Jake’s Take on Remote Solutions for Midterm Election Coverage:
Election day in the United States is upon us, and this always has my phone ringing with codec questions for interviews and press conferences. This can be a busy and stressful time for both station engineers, producers, technicians and even the guests. In this month’s Jake’s Take, let’s explore some of the common situations media groups find themselves in during elections.
Guest Interviews
The first common situation is for quick and easy guest interviews that can’t be done in-studio for whatever reason. The go-to solution for these interviews is indeed the Report-IT Enterprise app. This app allows for users to quickly download and install Report-IT onto anyone’s phone and go live within seconds. However, walking guests through downloading an app, installing the app and logging in can be a pain or may require more hand-holding for the guest.
If you have been in this situation where 3-step instructions are still too much, then perhaps you might want to think about adding the VIP-Login license onto your Report-IT account. This link will provide the instructions and walk the guest through the installation of the Report-IT app, and then it will even secure a login to the system via a URL link. Therefore, you no longer need to walk anyone through the setup process. Using the URL will also keep station information private (i.e., not just the IP/Domain address, but also the username and password to access your Report-IT account).
Cloud-based Remote Control
Another common compliant we see is that some users aren’t familiar with the codec equipment compared to full-time staff and/or engineering staff. This can create a challenge for those who don’t know much about broadcasting or are just filling in for someone else. This is where Tieline’s Cloud Codec Controller application comes in to assist. This application provides the ability for your own technical support staff to access your remote field codecs, and Report-IT Enterprise app users as if they were there in-person. This allows guests and talent to focus on what they are there to do, while still providing the freedom for technicians and engineers to monitor remotes and focus on other projects. It’s a win-win as there is no need to physically send a tech on-site during remote broadcasts, plus you don’t have to worry as much about distortion or poor-quality connections, just take control with a few mouse clicks.
Flexible Remotes with Tieline ViA
The last broadcast use case we have seen that may be useful is when you want to receive multiple on-air signals at once with everyone being able to communicate with each other. Broadcasting live from multiple remote locations is pretty common nowadays with technology during election season. Normally, if you were looking to allow multiple remote sites to be able to communicate with one-another this would require using the studio to mix-minus multiple return feeds properly. This will induce latency and could produce errors. With the Tieline ViA, you can designate one of them as the “Main” broadcast unit that will send a single mixed feed back to the studio, then you can have other ViA’s spread throughout your Election area dial back into the “Main” ViA to report on what they are seeing at their location. This would allow for a two-way low-latency connection between two remote sites. You can even go the extra mile and allow a Report-IT Enterprise connection to dial directly into a ViA assuming it has a WAN/public IP Address associated with it.
Setting up for election coverage always brings its own challenges. Whether or not you are looking for a quick and easy guest interview solution, or more remote control to resolve issues from non-technical staff, or even going the extra mile and taking your election coverage to a whole new level. Here at Tieline we are always working with broadcast groups throughout the world to provide the best possible coverage of your election, sporting events and anything else outside of the studio. If you are interested in more information about any of the solutions discussed visit www.tieline.com, or if you have an interesting story to share, then please feel free to contact me. Jacob@tieline.com
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(“Midterm Election Coverage Solutions”, first published on November 2nd, 2022)
