In the good old days when you needed a cart machine all you had to do is get on the phone and call Gates or ITC and a couple of weeks days later it arrived at your doorstep. All you had to do is answer a few simple questions..."Do you want mono or stereo?"..."Do you need secondary and tertiary tones?" ..."Single or triple deck ?"and "How many would you like"..... The good ole days were really simple, but those good ole cart machines were nasty....First of all you needed carts, one for each commercial! Then there was tape hiss, phase error, wow and flutter, distortion. Carts didn't last forever, but some could last years, that's if you didn't mind 'em sounding a little muffled. When you needed to expand your commercial or music library all you had to do is buy more carts. Once in a while a cart machine would go up in smoke or a cart would die on the air, but nothing catastrophic would happen, there were always a few cart machines in the air studio. We got used to all the cart machines shortcomings, we even figured out ways to make carts sound half-decent! Let's face it, we were comfortable with our carts and cart machines.
Bye Bye comfort zone......
Cart machines are maintenance intensive. Heads must be cleaned several times a day. Alignment must be checked monthly, and you need a sharp engineer to keep them sounding good. Without a doubt, digital is the storage medium of the future and it's here today. Digital virtually eliminates all of the shortcoming of analog cart machines....No noise, no distortion, I'm sure you've heard it before..... Now for less than $100 you can add a sound card to almost any computer which will allow you to digitally record and playback anything! So why hasn't every station junked their cart machines and jumped on the digital bandwagonl? First of all let's make one thing clear, a computer with a $100 consumer sound card is not a good replacement for your cart machines. The reliability is just not there, the support is just not there, the user-friendliness is just not there. Just because it record digitally doesn't mean it's for you.......
The basics are the same in all systems, but the methodology can vary greatly.
The heart of any good digital storage system is the software. In fact, manufacturers can use identical pieces of computer hardware and produce vastly different systems because of the software. The software or "programs" can be written by the manufacturers programming staff or the software can be written by contracted outside programmers. What's better? You be the judge. Each manufacture is anxious to show you all the great things their system can do, the basics are the same in all systems, but the methodology can vary greatly. Some companies will be willing to customize their software to your needs, others may give program updates several times a year.
There are just a few companies producing professional sound cards that are easily interfacable to the studio environment. Apt-X and Antex manufacture sound cards that are used in many digital storage systems. Other companies such as Broadcast Electronics and ITC have developed their own unique sound cards that interface with their own software and systems. Try and spend some time and familiarize yourself with what's out there. Get a good pair of sneakers and pound the pavement at the next convention, it will definitely worth your while. I didn't say this was going to be easy! There are many systems out there....two many...way to many ... but there should be fewer in the future... Try and stick with the big boys, make sure they've got the financial resources to ride out the storm of digital storage manufacturers.
Here's some questions you might ask the next time you are shopping for the digital storage system for your station. I told you we weren't buying a cart machine, Good Luck!
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1. What kind of sound card are you using? Has this card had any design problems? Can the card successfully be used in a computer network environment? Does the card have balanced inputs and outputs? Can I simultaneously record and play? Does the card have digital inputs and outputs (AES-EBU). Does your system have a digital waveform editor?
2. What kind of compression does your system use? What are the available compression ratios?
3. What sampling rate does the sound card use? Is the rate adjustable?
4. What kind of computer is necessary for your system? How much memory is needed? How much hard drive space is needed for my commercial library?
5. What is the guarantee on the system. Who will service the system when it breaks? How long will it take to get replacement parts? Do you have 24 hour technical support?
6. How will you prevent us from losing all of our commercials, what is the backup scheme. How long will it take me to get back on line after a major failure?
7. Can your system be networked together so files can be transferred easily from studio to studio? What computer networks will work?
8. How many stations are using this system. Will you supply me with a user list?
9. How long will it take to install this system in my station. How long will it take to make the custom modifications (If any) to the software. How often do you send program updates? Is there are charge for these updates?
10. Does your storage system interface with my traffic system? I would like to be able to directly download the log.
11. How long has your company been in business. May I see the company's financials?
12. What are your payment terms, will you be requiring a large downpayment?
13. Who wrote the software? Are your programmers in-house?
14. Can I supply my own computers?