[BC] Your favorite TieLine

[Lloyd Collins]

Jason,

We use a bunch of Tieline systems for sports. I go along with the 
recommendation to use a mix minus for the return audio to the remote 
location. If your console has an audition or mono bus that can be 
selected simultaneously with program, you have an easy mix minus. Just 
make sure the operators don't send the input incoming from the Tieline 
back to the remote on that output bus. One other thing you might like is 
the ability to hook an inexpensive mic to one of the inputs on the 
studio end and have an easy intercom to the folks at the remote end.

The Tieline does give you  bi-directional, simultaneous, quality audio 
paths. The absolute quality of the audio depends on the data rate that 
can be achieved over the POTS circuit you have, of course. Even at the 
lowest rates, it is pretty good. Our experience has been that the POTS 
line connection is best if it is a real POTS line direct to the 
Tielines. Going through pbx's and so on can be a lot of trouble. In our 
experience, if you get an initial connection on a pbx based system, 
beware of data loss dropouts etc. Also good to make sure the wiring to 
your phone jack is not  "bridged". At one of the universities that had 
school-owned lines on campus, they had paralleled the lines that went to 
us at the football stadium and the gym. Tieline hated that extra piece 
of unterminated wire hanging on the line! We asked the school's telco 
guys connect the incoming line  to only the extension we need and things 
went smoothly after that.

The newer ones, later G3's and newer, have ethernet  built in. I've been 
experimenting with that using a Ubiquiti 5Ghz wireless system. So far, 
the results are good. I want to use it for stereo remotes around town 
where we can get a decent path for the 5Ghz radios.

Best of luck with your set-up.

Lloyd