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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Topic: App for Drive in radio stations?
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Jack Ondracek
Film God
Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002
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posted 06-27-2016 12:29 PM
quote: Paul Goulet
OK, so here is the problem we are having with sound at the drive in. we have 3 screens and 3 different radio frequencies. One of the screens has a station that also uses the same frequency that we use for that screen. On the weekends, the radio station makes adjustments so that there signal travels further and interrupts the station that we are using for that screen. Either customers can't hear anything at all.. or there is static. With all the phone apps that are out there, i figured maybe there one was one for radio stations
Yah.... I think you'll have to look elsewhere for your solution, Paul. Anything that requires sending your audio somewhere, only to have it come back to someone's phone is guaranteed to be delayed. How much delay doesn't matter... it would run from irritable to completely unusable.
Your comment that the station you're broadcasting over makes changes to its power on the weekend is interesting. The FCC and, so far as I know, the Canadian CRTC doesn't license any FM station to run multiple power levels. No matter though. Actually, you're running a bit of a risk, broadcasting over a frequency that's also being used by a properly-licensed radio station. Are there no other frequencies you could move to? The lower "reserved" band channels (frequencies below 92.1) are usually good prospects, as you're more likely to find the stations on them to be spread out and of lower power. Still... anything that's quiet is a much better choice than competing with a station on its own frequency. It hasn't happened often, but we've had to move our own channels a couple of times over the years.
Another thought. You should still look for another channel, but if your system is so weak it can't overcome an outside station within your own perimeter, you're either pushing against a fairly strong station or your own system might have some problems. It usually doesn't take much for a transmitter to dominate within a short distance around its antenna.
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Scott Norwood
Film God
Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 06-28-2016 11:34 AM
Out of curiousity, what happens at multi-screen drive-ins with regard to frequency selection? There is a ten-screen DI somewhere in Florida, I believe. Do they really have ten open FM frequencies in that area? Do they have some screens on AM (or using field speakers)?
As for the phone app thing: I suppose that with D-cinema it would be possible to advance the sound playback by some amount on the server side, but that would only work if the delay on the playback side were consistent (which it wouldn't be) and within the range of adjustment on the server. And the sound would also need to run through a delay box before hitting the FM transmitter to undo the offset, since not everyone will have a cell phone and many who do will prefer the sound quality of a car radio to that of a telephone speaker. And there is still the question of battery life on a cell phone.
In principle, you could probably provide wi-fi coverage for a local streaming server to 400-ish clients, but doing so would not be cheap (a $400-ish access point can reasonably serve ~25 client devices--maybe more if you mix 2.4GHz and 5GHz devices...and they are not weather proof). You would probably need a good wireless consultant to set it up, and you won't like the pricing on Cisco, Aruba, or Ruckus wireless gear.
One possibility, now that some car radios have "aux input" jacks would be to provide a line-level signal at each speaker pole and then sell or rent cables to allow people to connect that directly to their cars.
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