Remotes with no op - does it work?

[RF Man]

First I should mention we're using Scott AS32. For remotes we use tie-lines. I believe the plan is to program the computer to at a specific time, play an on location bumber, then it opens up the pot for a minute, and after a minute it fires the next event and cuts the tieline. It sounds good in theory, but do any of you have experience with this and what problems if any have you run into.

I know of a cluster with the same equipment as us that has been doing this for a while, which is why my company thinks we should be doing it too. The difference is the other company still has ops in the studio. They basically pay people (not much mind you) to sit in the studio and watch tv, and are there in case something goes wrong. My company is doing this as a cost cutting measure, and on weekends won't have anybody in the building, let alone in the studio.

I think this is a recipe for disaster but I may be wrong.

Thoughts?

Randy Lahey.

Those stations using NextGen as an automation system can do this very easily.

Most of these systems have an audio switcher which lets you switch sources via log commands. When it comes time to do the remote the connection can come in through the console. The switcher will switch from your music or audio server to the console. The remote side keeps their mic turned down until they need to be on. This will work via any delivery system as long as the source comes through the console.

I've seen this work with no board op.

 

[grich]

... The old Smartcasters use to have a neat system where you would call up, enter a security code, and then you could call up any number of remote "templates" that would have a stored open/close and spot rotation associated with them. The system would cut away from the sat network or music-on-hard-drive when you fired the open, spots would play in an order and loop around to the top of the list when you hit the bottom, and it would switch back automatically to sat network or whatever after the closer finished playing. Our system works sort of the same way but you have to load the correct open/close and spot list before you go to the game.

The new Smartcaster and Skylla stuff still has that available. One of the stations I take care of has a 5-year-old Smartcaster/RSHD setup with a Smarttouch and it works well for them. They use it for ball games and severe weather coverage. Another station I work with just installed Wireready and I think there are some DR-10's installed for unattended op, but they haven't been used yet.

 

[gHz]

Randy;

Yes it does work and pretty good if well planned. Since you are using SS32, you could use the module called SS Everywhere. You may have to ask for it now, but it used to be a regular part of SS32 at no additional cost. SS Everywhere is essentially a mimic of the in studio screen at your remote site. You need a high speed internet connection and hopefully a VPN into your SS network. It gives you most of the fucntion of your studio machine. In our situation, we created a couple hot keys that turned the remote channel on the board on and off. After some experimentation we found at what levels to leave the SS channels and the ISDN remote channel so it would nicely use the processing and talk over any music or beds. When we would take our morning show on the road to Nashville or Las Vegas, we would also order a phone line at our remote site and forward one of the studio lines to the remote where we had a hybrid and a seperate computer set up with Audition to record and produce calls or interviews that happened at off times. Our morning show had their regular listeners calling their regular request line....obviously not every call gets forwarded to the remote location, but you only need a couple good ones per hour to make it sound normal. We also added a webcam feed for our website from the remote locations...Oh it was all sponsored, sold and paid for by clients...it was a money making proposition for our team and it really set the station apart in the market. Of course that station was usually at or near the top of the ratings. The key to making it work was lots of planning, testing every detail before we went, and being willing to work really hard and long as a team to put it all together. You need a competent engineer at the remote site in those situations. We also used the same set up at the big county fair and holiday multi-day charity events. There were some variations when we did it locally....audio was sometimes on a Marti or POTS codec. The calls were forwarded to a cell phone at the site with a flip jack interfacing the cell to a seperate computer for recording and editing and a monitor feed from the Mackie as the send audio on the phone. Monitoring and PA was always a challenge at public events. With care, you can make it work and sound really good. I mean really good, not bush league at all. Since you are using Tie Lines, you could use the contact closures to either open your remote channel, or fire the next event. It really takes some custom engineering and good ideas to turn it into reality, but you can do it....and no, we did not have an operator in the studio. There always someone on heads up in the building in case it went terribly wrong...but it never die.

 

[jimmyfish]

Yes. I just did an event last week and it worked like a charm.

I don't have a problem paying a board op for sports or big remotes, but last week I did a fund raiser and since it was free, I did not want to pay a board op. It was only about a mile away, so I had a good clean marti shot. I just went and hooked the marti up and then went back to the station, potted it up on the board and inserted a few 1 minute remote beds, recorded low and exaclty 60 seconds with a little swish effect at about the :50 mark, so I would hear it and know to wrap it up. Worked perfect everytime, but you have to wrap it up at exaclty 60, a little under is o.k. because the music will pad it, but ofcourse go over and you are screwed.

Anything with much delay will not work with this setup. We have also done the email breaks back to the station and insert them with the logmein remote control of the automation computer, worked good as well.

 

[nightfly61]

Have to mention this in the mix of it all...Weather. If there's heavy lightning(lots of games/remotes during tornado season) acts of God can kick you off the air & if no one is back at the station...well you know the rest. Even the most knowlegable weekender or intern may have a rough time re-setting all the audio servers, firing back up the studio computers, keeping track of missed spots, activating EAS alerts, re-updating weather, resetting the Matrix/Marti, etc(while in the meantime 10 lines are ringing off the hook & the board-op's on the line with IT trying to reset all logs to where everythings supposed to be, client is complaining & wants extra breaks added to make up for ones lost, adjusting voice-tracks on your other stations, and so on. Believe me, it's good to have a staff meeting & show them exactly what to do in this worst case scenario.

 

[littlejohn]

You run servers and workstations in critical air situations without UPS and surge protection???
You're braver than I am!

 

[surfdude]

If your station can't afford a board-op for a two or three hour remote, it's time to stop doing remotes or just close up shop.