[BC] RE: That Guy at the PAB who inspected Dana Puopolo'sStation

[Dana Puopolo]

When the station was inspected (it was almost a year after the system went
in-and by the way the monitoring worked so well that we caught the LP2 station
missing a monthly test!), I had already moved to los Angeles. There were at
least two other engineers in Boston who knew how the system worked. I have no
idea whether they were called or not, but my phone here in LA works great-and
it never rang. I was still doing things for the client from here, but that
stopped after the inspection.

Again-the coding was 128 kbps MPEG-2. We tested extensively before putting the
system in. 
I also have dozens of Barix clients doing the same identical thing
successfully every day. Most of these are TV stations who operate satellite
stations in distant communities. Let me assure you, the 'duck farts' are quite
robust. The fact that the clock was not set indicates to me that perhaps the
system was tampered with after I left. Nontheless, I still believe that having
an EAS device in a location that's manned 24/7 is better then having it in a
local studio that's only manned 40 hours a week.

This whole technology isn't new-National Supervisory network was doing this
almost 20 years ago-with the FCC's blessing no less.

I'm not saying that Matt was wrong in not passing them-what I AM saying is
that moving the EAS to the local studio should NOT have been a requirement of
it.  Do any of really think that an untrained secretary knows more about EAS
then a bunch of seasoned operators?
What really needed to be done was to smack THEM into doing their jobs!

Not to mention that the system now in place has the transmitter audio going
THREE places (Boston, studio, transmitter) instead of two-a source of
additional unreliability (the old system went from Boston right to the TX,
while the 'new, improved' chain makes a stop at the local studio where it goes
through an additional board, ANOTHER set of coders and a wireless link that's
twice as long as the original link. Also, now the audio goes through TWO
different ISPs (Verizon and Comcast) while the old system stayed strictly
Verizon (we couldn't get DSL of sufficent upload speed at the studio). 
In the past, flooding in the community resulted in the station being signed on
at night. It was programmed from Boston, with public safety people being
quickly put on the air via telephone. If power goes off at the local studio OR
AT ANY PHONE POLE COMCAST HAS A POWER SUPPLY ON-they are screwed-the cable
Internet will not work. How is this system more reliable then the one that
worked off Verizon't CO battery?

Like I said-what they have now is FAR inferior then what was set up in the
first place (and 100% legal).

-D

From: Jerry Mathis <thebeaver32 at gmail.com>
tion

Dana--were you not there when the station was inspected? It sounds like you
weren't. If the station was your client, why not? I sure would have been.
These inspections are scheduled in advance (at least mine was) so I planned
on being there to answer anything the inspector asked.

With a complicated EAS system that wasn't obvious about how it worked, I
would have expected to personally explain and demonstrate it.

--
Jerry Mathis