Kris Wotipka is the chief engineer of KRVS, a public radio station and NPR affiliate in Lafayette that covers southwest Louisiana. Their HD1 channel covers the local cajun and creole music scene and serves other NPR music station content, and their HD2 channel is programmed by the students of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
With copper phone lines and analog hybrids becoming obsolete, Wotipka needed a solution for guest interviews so that KRVS could continue serving their community. “We cover all of south Louisiana, not just what’s happening in our backyard, and folks can’t always drive to the studio.”
KRVS opted to purchase two Comrex Opals for their channels with one unit dedicated to HD1 for interviews with local non-profits. The other Opal is used by the student station for coverage of live events that featured student correspondents or for other departments to phone in their events happening within the student day.
Opal is an IP audio gateway that allows remote contributors to connect to the studio using their phones or computers just by clicking a link. “We’re expanding our IP capabilities because the students get the technology – it’s easy for them. Plus, we can plug a Blue Yeti microphone into an Android phone or an iPad, and the call quality is better than a POTS line, which is a huge benefit.”
Opal has allowed KRVS to incorporate field reporting and interviews for two music festivals that they cover live each year. “We used one of the Opals for our main correspondent, and it worked really well. It allowed us to basically just put a laptop and a couple of mics out in the field, and I was really pleased with the audio quality.”
Setting up the Opal units was simple for Wotipka. “The installation process is easy from an engineering standpoint. We supply the two channels with separate mix minuses and it works great,” said Wotipka. “On the training side, that’s easy as well. Both college kids and seasoned staff are using it, and it’s accessible to them.”
For college stations looking to do man-in-the-field segments or coverage of an intramural sports game on campus, Wotipka stands by Opal as a great solution for voice transmission. “I explain our use case to people, and the other engineers find it interesting. I had a couple colleagues listen in on a festival we covered this past October, and they were surprised at Opal’s results.”