Several years ago, when I was a local radio reporter, a colleague told me he'd taken his first step towards going freelance by buying a second hand studio tape machine. The thing was way past its sell-by date, and it cost him a few hundred quid but he was very proud of it.
When I left the BBC last year I was able to put together a mini workshop studio at home for what that tape machine would have cost new. A PC with Cool Edit, a decent Minidisc machine, a small mixer and a couple of mics formed a backbone of my set-up. But then came the hard part - how do I connect to the outside world?
In my previous job at Radio One Newsbeat I'd taken it for granted that I could dial an ISDN, whether in Bristol or Boston. But when I started investigating the cost of a codec, I broke out in a cold sweat. How much?! All I wanted was something to dial up studios at the Beeb, for sending packages and doing interviews and two-ways. I could have carried on making trips to the local BBC station, Radio York, to use their facilities but that generally involves lots of hassle and crossed fingers.
Then Nick Garnett from Five Live told me about the Sonifex Courier. It's a portable hard disk sound recorder that has an ISDN Codec built in. He'd been using one and was very pleased with it. So after a demonstration by the firm's (then) sales boss Tim Lowther I took the plunge.
Connecting the Courier to my BT Home Highway ISDN line proved a simple job. The machine can run off a battery but I use it with mains power and plugged into my mixer. Dialling involves scrolling through menus but it soon becomes second nature and there is a phonebook for storing numbers. I have even rigged up clean-feed by using an auxiliary channels on my Spirit Folio mixer (thanks to Tim Lowther for suggesting that).
But of course it is more than just an ISDN codec - in fact that is just an added bonus. Its main purpose is as a portable hard disc sound recorder and I use it in the field alongside my Minidisc machines. The Courier records to a PCMCIA hard disk, that can be easily removed from a slot in the side of the machine. You can choose from different formats ranging from .wav to MPEG2, depending on what quality level you need.
In use it's a bit like going back to the days of the Uher, in that you have a nice chunky record-level dial and the machine is slung over your shoulder. The similarity ends there of course, because the Courier is a lightweight compared to the hefty old Uher (I'll let you into a secret: I once had to take a trip to casualty after a Uher strap broke and the machine landed on my ankle. It broke - my ankle that is, not the Uher.)
The genius behind combining a recorder with an ISDN is that you can do interviews, do some basic editing then file back from a single machine. Five Live's Nick Garnett has used it in this way many times over the past year or so and rates the machine very highly.
Nick is the station's reporter in Leeds and used the Courier to its full potential at Istanbul airport last April, when Leeds United fans where returning from their team's match against Turkish side Galatasary. Two Leeds fans had been fatally stabbed before the game and tensions were high.
"The airport had no broadcast facilities," said Nick. " We had to rely on our own portable satellite gear and my Courier." He recorded voxes with fans then cut them down, using the machine's simple editing facilities to remove numerous expletives as the fans vented their anger at the media.
Nick says the machine saved the day. "We then sent our stuff back to London by linking the Courier to the satellite phone on the roof of an airport building. It is an easy to use and logical machine that meant we could do things like illustrated two-ways without having to carry boxes of gear."
Back in my home studio I have come to rely on this neat little machine as my ISDN link to a freelance income. It is good: the first time I sent a piece to Newsbeat they said it was nicest sounding ISDN they had heard in ages whilst another network has asked what equipment I use, as the sound quality is "so good". I have used it for taking part in discussions on Five Live, where all the other guests have been in 'proper' studios while I have been in a room that used to be the garage!
This isn't all down to the Courier but any chain is only as strong as the weakest link and Sonifex's baby is proving to be very strong indeed.
Article written on behalf of Sonifex by:
Jerry Ibbotson
Media Mill
York
+44 (0)1904 787702
