Comrex EarShot IFB

A VoIP solution for TV IFB

Most stations still use POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) lines to supply their IFB feeds. Television broadcasters need ways to reduce costs and stay within budgets – and using POTS lines can burn a lot of cash. We built EarShot IFB to bring the power of VoIP (Voice-over-IP) to IFB technology.

Comrex EarShot IFB is a hardware-based system that delivers 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. Up to 30 callers can dial in and listen to the audio feeds – this makes it possible to replace up to 30 POTS lines with one simple box.

• Four audio inputs (two of which can be configured for IFB)
• Can handle up to 30 callers
• Selectable audio feeds
• Cost-saving VoIP technology
• Uses G.711, and can be configured for higher quality audio

Multiple Audio Inputs

EarShot IFB has four audio inputs (or feeds). Two of the feeds can be alternately configured as IFB inputs. Up to 30 callers can dial in and listen to audio from standard telephones. Callers can switch between the feeds using DTMF (Touch Tone) selection.

Selectable Audio Feeds

EarShot IFB features selectable feeds. Users can configure some feeds with full program audio, and implement mix-minus on other feeds to prevent echo and other audio flaws. This versatility makes it simple to tailor EarShot IFB to your needs.

VoIP

EarShot IFB interfaces to Voice-over-IP (VoIP) telephone circuits using the SIP protocol. This makes it possible to replace up to 30 POTS lines with one simple box. EarShot IFB can handle 30 POTS calls or 10 wideband calls – users can also configure the box to handle a combination of each. 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.

EarShot Compatibility Information

Note: Integration with Cisco Unified Communication Manager (CUCM) is not supported for Comrex EarShot IFB.

Audio Quality

EarShot IFB can interface to most normal calls using standard telephony audio encoding (G.711). EarShot IFB can also deliver audio to “pure” end-to-end VoIP callers with higher fidelity, using encoders like G.722 and Opus. A special app will be available to make high-fidelity connections easy.

Wide-Band Calls with FieldTap

Make wide-band calls to EarShot IFB easily with FieldTap. A free application for iOS and Android, FieldTap makes it simple to connect with the touch of a button. Plus, FieldTap is compatible with all Comrex IP audio codecs.

Dimensions

• 1U 19” rackmount chassis

Inputs

• AES/Analog switch
• Feed/IFB 1 Input
• Feed/IFB 2 Input
• Feed 3 Input
• Feed 4 Input

Network

• 2 USB connections
• Primary Ethernet Port
• Secondary Ethernet Port

Communications

• GPIO Connector
• Serial Port

Operations

• HDMI/DisplayPort (supplies Console IP Setup interface)