By Alfonso Lopez

The Codec Has Become a Swiss Army Tool

Gawley says users want remote control, simple connections, cloud access and more

Charlie Gawley is VP Sales APAC/EMEA of Tieline.

RW: Charlie, what’s the biggest trend in this segment of our industry? Charlie Gawley: Remote control and simple connections are paramount these days. The pandemic has accelerated this demand, but thankfully Tieline was already wellplaced to put remote control of all equipment at the engineer’s fingertips.

From a network control perspective, cloud management of all devices is expected. As an example, Tieline’s Cloud Codec Controller Charlie Gawley lets engineers fully configure and remote control all their codecs remotely from the studio tored and allow remote input level adjustment as well. This has been extremely important during the pandemic, as a broadcast engineer can adjust remote audio levels and other settings as required from their own home.

Simple connections are also facilitated by a traversal server like Tieline’s TieLink, which allows creation of call groups, displays codec “presence” and facilitates NAT traversal.

RW: How do you see codec technologies being deployed now in clients’ facilities? Gawley: Today there are demands to do more with less — essentially looking for that Swiss Army tool in your broadcast kit.

The ViA portable IP mixer/codec has enabled broadcasters to essentially set up a remote operational studio where they can take live calls over SIP, Skype, WhatsApp and mix directly live on-air. Users have been able to do their pre-recorded interviews or commercials and either

to the talent off-air. mix them in live on-air or FTP files back to the studio.

As an example, we have a large or home. Our Report-IT app can be connected, moni

national broadcaster in the United Kingdom that has set up a live mixing studio for both radio and TV programs from an engineers’ lounge room due to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions using two ViAs each in triple mono mode. They are connected to four presenters on ViAs in their own homes — all mixed in the lounge room with program audio sent to a Merlin PLUS multichannel codec in Master Control. A producer is connected over Tieline’s Report-IT app to the Merlin PLUS, where a comms channel is fed

RW: How about this year’s “big story,” the sudden explosion in remote and at-home broadcasting? Gawley: Codecs have played a crucial role in facilitating home broadcasting and keeping stations on-air after the pandemic forced networks to send people home.

For the seasoned Tieline user broadcasting remotely for over two decades, broadcasting from home is just another venue. However, for studio-based talent it would be foreign to them.

There have been two dominant use cases. One involves broadcasters at home using full-featured codecs like the Tieline ViA with record and playback capability and the ability to integrate live callers in a home studio. These codecs also delivered redundant streaming over multiple IP interfaces like cellular and wired interfaces and data aggregation technologies.

The second use case involved rapid deployment to multiple people in an affordable and simple way. Our ReportIT Enterprise app for iOS and Android allowed users to

download a software codec and tap “connect” to go live very simply. All the configuration was done remotely by the engineer at the studio or from their home.

RW: How many ways are there of making connections? Gawley: Sales of ISDN and POTS-capable codecs have definitely tapered off, and everyone has either moved or is moving towards IP audio transport.

From an IP perspective, many codecs support unicast peer-to-peer connections or can multi-unicast to dozens of endpoints. Multicasting is also supported to unlimited endpoints over multicast-capable networks. Codec IP audio streams can be delivered over any IP network and integrate seamlessly with all AES67-compatible broadcast studios.

RW: And how powerful do you think codecs can get? Gawley: Just as processors get more powerful, so do codecs. Today’s leading codecs increasingly include more features and options than ever before. For example, audio processing like EQ, compression and limiting is performed in some. Multiple connections can be configured with multiple redundant streams and data aggregation.

RW: What best practice tips should buyers be aware of in 2020? Gawley: From an STL and audio distribution perspective, the codecs of today increasingly integrate high-density streaming features, which deliver scalable, space-saving

For example, our new Gateway multichannel DSP-powered codec delivers 16 codecs in a compact 1RU design with flexible analog, AES3 and AES67 I/O. From a remote broadcast perspective, the leading codecs can connect multiple streams for program and separate communications or can stream to multiple endpoints simultaneously. When bandwidth becomes limited the leading codecs offer network data aggregation in addition to stream diversity.

Record and playback, FTP upload/download, audio processing (EQ, limiting and compression), redundant streaming and data aggregation, are just some of the features buyers should look out for.

RW: How have AoIP technology developments been reflected in the look and function of codecs? Gawley: Audio over IP has been Tieline’s bread and butter for over 16 year, enabling broadcasters to send audio over the public internet, and is nothing new to us.

Tieline had implemented strategies to mitigate packet loss with Forward Error Correction and Auto Jitter Buffer techniques while other codec manufacturers were stipulating use of the five 9 MPLS networks. In 2007 the EBU

A national broadcaster in the U.K. set up a live mixing studio from an engineers’ home using two ViAs each in triple mono mode, connected to four presenters in their own homes.

foreshadowed that ISDN one day would cease to exist and wanted to have a similar level of interoperability over IP. They set up a working party, which Tieline was a member of, that gave rise to the EBU 3326 Interoperability standard over IP with the SIP protocol at its core, and Tieline was the first non-European manufacturer to implement the standard alongside AEQ, AETA, Orban and Mayah.

Fast-forward a number of years, the studio has caught up to where AoIP in the studio is rapidly becoming the options. It’s what our customers are demanding.

norm. Tieline was ahead of the curve implementing the WheatNet-IP protocol in its codecs, from there others added Livewire, Ravenna and Dante. Given all these different proprietary AoIP standards, both the AES and EBU got the industry together and now we have AES67.

RW: And what will codecs look like in the future, if we use them at all? Gawley: Codecs will be required for as long as IP networks are imperfect, which is the foreseeable future.

It’s true that some networks can carry full bandwidth PCM audio over fiber, but these networks generally make up the backbone of larger networks and their primary studio-to-studio infrastructure. Transmitter sites often don’t have fiber runs due to their location or the expense of installation. Remotes are performed from anywhere and often rely on cellular and other wired services that still require a codec to reliably transport audio.

Lossy networks like the internet are imperfect and still require “smart” IP technology to reliably transport audio due to jitter and packet loss; this is where one should look for bit-stream diversity.

Despite significant advances and increases in available bandwidth, cellular networks can at times suffer from capacity constraints. This is where data bonding/aggregation comes into play and one should look for this to be included in a codec, rather than as a clunky peripheral piece of hardware that introduces an additional point of failure.

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RW: What will the codec of the future look like, if we use one at all? How powerful can codecs get? Jackson: As for the future: Fully flexible drop-and-drag DSP boxes, with inputs and outputs on AOIP. You pay for correction and buffering to make sure that lost packets

what you consume so you are able to scale up and down depending on your requirements at the time.

If you think about virtual environments and how much resource these environments have, there doesn’t seem to be a limit to power.

RW: What best practice tips should codec buyers be aware of in 2020? Jackson: Plan for the future. If you don’t have AoIP just yet, it probably won’t be long.

Think about the environment. Is it being installed into a data room or carted to every football game? How Fitch: Since we have 15 of our show hosts broadcasting board to monitor and connect all of the codecs that our

strong is the 4G/5G signal in your area. Do you require dual bonded SIMs?

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Toven: AoIP has made implementing multi-channel codecs much simpler. Instead of a rack full of AES or even analog audio wiring, the codec has no traditional audio I/O at all. One such product that we currently use is the Telos iPort. This streamlines the installation and implementation of codecs in our AoIP based facility considerably. The codec has very few physical controls and metering on it. Instead you have a 1RU box that can handle eight or more channels of encoding and decoding with all monitoring and control performed via the network.

RW: What will the codec of the future look like, if we use one at all? Toven: As connectivity continues to improve, we may in fact not require codecs anymore. I can envision a time where we are able to pass multiple channels of uncompressed AoIP between facilities directly. This would further simplify installations by eliminating one more step in the chain and improve audio quality by reducing the number of cascading codecs, a problem that has plagued engineers since the early days of bit-reduced encoding. I think what will become more important rather than codecs in this scenario is precision timing sources synchronized to GPS.

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Consoles that are capable of doing multiple mix-minus feeds have been invaluable. We have been able to keep our staff healthy and sounding great on the air.

RW: What functions and features are being offered that engineers who haven’t bought a codec in awhile should know about? Fitch: The ability to use multiple internet connections to back up the codec’s connection. The codec can use error are recovered, which is a great asset. A cable modem can be backed up with a wireless hotspot to ensure a stable connection. The ability to remotely control the codec in the field from the studio and have the codec email if there is a problem.

RW: How many ways are there of making connections? Fitch: We use whatever connection that is available to us: FIOS, cable modems, private MPLS networks, public and private WiFi and Plum cases that bond two cellular carriers.

RW: How have AoIP technology developments been reflected in codecs? from home due to COVID-19, ease of use and control is the most important function that I have seen. We have to make sure that the codecs are as simple as possible to set up and operate.

Three of our morning shows each have three co-hosts connecting to the studio before 6 a.m. That is nine simultaneous remotes using Comrex Access codecs. Having one-button pre-programmed connections is a necessity to make sure everyone can connect themselves.

We use Comrex Fleet Commander and Comrex Switch

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hosts are using from home. We can see the quality of the connection and make changes on one app, so we don’t have to login to multiple codecs to check connectivity issues.

Newer consoles are able to provide multiple mix-minus feeds so multiple hosts and phone callers can all be on the air simultaneously. We used to struggle with one remote and one caller, now we do three remotes and two callers without batting an eye. No echo or “I can’t hear you” complaints any longer.

The board can be set up by anyone, since the mix-minus in done by the consoles automatically.

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