Cheap Alternatives To ISDN

I was talking to someone recently, who said "Oh and by the way, there are cheaper alternatives to ISDN.." just as we were saying goodbye. We lost touch and I'm none the wiser. Don't you hate it when that happens?  

Are there cheaper alternatives to ISDN, for delivering voice work from home to radio stations?

And, I don't know how the ISDN technology works, but I've always wanted to know why broadband internet could not be used for this, isn't broadband internet a superior and faster comms anyway?

Are there cheaper alternatives to ISDN, for delivering voice work from home to radio stations?

Maybe - you could check out www.onspeed.com for a start.  Not sure if it works for your particular purpose though.

And, I don't know how the ISDN technology works, but I've always wanted to know why broadband internet could not be used for this, isn't broadband internet a superior and faster comms anyway?

Broadband (in the form of xDSL) is another step in the direction of high-speed connections and, if you can get it in your area, you could use it to move files around faster than with ISDN.

I've already got ADSL Graeme. I phoned my ISP today and asked them whether ADSL was complatible with ISDN. The guy mumbled something like "No, it's totally different" before the now familiar, "I'm not alowed to answer your questions, we only offer support for ISDN".

The ISDN I'm talking about, is when you connect from home to another ISDN-equiped radio studio in a radio station or production company. The audio quality is broadcast quality, and they record you as you voice their ads down the line. A lot of voice artsits have this setup at home now. It's very convenient, as you can imagine. But the problem is that it's quite expensive. I was hoping to learn more about the cheaper solutions.

OK - I see what we are talking about now.  I'm not a broadcast guy, so I can't really answer your exact question - I'm sure there are those better qualified to do that, around here.

What I do recall (from a few years back and it was in the UK) was something like this being setup for a live broadcast from a big AV show I was working on.  In that case, I do know that special lines were rented from the telephone company for the duration of the exercise.  I imagine that this was where the money went, since it was quite expensive to do this.

Yes that's right, I think BT's standard price of ISDN is £150 installation and £25/month, plus you have to buy/rent the ISDN hardware codec, which in this case is box.

BFM,
Something else you might want to look into is a program called AudioTXCommunicator.
I haven't used it, but a colleague of mine (who is a voiceover guy based here in Sydney) reckons it's the ducks guts.
It apparently allows for realtime studio quality audio transfer via the 'net, but obviously, you need to be on some form of high speed connection for it to work properly.
Maybe worth a look....

If you were in control of your own closed network I'm sure you could find better delivery methods than ISDN.  However, AFAIK, the only relatively universal method to deliver to/from broadcasters is still ISDN.  For anything else you'll have to persuade your clients to accept something they're not used to...and may not be set up to receive.

Bob

BFM,
Something else you might want to look into is a program called AudioTXCommunicator.
I haven't used it, but a colleague of mine (who is a voiceover guy based here in Sydney) reckons it's the ducks guts.
It apparently allows for realtime studio quality audio transfer via the 'net, but obviously, you need to be on some form of high speed connection for it to work properly.
Maybe worth a look....

That looks really interesting noddy. I have ADSL, and I have a pro ASIO sound card. It looks like you need to have an ISDN card (or an ISDN compatible card). I wonder if someone technical can read this below and explain it in a couple of sentences please:

http://www.audiotx.com/sound_isdn_hw.html

Looking at the second half of your question (whether ADSL or other broadband is suitable for radio work) I'd have to say the answer is a definite "maybe".

The trouble is that any IP based transmission system is still subject to all the usual potential internet pitfalls.  No matter how good your personal connection is, each data packet you send is still subject to the usual vagaries of the internet.  General congestion, sticky routers, etc etc. can affect your feed.

Add the extra problem that ADSL and Cable broadband systems do NOT guarantee bandwith (there is contention built in..for example 50 to 1 for BT Openworld Home, and I believe 20:1 for the business level service) and you can see that any net based delivery system will not be 100% reliable.

This isn't necessarily a problem if you're not using it for live work.  If you're transmitting items for later use then the net could work for you.

However, I'd throw in that, to the best of my knowledge, ISDN is still the de facto standard here in the UK.  Every radio station I know uses ISDN but they may NOT all be set up to pull things off the net on a regular basis.  Depending on your relationship with the stations you may have to negotiate on this.

Hope this helps,

Bob

[AudioTX Communicator]

Hi Bob, I actually came across something that I thought might be the answer but it turned out to be a flase alarm. I think you might find this interesting. It's a software codec that allows you to use an ADSL or cable connection in the same way as an ISDN line! So why is it not the ultimate solution? Well, first of all in order for this to work, both ends need to have this particular sofware, and you also need to have an ISDN card fitted into you PC. But it is a really cheap solution for those who work remotely with the same people/companies all the time.

It's called the AudioTX Communicator....

http://www.isdnaudio.com/audiotx.html

Here's a forum post form the company, and I quote..

AudioTX Communicator will allow you to connect over both ISDN and IP, but here’s the difference:

Over ISDN (with an ISDN card - our preferred ones are £47 - and an ISDN line or Home highway) you can connect to all of the standard ISDN codecs like CDQ Prima, Telos, Glensound etc. This is the way most V/O’s, production studios, radio stations etc work with Communicator.

Over IP (Broadband, ADSL, Cable modem, leased line, LAN, WAN, Satellite, WiFi, WiFi Hotspots etc) you can connect two Communicator systems - i.e. the Communicator PCs at both ends have to be connected over IP. Where this is great is if you regularly connect to a small number of client studios - there’s a saving to be had in using Communicator at both ends (if the remote doesn’t have it already) in dial up costs and ISDN rental. Typically you should only need a bitrate similar to ISDN - this will give you exactly the same quality. So 128kbps, which is well within what broadband gives, is fine. The delay is only slightly longer than ISDN - say about 1/2 a second typically.

I’m afraid there is no way to cross connect with say ADSL at one end and ISDN at the other.

Hope that helps…

Mo Dutta