| MPR’s
"Prairie," Breaks New Ground With CDQPrima If you’ve ever listened to Minnesota Public Radio’s (MPR’s) "Prairie Home Companion" and felt that you were sitting in the auditorium when host Garrison Keillor conjures up his fictional midwestern locale, its quirky inhabitants, and offbeat insights into American life, you can thank the CDQPrima. When "Prairie" is on the road, this digital codec from MUSICAM USA is the key to capturing the essence of the program during live broadcast over ISDN lines. "In large halls, where there’s reverb to consider, the Prima shines,". For a program as popular and enduring as "Prairie Home Companion," they broadcast at 384 kb/s. Even at this transmission rate, Denison explains, MPR saves money, particularly on capital costs, because the CDQPrima 220 replaces the need for portable satellite uplinks. According to Denison, those savings have made it possible to continue taking "Prairie" on the road. "Audio quality is our main concern", comments Denison Hansen, Operations Coordinator of Minnesota Public Radio. That’s important to National Public Radio, to which MPR belongs. National Public Radio (NPR) has long been recognized for the quality and breadth of its musical programming. To ensure that the transmission equals the programming in quality, Denison explains, NPR maintains exacting broadcast standards-- "a minimum of 128 kb/s for mono and 256 kb/s for stereo broadcast." "For stereo concert broadcasts, we’ve used meters to measure noise, and the Prima wins hands down". And he adds that its sound quality is superior to that of the competition. Best of all, they can obtain high quality sound with less equipment and fewer wires at remote locations with the Prima. And if any unexpected condition arises in the field, Denison says that he’s confident knowing the MUSICAM USA technical support team can log into the Prima remotely and resolve the problem. Currently, MPR is using the CDQPrima 220 to establish a "local link" between two of their 30 stations. This arrangement allows stations to send in news and share material simultaneously. "We plan to establish eight hubs, each of which will have two stations," explains Denison. "We are already using the speed dial function to phone into the news desk for audio feeds". MPR would like to expand this unique arrangement and purchase more CDQPrimas in the future¾ as soon as local telephone companies serving additional stations begin to offer ISDN service. For more Information Contact:
Cindy DeVito
Marketing Coordinator
MUSICAM USA |
MUSICAM USA is the d/b/a of Corporate Computer Systems, Inc., Holmdel, NJ USA