The market's response to an increased flurry of audio gathering and production in the field has brought us new products and gadgetry. Creative spirits have been ignited to greater levels with tools that are now, more than ever, highly versatile, powerful and compact. A simple news reporter field kit used to consist of a heavy tape recorder and a bulky microphone. Now a solid-state recorder with many hours of recording time, a built-in microphone, and an internal microprocessor so feature packed that it rivals audio software found on many desktop computers, fits in the palm of your hand. Audio recording and distribution applications for smart phones are developing at an unforeseen pace. When marrying existing technologies with new, the end results can be remarkable. While we look at cutting-edge technology, we need to be mindful of many long-time basics — especially when responsible for one-shot, one-take productions.

Phone it in

The iPhone has made an obvious mark on technology users, and several companies are capitalizing on the device's popularity. Tieline recently announced its Report-IT Live iPhone application for wireless IP reporting. The application turns an iPhone into an IP audio codec for live, portable, two-way wireless news gathering. The application enables the phone connection to an in-studio Tieline codec. The iPhone can, among many other features, be used to simultaneously report and record live or record and forward at a later time.

Comrex recently introduced a free app called the Access Reporter Codec (ARC). ARC makes an IP call over an Android-based mobile phone's 3G or Wi-Fi channel to a selected Access or Bric-Link codec in the studio using a high-quality wideband, full-duplex audio channel between the two devices.

For Enco program automation software users, the company recently announced its iDAD product for use with the iPhone and iPad. The iDAD provides for the record, trim and tail, and labeling of audio for transmission to in-station Enco DAD and Presenter systems. Remote control of those systems is also possible through the iPhone and iPad.

Similarly, RCS has released the iPush, which allows users to voice track and upload files to RCS NexGen Digital systems via an iPhone.

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