[BC] Internet STLs

[Mike McCarthy]

I told my IP guy to work with who ever he needed to make them work and
sound good as a back-up STL. Whether he called Dana I don't know...but I
told him to. That said, the set-up and management is/was cumbersome and
printed documentation and support completely lacking.  And we could not
get them to not clip like the dickens at the input running 0dBu balanced
audio (normally feeding our Zypher).

And no, I'm not going to degrade my program audio by attenuating the audio
10dB just to account for a cost reduced front end not capable of
pro-levels, then need to add a line amp at the other end to restore levels
back to match my primary STL. That's assinine engineering.

While Dana will stand up and say "I support them and am available to
answer questions", the configuration questions my IT guy was asking
SHOULDN'T necessitate phone calls to support. It should be on-line FAQ or
in a printed manual. I think that's one reason why Dana is so hard to
reach at times. He's sidetracked with addressing simple issues which
shouldn't require his time.

One other thing...we were shipped units with VERY old firmware which
needed updating right out of the box. Problem was the manuals (if you can
call them that) were for newer versions which was different than loaded.
That took a couple hours to figure out alone, then to update the firmware.

Time is money too.  What you save in captial cost may not offset savings
due to increased implimentation costs as well as labor to configure.  With
all the time my IT guys spent, plus outboard gear needed to equalize
levels I could have installed a BRIC or Tie-Line and been on faster.

My observations:  Barix needs to stop thinking cheap (negative conotation
inferred) and make their boxes more compatible with present day
implimentation standards. Including packaging---RACK MOUNT!!!  I
appreciate the frugal nature of the company.  BUT...it cost them a
multiple system sale.

One other general (non-Barix) note...I'm finding it increasingly difficult
to work with shallow boxes in a rack between MUCH deeper items...like
switchers, processors, et al.  I'm finding rack space to be quite valuable
and I'd rather have a deeper box which is 1/2 R/U wide on a shelf than a
full width, but shallow box.  B-Tools has figured this out...despite their
boxes also being shallow. His shelf's are universal and don't take up
space unecessaily.

MM

> That's a first. Did you speak with Barix tech support?
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mike McCarthy" <towers at mre.com>
>
> I just sent a pair back. Could not get them to sound good no matter what
> we
> did.  Your luck might be different.