The New York broadcast operation center was this remote truck – a former bread delivery truck.

Our broadcast from the Jazz Standard in New York City went mostly as planned, thanks to great preparation from our broadcast team. A month before the broadcast, I met at the site for a survey with the event and broadcast producers, as well as with Steve Remote of Aurasonic, who provided the mix truck. We spent a few hours talking through how everything would be handled, from power access to running the audio and com (including video) lines from the performance space, through the kitchen and out to the truck.

Unfortunately, I also went back three times after that, to deal with a non-operational ISDN circuit (one of three ordered). Despite several visits from Verizon techs, we were never able to get it functioning, and thus were limited to a 128kb/s primary feed and a 128kb/s backup to NPR in Washington, DC.

Jim Anderson’s music mix was created on a Midas Verona 320 console, using True Systems Precision8 mic pres and a complement of outboard equipment. Recording was to Alesis HD24XR and CD two-track. The mix was fed to the Neustar for N-CLAS preconditioning and A-to-D conversion, then AES into our APT Toyko. A second (backup) feed went directly to a Telos Zephyr Express.

New York Equipment List

• Alesis HD24XR and Tascam CD recorders
• APT Tokyo
• DBX and Kurzweil audio processing
• Harris/Neural Neustar
• Midas Verona 320 mix console
• Neumann, AKG and Shure mics
• Telos Zephyr Express
• True Systems Precision8 microphone pres

David Tallacksen, NPR technical director/NYC venue, Jazz Standard on 27th Street
David Tallacksen is the Operations Director for WBGO, where he is responsible for the technical aspects of their many remote and studio recordings, among other things. He has worked in various technical and production roles in public radio since 2001.

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