I learned about the Comrex LiveShot online by searching for similar equipment, and it seemed like a solution that would work for us.

A QUICK STUDY

When we were ready to purchase, my staff and I saw LiveShot in person at an ACM conference in Minneapolis, and scheduled a demo shortly after. (The Comrex demo program allows anyone to try any piece of equipment free for two weeks.) Once it was installed, it was so simple to use that we purchased our own shortly after.

LiveShot is surprisingly easy to use. It’s simple enough that I can give a person here who’s never seen or operated LiveShot a 10-minute explanation of how it works and they’ll be able to operate it without a problem—that’s critical with the volunteers we have (our part-timers can operate LiveShot as well).

There’s always a learning curve at first, but once I learned the terminology, how to run tests and how connections work, it was easy.

Since beginning to use LiveShot, we’ve covered a range of live events in locations that weren’t accessible before. We’ve done Thanksgiving football live, outdoor graduations, high school Super Bowls from Gillette Stadium—this was never possible in the past. We’ve covered political forums where candidates speak outside live, meetings, anything you can think of. The results have been great.

LiveShot is the right system for us and has worked out wonderfully. We’ve used it in high pressure situations, events that we advertised heavily and if it didn’t work, we would have looked really bad. But I have enough confidence to let the community know about it, and it’s always worked. I highly recommend it.

Chris Miller is the director of operations for North TV. He can be reached at cmiller@northtv.net.

For more information, visit www.comrex.com.

IRVING, TEXAS—As senior vice president of studio operations for TheBlaze—a media network founded by Glenn Beck—for the past several years, I’ve been responsible for managing the backend for all programming at TheBlaze television, as well as the production side for TheBlaze radio network.

Throughout my 30-plus years in broadcasting, Comrex has been with me for the entire journey—from single line frequency extenders on POTS lines to IP codecs. Radio made up the majority of my career, but in the last several years I’ve begun handling television as well.

We use Comrex’s LiveShot to provide bidirectional video transmission over the public internet, employing multiple LiveShot units in our Blaze Media offices. LiveShot makes it possible to link studios and connect with interview guests in New York or D.C., without using services that require a monthly subscription.

We also use LiveShot for remote broadcasting, enabling us to bring Beck’s show to his viewers when he is on the road.

A SECRET WEAPON

The secret behind the Comrex family of IP codecs is CrossLock, a network management tool that can connect with multiple networks at once, intelligently monitoring network strength and dynamically adjusting how much data is being placed on each network. It means our connections are more reliable, and we don’t have to worry as much about using public internet or 4G services. Being able to just plug into the public internet without needing to get a pri vate IP address is crucial to success.

I first used CrossLock with Comrex’s IP audio codecs, and was intrigued when I learned that it’s a core feature of their IP video codec as well. It makes network management in the field much easier, which is especially crucial because we do bidirectional video and audio. I’ve found that LiveShot provides low-latency video and high-quality audio, even when we’re sending a lot of data.

EASE OF USE

One of my favorite features of Live-Shot is the ability to monitor connections remotely. We rarely send the unit out with nontechnical users, but if there’s a problem, it’s easy to log into the user interface, see the connection and modify as needed. One time, when using Live-Shot with Beck, we discovered that the 100 MB internet path we were provided was not configured as we needed and was barely delivering 5-10 MB. Our IT professional, who was in another city, was able to monitor and modify the connection as we were doing the show so that we had no drops until the line was reconfigured correctly.

As someone who is familiar with Comrex audio products, I was excited to see that LiveShot operates in the same way. The interfaces are similar, and the concept of bonded IP networks is the same across products—it’s only different because it’s video. These similarities gave me a level of confidence because Comrex audio products are so solid. The error correction, robustness, and packaging are what I’ve come to expect from Comrex products.

Furthermore, tech support has always been great—I’ve never had to sit on the phone for an hour, and I’ve never gotten a half-hearted answer to a technical question. The tech support team is well informed and often knows how to solve a problem immediately. In the late ‘80s, I even was walked through a problem over the phone late one night by then president John Cheney.

Since the days of John Cheney, Comrex has been putting out solid products. That continues today and through that I feel like they have earned the trust of people like me.

Rob Chickering is senior vice president of studio operations for Blaze Media. He can be contacted through theblaze.com/contact.

For more information, visit www.comrex.com or call 800-237-1776.

DEVENS, MASS.—Comrex LiveShot is soaking up the sun in California as part of Time Warner Cable Sporstnet’s production set-up for sports broadcasts of the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA, Los Angeles Galaxy of the MLS, local high school sports and other L.A. teams.

TWC Sportsnet previously utilized satellite to broadcast local sports and other remote games, but LiveShot allows to cover all the same games with high-quality, low-delay video. The LiveShot system delivers live, two-way HD video and audio over a range of IP networks at latencies less than 200mS. It comes equipped with CrossLock VPN technology to use 3G/4G, Wi-Fi and satellite networks for a secure and stable connection. The LiveShot is a portable device designed for use in the field.

According to the press release, TWC Sportsnet is used for a majority of the network’s more than 350 sports broadcasts throughout the year.