2010 Newport Jazz Festival broadcast problems

[Gobo Diddly]

Was listening to WBGO's what I think was a live broadcast from the Newport Jazz Festival today and they were having real problems with losing the signal. I think that WBGO was getting the feed from NPR. Wonder if others heard this, too.

My thoughts go out to the engineers wherever the problem was.

When it was working, it sounded great!!!!!

[Remoteness]

There was a serious failure with the Internet provider while on location.
The Cox Communications repair truck showed up, but the problem was a lot bigger than they were able to handle on the spot during the scheduled broadcast.

From what I understand the problem was not on location at Fort Adams State Park.

It was a serious drag for NPR/WBGO.

[Bixby]

I'm still waiting to hear any details, will share if/when I can. But Steve is correct, connectivity for the entire festival suffered drastically - apparently they were even having problems with tickets sales that depended on internet connectivity. The main broadcast connection was IP, with a backup of cellular. IP speeds slowed to where we couldn't get enough data through. And cellular was not happening with compromised signals and many more users at the festival.

I'm glad I was only responsible for the mix at one of the stages - NPR was handling the broadcast booth and connectivity. We also had mixes from Antonio Oliart of WGBH and Steve Remote. NPR's Kevin Wait did finally get the broadcast back up, moving to an alternate production truck that had better connectivity (I'm not sure how/why).

The one redeeming thing is you can still go and listen to (and even download some of) the music. Check it out here.

David Tallacksen, WBGO

[ebs.audio]

Has that much changed in the four years since I got out of broadcasting? Back then, all our live remotes connected with an ISDN and a backup, and I always figured the big boys were sending their signals straight to the satellite on-site.

Has IP replaced all that? Back then, we were scared of latency and how unpredictable traffic-based network problems can be, but then again, I don't remember anyone marketing any hardware to broadcasters for sending audio over a standard internet connection.

Was the decision to go with IP connections based on the number of acts performing simultaneously? Was it an issue of cost, or was it an effort to get higher bitrates than ISDN allows? Sorry if I'm hijacking this thread, but I think a bunch of us would be curious to hear what's normal these days for how these connections are made.

[Bixby]

In my world of radio remote broadcasts, ISDN still reigns supreme. However, phone companies are less and less willing to install ISDN lines. I've even had places in NYC where I couldn't get a new ISDN install. I didn't have time to discuss this with NPR, but my guess is that ISDN isn't even available as a new install at Fort Adams in Newport.

Audio over IP boxes are getting better, as are codecs and latency (not a huge deal when doing a one-way broadcast like the Jazz Festival). But cost savings over ISDN is not huge, unless you're doing very long broadcasts where long distance charges build up. Satellite is still very expensive for one-off type broadcasts. So in my book the main reason to do IP at this point is availability - it may be your only choice.

David Tallacksen
VP, Operations and Engineering
WBGO

[t_chance]

On our first (and only) go at IP live broadcast or stream was with WinAmp to a server, and then we picked it up of of the server at the station. The stream was interrupted too many times and we bailed out on it. We had run tests for many hours on previous days with no hiccups. I don't know if it was a Saturday night special problem because of folks downloading their netflicks, or some other reason, but we have not revisited IP streaming live since then. Is it the technology isn't up to it in the TCIP or is it just a software issue? The way one person described it to me was the packets are sent at random (and they have probably gone through different routes) and re-assembled after enough info has been passed through that they have the proper instructions.

Is their a better program for streaming?

[Bixby]

There are many variables in audio over public IP, so there are few hard and fast rules. Obviously your connection is key, you need good throughput and high reliability. I haven't used WinAmp for that kind of streaming, but you'll want to use software that allows you to control for the variables of your connection - i.e. buffer size, packet size etc. Most hardware codecs allow you to do this to at least some extent. Some will dynamically adjust as connection quality changes.

Musicam has a software version of their hardware codecs that runs on PCs. There's another that I can't recall at the moment. But I think more broadcasters are using standalone hardware codecs.

[marty lester]

if i'm not mistaken, we did all the webcasting from the HullabaLou Festival
in Louisville via IP. i know there were no ISDN feeds so i think i'm correct. from what i heard we had pretty solid connections.

marty.

[iluvatar]

When you guys talk about doing audio over IP, what quality of IP service are you talking about? We've got a T1 at the shop that we use for VOIP & data and never have dropouts, except when somebody at Verizon falls asleep and turns off the whole circuit. We had a Comcast business class cable service that had a higher theoretical bandwidth than the T1, but the consistency and QoS wasn't guaranteed the way it is with the T1.

-Dan.

[panatrope]

Down here in Melbourne (OZ not FL) a number of us have been using Internet connectivity for a number of years. For AM mono, bitrates of 64kbit/s are fine (even Musicam/mp2) and for FM stereo anywhere from 96K (aac2) to 224kbit/s (Musicam). Internet connections are via institutional (high volume) to normal commercial (cable internet). In some circumstances, we have to rely on mobile data - we have a nationwide network (Telstra NextG) which has a 42Mbit/s maximum data rate. In many circumstances, the mobile is used as a hot standby for the terrestrial path. Equipment used in the broadcasters I work with include Prodys hardware and AudioTX software. Just getting to know luci ...

The only odd problem has been firewall settings in the institutional network or suchlike. And of course relatively high latency. Otherwise, it is now accepted that wherever you have mobile coverage, you can get a broadcast circuit.

[Bixby]

For one-off remote broadcasts, a T1 is usually not available or cost-effective. High-grade consumer IP service is the minimum, though I've done broadcasts with just 768kbps upstream. I look forward to the day Fiber is readily available...