[BC] WideOrbit Automation

[Glen Kippel]

On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 11:12 AM, Kevin Raper <kj4hyd at gmail.com> wrote:
>Glen Kippel wrote:
>> Your choice of automation will depend on your needs.

>My needs are pretty simple: I have One Network, EWTN, that uses Subsonic
>Cue Tones. I Record the program that runs from 7PM to 8PM to replay in
>the Noon Hour. I also insert 30 Minutes of Locally produced programming
>7 Days a Week, and 2 Hours of Local Programming on Friday Afternoon. I
>am running 2 AMs and I am going to add another AM and 2 FMs in the near
>future. About half of my production is done in the Prod Room, and the
>other half is done in my Home Studio or in the main studio. We currently
>move Audio from Production to on-air with USB Thumb Drives. ALL of our
>audio is .wav files.

>WCKI is currently using BSI Simian. It does what we need, but is VERY
>Buggy and really sucks up the RAM in the computer.

>WQIZ is currently using BSI WaveStation. It only will do Hard Breaks and
>also sucks up tons of RAM. It will not even run a Week without locking up.

>Back in 2002 I works at a station that had RDS Phantom. It was kinda
>clunky to program, but it worked flawlessly. There are a few stations I
>know of with newer Phantoms and they just LOVE them.

>My GM has finally had enough of Simian and and a salesman from WideOrbit
>has been talking to him.
>------------------
In my professional opinion, WideOrbit is way overkill for what you are doing.  And I have never been impressed with BSI.  As to Phantom, I looked at that when building KHCS and while I liked the concept, the wierd, funky-clunky GUI just was a turn-off.  I got the DigiLink II (later the III) and it just sat there and ran for about 10 years with minimal problems. 
 
There's a lot of talk here about customer support.  If you bought a new car and had to take it in to the shop every month, would you brag, "Their service people are great!  They get it fixed every time in less than half an hour!"  I don't think so.  I prefer systems that don't break down.  Maybe call them once every 4 or 5 years. 
 
Enco is pretty good; I understand that they have some less-involved systems than their original DAD.  I worked with the Scott SS32 for a little over a year and found that, while it is easy for jocks to use, the behind-the-scenes programming is quite complex.  If you don't have live jocks, you may be better off with something else.
 
Before you contact WO, take a look at the Arrakis DigiLink Xtreme.  For $100 a month (or $1000 a year) you can get a system that will do what you want.  That's less than what most places charge for customer support.  You can network in your production computer running Adobe Audition or whatever you are using for editing software, put the free version of Xtreme on that computer for backup, and go for it. 
 
No, I don't work for Arrakis.  But I have used their automation since 1992 and have found that it gets the job done with minimum hassle.