Tieline

Tieline Technology has offices in Indianapolis in the United States (Tieline America LLC) and in Perth, Western Australia (Tieline Pty Ltd). The company has a wide and established distribution network throughout Europe, the Americas and Australasia. Tieline develops a range of broadcast audio codecs that are sold to television and radio networks around the globe. All Tieline codecs are IP codecs, ISDN codecs, POTS codecs, GSM codecs, X.21 codecs and satellite-capable (IP and ISDN) codecs.

Broadcasters use these codecs for remote broadcasts (outside broadcasting), for audio distribution between studios and for studio/transmitter link (STL) applications. Tieline codecs are Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) compatible and Tieline and ten other codec manufacturers have successfully tested IP Interoperability using SIP to connect according to EBU N/ACIP tech 3326 specifications relating to sending audio over IP.

History

The company was founded in 1981 by John Gouteff and Rod Henderson. In 1981 Television Communications Pty Ltd formed to import and distribute broadcast audio and video products into the Western Australian market. During the next 14 years, TVC achieved major installations into most Television stations, private video organizations and government departments. TVC also developed and manufactured a range of video switching and distribution products.

In 1995 TVC became Audio Video Communications (AVC). The growing range of video products expanded heavily into audio products including radio Broadcast Mixing consoles, signal measurement, conversion, and amplification products, which it sold throughout Australasia.

In 1998 AVC identified a growing market for digital audio codecs required to deliver live, studio quality audio over narrow band networks such as analogue telephone and ISDN links. AVC developed a family of world class digital POTS codecs and ISDN codecs. These were branded under the name Tieline and between 1998 and 2001 AVC developed a global distribution network spanning the Americas, Europe, UK, Africa, Asia, Middle East and Australasia.

The first audio codec produced was a POTS codec called the Patriot, which was the first in the world able to send 15 kHz CD quality audio over a regular phone line. The company won numerous awards for its codec range and became better known to its customers for the brand Tieline than its name AVC. In 2002, having successfully secured www.tieline.com and relevant trademarks, AVC became Tieline Technology.

The company now focuses on^[1] IP audio codec solutions that include broadcasting over wireless 3G, 4G and 5G cellular broadband networks and can multicast and multiple unicast audio streams across all types of IP audio networks.^[2] In 2010 Tieline became the first company to create an IP audio codec application called Report-IT to run on the Apple Inc. iPhone. The application is used for live broadcasting and recording interviews and sending them to a remote studio via file transfer. In 2012 the application became so popular with broadcasters, with over 10,000 downloads, that the company released an Android version of the application for smartphone users. There have been tens of thousands of downloads of Report-IT since its release. In December 2012 the company announced the integration of the Opus codec into Report-IT and Genie, Merlin, Bridge-IT and ViA IP audio codecs for interoperability.^[3]

IP audio broadcasting and SIP (session initiation protocol)

Tieline being used in a transmission at the National Stadium of Brasilia Mane Garrincha, Brazil.

Tieline Technology has committed considerable resources to educating television and radio broadcasters about IP audio generally, broadcasting IP audio over^[4] wireless IP audio technologies, as well as how to reliably send internet IP audio over Ethernet.^[5] The company has worked closely with the EBU, broadcasters and IP codec manufacturers to introduce broadcast standards for audio interoperability over IP according to^[6] EBU N/ACIP Tech 3329.^[7] The integration of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) into IP codecs has been central to achieving this objective and Tieline codecs were amongst the first to trial and integrate SIP reliably.

Audio-via-IP Experts Group

Tieline Technology was a member of the Audio-via-IP Experts Group as a technology provider advising on the interoperability of audio codecs when broadcasting IP audio.^[8] Tieline and other Group members collaborated on interoperability when developing new audio over IP enhancements and made recommendations to the European Broadcasting Union regarding IP audio codec standards.

Tieline Research

Tieline Research is one of the Tieline group of companies and it developed the Tieline audio codec range and has also developed proprietary audio and video management systems for broadcast and surveillance industries around the world.

SMD Assembly

SMD Assembly is one of the Tieline group of companies and provides precision Surface Mount Device assembly services. It uses the latest surface-mount technology equipment to create printed circuit boards (PCBs) to military specifications.

References

External links

• IP Audio website with audio over IP broadcast information
• Official SMD Assembly website
• EBU - Tech 3326 for Audio Contribution over IP
• EBU - Tech 3329 Tutorial on Audio Contribution over IP
• Wheatstone announce technology partnership with Tieline

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