WVOK Updates Capability with Tieline Gateway and ViA:
I am the program director for WVOK in Oxford AL, which reaches the Anniston-Oxford metropolitan area and into East Birmingham around 70 miles away. 97.9 FM broadcasts a hot adult contemporary format and 1580 AM broadcasts an ‘Oldies’ format. We have used Tieline Commander G3 codecs for years for remote broadcasts and also use Report-IT, quite often as a backup. We also use a Tieline Bridge-IT as an STL on our AM link.
We do a lot of sports remotes and when it came time to upgrade our old G3 codecs the decision was relatively simple. Our Tielines have always worked reliably, so for the studio we settled on purchasing a Tieline Gateway 8 with a WheatNet-IP card installed, so it is ready for when we upgrade our studio with a new Wheatstone console. This will facilitate easy routing of audio streams across our WheatNet-IP network. We also acquired two ViA codecs.
The ViAs are regularly deployed for play-by-play coverage of Yellow Jackets football games at Oxford High School on our FM station and another traveling game of the week for high school football games in our area on our AM station. A typical gameday broadcast commences with a half hour pre-game show, followed by the game. For home games with the Oxford Yellow Jackets, we add another hour for a tailgate show, so we are on-air live for several hours. In addition to football we also do remotes from major events like the Oxfordfest, the Noble Street Festival, and to promote local businesses. The ViA is very flexible for many different remote applications.
I found the Gateway was relatively simple to set up and basically plug and play. Installation of the Gateway has allowed us to consolidate our studio setup and replace two codecs with one. Plus, we can do two simultaneous remotes if we want and still have additional capacity for Report-IT or any other setups we may consider in the future.
For streaming live remotes we have an AT&T hotspot that we connect to one of the ViA’s LAN ports. At most football games we can usually access a hardwired LAN connection in the press box and can stream over their network back to our Gateway at the studio.
I usually preconfigure the codec before it goes out. Our commentary teams use headset mics and find the codec is user friendly and the touchscreen easy to navigate. They just hit the green button and connect. At games we usually have two hosts with an occasional half time guest. A producer back at the station can run the audio board and communicate back to the remote site as needed.
I like the functionality of the ViA. It is simple to use and really is a studio in a box. The unit seems very sturdy and rugged, and they are very reliable. There are lots of options to connect and there are other really nice features like record and playback. The ViA connects up with our Tieline Gateway back at the studio seamlessly for broadcast.
Want to know more?
For more information on Gateway, Gateway 4, and ViA codecs visit www.tieline.com/products or contact Tieline sales:
- For USA, Canada & Latin America contact: sales@tieline.com
- For Australia and International: info@tieline.com
(“WVOK Updates Capability with Gateway and ViA” first published in Radio World in February 2023)