SEARCY, Ark. — Our station is in a rural part of Arkansas, where a sense of community is important. By making remotes so much easier, Tieline’s Report-IT has been a great tool to help us expand and deepen our connection to the local community.

The author’s smartphone rests in the Tieline Mic Adapter; a handheld mic is connected and provides audio. The codec can be seen on the phone screen. It feeds audio to the station or can record it.

The Report-IT turns your iPhone into a pocket-sized, portable 15 kHz-quality live IP audio codec and slim 20 kHz audio recorder. You can connect to the studio live at the push of a button and hear studio comms and program in real time. You also can prerecord interviews and FTP 20 kHz audio files to the studio without a codec. It’s suitable for a remote broadcast, live report or two-way interview. We use the Tieline Mic Adapter to connect a high-quality dynamic microphone for superior audio.

We do about 125 remotes per year, and we’re now using Report-IT for virtually 100 percent of them. In the past we had to schedule our remotes carefully because of all the equipment required. Now we can be more spontaneous and cover overlapping events seamlessly.

We also get more from each remote. I love it when we cover local expos, chamber of commerce events and fairs. Report-IT is portable; I can go from booth to booth and record several clips during a single break.

On the scene

We decided to give Report-IT to all our sales and management staff; it generated more excitement than any equipment we’ve added in years. All it took was a 10-minute meeting to introduce the app; they took to it eagerly. This has greatly expanded our ability to cover local events in real time. Another example, when a large fire broke out at a local retailer, a couple members of our sales team happened to be nearby. Within minutes, they were on the scene delivering live reports. Our staff frequently delivers breaking news stories, traffic reports and weather updates while they’re on the road.

Speaking of weather, we’re in the middle of the tornado belt here in Arkansas. While we certainly hope the tornados will spare us during the upcoming season, at least we’ll be prepared if they do strike. Report-IT will allow the staff to help out with storm spotting, tornado chasing and helpful safety updates. That’s a big part of how our station really can make in a difference in our community.

I’ve always believed that a station’s sound is important; Report-IT’s audio quality is outstanding. Thanks to Tieline, we have the best-sounding remotes in our market. Now with the new Mic Adapter microphone interface hardware, this will take our audio quality to the next step.

Out here in rural Arkansas, we haven’t always been up on the latest technology. Report-IT was a big leap forward for us. Well worth the investment.

Todd Scott is program director for KFLI 104.7 FM.

For information, contact Mary Ann Seidler at Tieline in Indiana at (317) 845-8000 or visit www.tieline.com.