WSAJ Calls on Broadcast Host
University Station Taps Phone Hybrid to Handle Additional Games
Radio World User Report, August 1, 2004
By Darren Morton
Director of Media Services
WSAJ Radio Director
Grove City, PA. Grove City College sits nestled away on a quiet hillside in Western Pennsylvania, near the intersection of I-80 and I-79. The college’s broadcasting history dates back to 1911 when physics professor, Dr Herbert Harmon, began signal tests under experimental call sign 8CO. Dr Harmon’s experiments led to the licensing of WSAJ(AM) in November 1922 and, eventually, to WSAJ(FM), which was licensed in 1968.
Today, WSAJ-FM is a 3kw class-A station operating from a master control location in the GCC’s Technological Learning Center and studios in Ketler Dorm.
Varsity News
Last year, the college made a commitment to carry local high-school sports on the station as a favor to the community of license. To accommodate the additional sports broadcasts, I was tasked with finding a supplemental phone hybrid for the studio, preferably one that could easily be re-deployed elsewhere on campus if needed. After some extensive web-based research and a chat with my cronies in SBE Chapter 122, Youngstown, OH (hi guys!), I finally settled on an unknown - to me at that time - product: the JK Audio Broadcast Host phone hybrid. A bonus to making that selection was the selling price, for it enabled me to squeak two through the budget.
The Broadcast Host is 16-bit, DSP-based, phone hybrid squeezed into an exceptionally convenient, 7-by-6 inch desktop box. Two units could feasibly be rack-mounted on a 1 RU shelf, but that is not the intended application for the box. I would refer you to the company’s Innkeeper series for a studio-based, rack-able hybrid.
On the front panel, controls and metering are clearly marked - I love black letters on a white background - and fairly well-spaced considering the size of the box and the feature-set. Left-to-right, the first two buttons are “Call” and “Drop” that, strangely enough, allow you to take and drop a call respectively. Between those are the power and hook-status LED’s.
Next is my favorite feature of the Broadcast Host: separate send and receive LED strings. Although the metering is limited to -20, -9, and -3dB indicators, the information conveyed is invaluable. Our previous hybrid had only a clip limiter LED on the send level. The Host’s metering allows even my newest student technical operators to accurately drive and monitor their remote lines.
Just past the LED’s, there are the two (!) Send pots. Send 1 controls the input level from the balanced, XLR input jack on the back of the unit. A switch on the back makes selection of mic or line-level input very easy - no recessed dip-switches! Send 2 trims the level fed into a 3.5mm, mono, line-input, jack that also appears on the back.
The Caller level control is next up. This pot adjusts the feed level of caller-only audio going to your equipment. Note that the receive level metering is sampled after the DSP, but before the Caller level control – hence, adjustments in output level are not reflected on receive metering.
The last control on the face is the exceedingly handy, headphone output control. The headphone output contains “send” and “receive” audio, mixed by the Send and Caller pots on the unit. The headphone jack, a 3.5mm stereo jack, is located beside it. My only real complaint about the Host is the lack of a ¼ inch headphone jack.
Moving to the back of the Broadcast Host, the various jacks and switches are arranged neatly like tiny pieces of real estate. Standard telco line and phone jacks appear on the left side of the unit, followed by a switch to enable “auto-answer” which turns the hybrid into a one-ring, auto-coupler. However, the “call” and “drop” buttons are still active when in auto-answer mode.
XLR jacks for “Caller” output and “Send 1” audio, and the afore-mentioned mic/line switch, are next, followed by the 3.5mm “Send 2” input. The next 3.5mm jack is a TRS affair unit that offers Send audio on the tip and Caller audio on the ring, both obviously unbalanced. The remote jack is an RJ-45 that offers some amazing functionality to the unit, especially considering the Host’s intended applications.
The primary use for the remote jack is to interface the Host with a JK Audio Guest Module 1 remote control unit. The Guest Module 1 offers the user a standard DTMF touchpad for dialing, remote hook capability, and line status LED’s. But, as the Remote jack provides ground, hook/drop closure, DTMF input, and power on separate pins of the RJ-45, a user can very easily interface the Host with broadcast consoles, automation equipment, etc. Neat stuff, indeed.
WSAJ’s Broadcast Hosts cover a lot of territory for us. One is used on the main remote program line to extract audio to the Master Control environment, and the other is used an auto-coupler to feed an off-site web-streaming provider. But, thanks to their small size and easy operation, they have also seen action as:
One-mic, sports remote interface; just add a headset/mic, call the remote Host from the studio, and you’re golden. Darn that 1/8” jack though…
Auto-couplers for confidence monitoring ; WSAJ’s local remotes typically employ dry pairs or a Marti for send audio. At the remote site, the crew calls one of our Hosts, set to auto-answer mode, and instantly connects to cue audio from the studio, unassisted. The phone interface also functions as the program line back-up.
A talk studio audio interface; members of the GCC faculty routinely appear on national and local radio talk shows. With a Broadcast Host set up in an office, along with a set of headphones (again, darn that 1/8” jack), and a good mic, the faculty member has an instant studio that keep them within easy reach of their resource materials. Plus, the ease of operation makes the system Ph.D.-proof.
I have been very pleased with our Broadcast Hosts, to say the least. Their audio quality is great; their DSP creates a null deep enough to allow live cueing on the program line if needed. The feature set is nice, considering the price-point and intended application.
And, particularly important to a small shop such as WSAJ, the Broadcast Hosts are incredibly versatile. WSAJ plans a studio rebuild sometime next year, as I really need to consolidate the studios and MC environment. Based on my experience with the Broadcast Hosts, I plan to deploy more boxes from JK Audio.
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