“Best of Show Up Close” is a series about nominees and winners in the annual Future Best of Show at NAB Award program.
Digigram nominated its Iqoya Talk. It is a portable IP codec designed for field work with built-in 4G/LTE, Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It is battery-operable and features an onboard recorder, touchscreen and is 5G-ready.
We asked CMO Raphael Triomphe about it.
Radio World: What is the product and what are its targeted uses?
Raphael Triomphe: Iqoya Talk is Digigram’s all-new portable codec. The codec is so easy to use, secure and reliable than its baseline is “Simply powerful.” It is built for live remote broadcasting operations that require high-reliability transmissions with superior audio quality. It allows up to four journalists and guests to perform a studio-quality on-field reportage, without the help of any technician. Configuration can be done upstream, by predefined scenarios in the studio.
[Read: Best of Show Up Close: Wheatstone AirAura X5]
RW: What sets it apart from similar offerings in this product class?
Triomphe: One of the main features of a portable codec relies on its ability to stream the audio to the radio station. With the Digigram’s Iqoya Talk, you will have a great deal of built-in connectivity options included without extra cost. Iqoya Talk is well equipped with two Ethernet ports, two cellular modules, one dual band Wi-Fi module and two USB ports. That’s a lot.
The other important point is how many journalists and guests can participate in the remote broadcast event. Thanks to its three mic-line inputs and four headphones outputs, Iqoya Talk is one of the portable codecs allowing the most guests at once.
Before starting the design of the product we asked many journalists and technicians for their thoughts about what would fit their everyday needs in a remote codec. We understood that ease of use is the key point. So with its smartphone-like intuitive ergonomics, all the needed operations for a remote broadcast with Iqoya Talk can be operated by nontechnical users, whenever and wherever they are, with just two clicks.
Our Iqoya Talk is ready to tackle any event and make everyday life easier, whatever the outside conditions. To simplify and to secure the connection, we also utilize a SIP infrastructure. To manage, monitor and get instant remote access to the portable codec, a suite of web applications called Iqoya Connect comes along with our portable codec. Management of your codecs fleet has never been so powerful and simple.
The housing of our Iqoya Talk has been designed to be strong and long-lasting. As we know that sometimes, it can be hard to find a mains plug on the field, Iqoya Talk can accept up to two hot-swappable batteries and can be used for up to 12 hours without interruption.
Iqoya Talk is ready to go. It comes with either an optional hard case or convenient backpack to carry all the material you need comfortably and in complete discretion.
RW: What does it cost? Is it available now?
Triomphe: $4,490, available now on preorder, with delivery end of July.
RW: More generally, what do you see as the most important trends or changes happening these days in how broadcasters do remote live audio operations?
Triomphe: Closer than ever to the action and often alone in front of a multitude of uncertainties, journalists today have to be hyperefficient. Information is being shared and consumed faster than ever, everyone needs to be everywhere at the same time. Despite a constrained environment, contributors are still expected to provide quality content, on the move and in the blink of an eye, from wherever they may be and technicians are expected to set up their systems in advance from a remote location.
For all those reasons, our solutions for remote broadcasting has been developed to make the day-to-day operations of journalist and radio engineers simpler.
RW: What else should we know?
Triomphe: Digigram is focused in audio transport in remote broadcast but also in distribution applications. Last year we released a new range of IP audio codecs called X/Link, and next month we will strengthen the range by launching a new product for transporting an FM/MPX composite signal over IP networks. The focus of Digigram in terms of audio transport is to constantly develop qualitative solutions that will answer our customer needs.
The Future Best of Show Awards program honors and helps promote outstanding new products exhibited at industry conventions like the spring NAB Show. Exhibitors pay a fee to enter; not all entries win. Watch for more coverage of participating products soon. To learn about all of the nominees and winners, read the 2019 Best of Show Program Guide.
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