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First Live Broadcast from a Commercial Airplane at 37,000 feet
April 22, 2006 - Peter Greenberg -NBC TV's Today Show travel editor and host of the weekly, nationally syndicated radio program Travel Today - regularly delivers live broadcasts from difficult locations, so it should be no surprise that he was determined to be the first to do the impossible. It had been seen as "the holy grail" of remote broadcasting to deliver a show from an airplane at altitude during an intercontinental flight. But Peter not only sought the holy grail, but the largest challenge of all, a LIVE TALK SHOW including taking callers from the air.
Travel Today engineer, Mike Worrall, first contacted Comrex with the concept in September, 2005 to discuss the possibilities of whether the new Comrex ACCESS could rise to the challenge. Comrex engineers embraced this project and after reviewing technical specs for the new 'Connexion by Boeing' internet service, determined that, while very difficult, this concept was theoretically possible. The team of engineers, including Travel Today's Mike Worrall, Boeing Connexions engineers led by Lars Hanson, and the ACCESS development team led by Tom Hartnett of Comrex, worked for months in the lab to tweak settings and simulate real world conditions. It was determined that this broadcast would be attempted.
Ever conservative, Comrex cautioned that the transmission delay was likely to be staggeringly long and suggested that perhaps taking callers would be unrealistic. This
was based on the complexity of the transmission path. In a nutshell, from the ACCESS codec in the airplane, the audio was transferred via WiFi to the satellite dish on the top of the plane where it was shot to the Boeing satellite. It was then sent to the relay station in Littleton, Colorado, where it was sent via public Internet to Travel Today's studios in LA. Then it was sent by ISDN to ABC uplink in New York and then distributed to the listeners. Comrex team listened on the Las Vegas affiliate, KNUU, however absent a decent AM receiver, it was necessary to resort to listening to KNUU's web stream on a laptop using EVDO. The excitement grew when witnessing this ground-breaking event. Callers were aired, and it sounded fantastic!
Needless to say, this broadcast was an unmitigated success. The audio was remarkably clean for the duration of the 3 hour broadcast. Thanks to the hard work of the all the engineers involved and the persistent determination of Mike Worrall and Peter Greenberg, history has been made.
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Lufthansa Public Relations Manager Jennifer Urbaniak reacts with delight to Travel Today program via Comrex Access |
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Comrex Access Transmits Graveline from CES
Dave Graveline originated his show, Into Tomorrow with Dave Graveline from the convention floor at the Consumer Electronics Show. The program was delivered from Las Vegas to ABC New York using a Comrex Access via the Internet.
The show, in its 11th season, was broadcast from the convention on Jan. 8 for three hours. A Comrex Blue Box was on hand for a back-up path, but it was not needed. The show's technical director, Chris Graveline, used a Web browser to interface with the Access, and had the audio meter display on several laptops in the broadcast booth. The show's staff in Miami was also able to access the unit. Check out the User Story of the Month for more details.
From the UK - Thanks to Vortex Communications Ltd, Comrex UK dealer.
Radio stations across the world are going live from more and more remote locations thanks to the portability offered by the Comrex Matrix GSM audio codec from Vortex Communications Ltd. The Matrix provides 7khz live 2-way audio using a standard data call over a GSM network, thus offering the opportunity to broadcast live from anywhere with GSM coverage.
An example of where this flexibility has been utilized was during the recent UK MotorShow at Birmingham’s NEC, where Markettiers4dc were able to offer broadcasters the ability to roam the show whilst on air. Amongst those that took advantage of this new found freedom were Sarah Mills and Dave Stankler from The Revolution. Sarah’s entire afternoon show was broadcast from the exhibition, much of it via The Matrix, enabling them to get in amongst the action. Dave Stankler, the station's managing director explained, “Normally we would struggle to do anything we have done today. Using the Matrix, we have good quality sound through to our on-air studio from anywhere on site. It’s been excellent in terms of getting us out and about, being able to interview people and go to the different cars and exhibition areas.”
Elsewhere, the Matrix is being used in increasingly diverse environments as producers become more and more creative with their new found portability. Paul Owens, presenter at The Quay was recently able to conduct a live competition from inside a department store, whilst Ocean FM provided live coverage of the Race For Life in aid of the Cancer Research UK.
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