Earshot IFB Manual
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Product Manual Comrex EarShot IFB Manual I. Comrex Introduction 4 II. EarShot IFB 5 IntroductIon 5 About MIx-MInus 6 III. Setting Up EarShot IFB 7 HArdwAre AttAcHMents And connectIons 7 AudIo connectIons 8 contAct closures 8 MAkIng connectIons 8 IV. Setting up EarShot IFB IP Information 10 IntroductIon 10 confIgurIng EarsHot Ifb IP InforMAtIon 10 V. Operation of EarShot IFB 15 VI. Telephone Connections 16 IntroductIon to sIP 16 settIng uP A sIP ProvIder or PBX 17 confIgurIng for A PBX 20 gAtewAys 20 sIP trunks 21 EarShot IFB • Dec 2018 VII. System Behavior 24 AudIo settIngs 24 Ifb settIngs 25 otHer oPtIons 26 PIns 27 VIII. More About SIP 28 nAt router Issues wItH sIP 29 IX. Why do I Hear Hear Myself Myself? 31 MIx-MInus And elIMInAtIng ecHo 31 X. Information for IT Managers About EarShot IFB 35 MAInfrAMe 35 XI. Software Licenses 37 I. Comrex Introduction About Comrex Comrex has been building reliable, high quality broadcast equipment since 1961. Our products are used daily in every part of the world by networks, stations and program producers. Every product we manufacture has been carefully designed to function flawlessly, under the harshest conditions, over many years of use. Each unit we ship has been individually and thoroughly tested. Comrex stands behind its products. We promise that if you call us for technical assistance, you will talk directly with someone who knows about the equipment and will do everything possible to help you. You can contact Comrex by phone at 978-784-1776. Our toll free number in North America is 800-237-1776. Product information along with engineering notes and user reports are available on our website at www.comrex.com. Our email address is [email protected]. Warranty and Disclaimer All equipment manufactured by Comrex Corporation is warranted by Comrex against defects in material and workmanship for one year from the date of original purchase, as verified by the return of the Warranty Registration Card. During the warranty period, we will repair or, at our option, replace at no charge a product that proves to be defective, provided you obtain return authorization from Comrex and return the product, shipping prepaid, to Comrex Corporation, 19 Pine Road, Devens, MA 01434 USA. For return authorization, contact Comrex at 978-784- 1776 or fax 978-784-1717. This Warranty does not apply if the product has been damaged by accident or misuse or as the result of service or modification performed by anyone other than Comrex Corporation. With the exception of the warranties set forth above, Comrex Corporation makes no other warranties, expressed or implied or statutory, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, which are hereby expressly disclaimed. In no event shall Comrex Corporation have any liability for indirect, consequential or punitive damages resulting from the use of this product. 4 II. EarShot IFB Introduction Comrex EarShot IFB is a hardware-based system designed to answer phone calls and deliver live audio feeds to callers. EarShot IFB is designed to provide telephone-based live studio program and IFB audio to field- based remote broadcasts, like TV ENG reports. EarShot IFB has four audio inputs (or feeds) and callers can choose between these four feeds. Feed choice is made by callers using DTMF (Touch Tone) selection via PIN code. EarShot IFB does not offer studio-based controls of feeds - all controls are managed by callers. EarShot IFB is capable of providing Interruptible Fold Back (IFB) functionality. Two of the feed inputs to the device can be alternately configured as IFB inputs. When used as IFB, audio activity on this input will “interrupt” the audio of a different feed until the IFB audio ends. 5 EarShot IFB does not offer studio-side audio output functionality. No output ports to hear callers are provided. By default, EarShot IFB is a “one-to-many” device that sends only its own feed audio to callers. Callers can, via DTMF, enable their source audio to be added to the mix (to send to other callers on that feed). This creates a conferencing function. Also by default, incoming callers are placed into a “waiting room” until they input a PIN for a specific feed. As an option, Feed 3 can be chosen to be the “waiting room” feed before any PIN is sent by the caller. EarShot IFB interfaces only to Voice-over-IP (VoIP) telephone circuits. These virtual phone lines are provided to EarShot IFB over its Ethernet connection. VoIP phone lines can be delivered from cloud-based VoIP providers, VoIP- based PBXs (in many cases), and via hardware gateways devices that bridge legacy phone circuits (e.g. T1/E1, POTS) to VoIP. Separate setup menus are available for each of these. EarShot IFB interfaces to VoIP services using the SIP protocol. EarShot IFB can interface to most normal calls using standard telephony audio encoding (G.711). In some circumstances, EarShot IFB can deliver audio to “pure” end-to-end VoIP callers with higher fidelity, using encoders like G.722 and Opus. EarShot IFB can handle thirty calls from standard telephone sources, spread across one, two, three, or four audio feeds. It can handle up to ten simultaneous high fidelity feeds to VoIP callers. It can also handle a mix of both, at varying capacities. EarShot IFB is housed in a 1U 19” rackmount mainframe chassis. Level of each feed is displayed on front panel LEDs. The mainframe serves a web page that provides all controls and configuration. Initial setup requires use of the Comrex Device Manager software utility. About Mix-Minus Comrex support spends a lot of time discussing mix-minus, as it is not an obvious concept. In studio telephony integration, there is a golden rule: People connecting from outside the studio must never be sent their own audio back to themselves. If this rule is not followed, the result will be an unpleasant echo in the caller’s ear. It is the responsibility of the studio tech to connect a feed to each feed on EarShot IFB that is a mix of all important audio sources--in-studio mics, spots, automation etc., minus the caller. Of course, this is only true for EarShot IFB listeners who are “on-air”. Producers, camera operators and others can monitor the full program feed. That’s why EarShot IFB’s selectable feeds are so useful. 6 III. Setting Up EarShot IFB Hardware Attachments and Connections The figure below shows the rear panel of the EarShot IFB mainframe: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 GPIO AES3 ANALOG USB PRI SEC SERIAL VGA 11 12 1 Mains Power - Apply universal mains power (110-240VAC) to the IEC connector here. 2 ANALOG/AES3 Input Switch - This switch determines whether the leftmost XLR connector is used for analog FEED/IFB1 audio to callers, or is configured as an AES3 digital audio input. 3 FEED/IFB 1 INPUT - In analog mode, this XLR connector should be sent a balanced, 0dBu signal that is heard by callers when they select FEED 1, or alternately (if this input is configured as IFB 1), when IFB 1 is active. In digital AES3 mode, both FEED/IFB 1 INPUT and FEED/IFB 2 INPUT are applied here (on left and right channel, respectively). 4 FEED/IFB 2 INPUT - This XLR connector should be sent a balanced, 0dBu signal that is heard by callers when they select FEED 2, or alternately (if this input is configured as IFB 2), on a different feed when IFB 2 is active. This input is disabled when in AES3 mode. 5 FEED 3 INPUT - This XLR connector should be sent a balanced, 0dBu signal that is heard by callers when they select FEED 3. 6 FEED 4 INPUT - This XLR connector should be sent a balanced, 0dBu signal that is heard by callers when they select FEED 4. 7 USB (x2) -Connect a keyboard and mouse to these ports to utilize the Console IP Setup Interface. 8 Primary Ethernet Port - Connect your network to this gigabit compatible Ethernet port. 9 Secondary Ethernet Port - If you choose, you can run VoIP services on two different Ethernet networks on Earshot. A typical use case would be to use the primary Ethernet port to connect to a cloud-based VoIP provider, and the secondary port to connect to a PBX or gateway device on a LAN that can’t connect to the Internet. Note: the secondary Ethernet port offers only static addressing. 10 Contact Closure Connector - This contains 4 contact closure input and output signals, for various remote control and tally functions as described further on. 11 Serial Port - This is an RS-232 connector that presents a serial port for future use. 12 VGA - Computer video port. Attach a monitor here for Console IP Setup Interface. 7 Audio Connections All analog XLR audio inputs have a nominal level of 0dBu (full scale +20dBu). AES3 inputs support 32, 44.1, and 48KHz sampling rates. AES3 inputs are only provided for FEED/IFB ports 1 and 2. Analog input pinouts: AES3 input pinouts: Pin 1 Ground Pin 1 Ground Pin 2 Balanced audio + Pin 2 Data + Pin 3 Balanced audio - Pin 3 Data - Contact Closures Contact closure signals are available via the male 9-pin D connector on the back of the EarShot IFB. Inputs are triggered by shorting the respective input to Pin 5. Outputs consist of an open collector circuit which, when inactive, will offer a high-impedance path to Pin 5 and, when active, will offer a low-impedance path to Pin 5.