Radio World Buyer’s Guide articles are intended to help readers understand why their colleagues chose particular products to solve various technical situations. This month’s articles focus on transmitters.
The dreaded notification came in while contract-based engineer Tim Parish was at lunch in greater Sacramento.
An off-air alert.
But instead of juggling remote logins or fumbling through a transmitter’s web-based user interface, Parish launched the EmPower app from American Amplifier Technologies on his phone. He tapped “TX ON” and watched as the transmitter’s power returned.
It was a small moment — he was able to peacefully finish his sandwich — but it showcased a shift in how he maintains his stations with the combination of the EmPower Controller and App.
“Being able to manage everything from one entry point is pretty powerful,” Parish said.
Like many engineers, he operated with a constraint. His incumbent remote-control solution handled contact closures but was not natively compatible with SNMP. Any upgrade meant an added degree of complexity.
So in the meantime, day-to-day, he’d hop from one IP address to another to check on various levels or send a remote command.
Parish desired a centralized solution. In fact it was his use case, AAT said, that led to the EmPower approach.
The EmPower Controller is AAT’s remote site monitoring device, which the company described as “unapologetically SMNP-native.” It also supports legacy I/O. When paired with the EmPower App for Apple iOS or Android, it allows engineers to focus their attention where needed with the app’s grouping and map view capabilities.
“You just glance and know,” Parish said of the EmPower App’s front-and-center status gauges.
He said notifications in the app prompt action, not a scramble. The commands tab allows him to confirm a desired action, then return to his task at hand. He said the effect has been cumulative: fewer pages to load, passwords to remember and steps that invite mistakes.
He cited its ease of setup, SNMP readiness, remote access and multi-site management as benefits of using the EmPower Controller and EmPower App.
