ZEPHYR XPORT USER’S GUIDE
1Introducing the Zephyr XPORT: Ordinary Phone Line – Extraordinary Audio
ISDN makes for great sounding remotes, but you can’t always get ISDN where and when you want it. The XPORT lets you use ordinary analog telephone lines or ISDN in the field to connect
with the Zephyr Xstream ISDN codec in your studio.
The Xport features the highest fidelity low- bitrate coding method on Earth: MPEG AAC + the
ground- breaking Spectral Band Replication enhancement: aacPlus). For the first time, you will experience FM- like audio over analog telephone lines with detailed highs and fuzz- free clarity – for both speech and music.
XPORT is the field side of a system that has Zephyr Xstream at the studio. Because the studio side is connected digitally with ISDN, modem performance is considerably more reliable than with POTS- only schemes.
To extract maximum reliability from real- world analog Telco lines, XPORT has a custom DSP- based modem that lets us optimize for maximum performance with audio signals. Normal modems are designed for non- real- time data, where a bad packet may be re- transmitted without much consequence and “retraining” is not a major problem. With audio, this would result in serious drop- outs. A modem for live audio requires a different set of trade- offs that are not possible with off- the- shelf consumer modem chips.
Your studio Zephyr Xstream becomes a universal codec, connecting with both Xport and ISDN codecs. This saves you money, rack space, operator training, telephone lines, and console/router audio inputs and mix- minus outputs.
The XPORT’s integrated mixer handles two inputs and includes a return mixer to combine local audio with the remote mix- minus feed. We’ve also included a multi- band automatic gain control and limiter designed by the Omnia processing gurus. This was crafted to work in harmony with the audio codec, and is another reason audio is the smoothest, cleanest possible.
The XPORT/Xstream combo is the best sounding, easiest to use and most reliable analog Telco codec system ever offered to broadcasters. Because it lets you get double- duty out of your ISDN codec and line, it is also cost- effective.
And, with the optional ISDN interface, XPORT takes advantage of ISDN as well.
Looking for Information?
We've taken great care to make the XPORT as easy to use as possible, keeping non- technical users in mind. In fact, we expect that most users will be up and running long before they refer to this guide. Section 4 has Frequently Asked Questions and Section 5 has troubleshooting tips.
CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCING THE XPORT 1