2008 Woodie Awards
Letter to the Editor
Letter to President Beck
Radin, Wayland
Issue date: 9/30/05 Section: Opinions & Editorials
- Page 1 of 1
Dear President Beck,
I was a WLFM DJ last year and, while I thoroughly enjoyed my broadcast experience, I became somewhat disheartened by the general lack of listeners, even on our own campus, so I can understand why the decision was made not to upgrade or replace the current FM equipment. However, I cannot agree with the decision because of the broadcast format the station must now rely upon. The current Internet broadcast configuration has inferior sound quality compared to that of even an FM broadcast, and is based upon proprietary software. Furthermore, as sound quality is dependent upon Lawrence's network resources, so to is the number of possible listeners, which, as you well know, spikes incredibly during the Great Midwest Trivia Contest.
That said, I would like to briefly address the issue of Lawrence's network connection on several grounds. First, the general insufficiency of our connection, and secondly, how this shortcoming has direct implications for the recent WLFM decision. I had heard that this past academic year Lawrence's bandwidth total was 10Mbps, which was then increased to 15Mpbs over the summer. A call to the ITS helpdesk confirmed this, with the addition that they think it may be more than 15Mpbs, but they're not sure (but I think they should be). By way of comparison, this summer I lived in an apartment complex affiliated with Stanford University and was provided an unshared 10Mbps connection, with the option of ten times that bandwidth, for $40 more per month. I am quite aware that Lawrence does not begin to approach the size and resource capacity of Stanford, nor do I wish it to, but the fact that more than 1500 students and faculty share what I was provided individually strikes me as woefully inadequate. In fact, many broadband connections intended for home use approach Lawrence's bandwidth capacity as well (specifically cable modem and DSL connections). This comparative lack of bandwidth relates directly to WLFM, and, most importantly, to the trivia contest. Streaming media is bandwidth intensive, and I have a hard time believing that Lawrence's network can support an all-Internet trivia broadcast. For the sake of argument, if we assume the network could sustain a purely internet broadcast trivia contest, the connectivity of the rest of the campus would be rendered virtually unusable, as it was at times last year.
Sincerely,
Wayland Radin
I was a WLFM DJ last year and, while I thoroughly enjoyed my broadcast experience, I became somewhat disheartened by the general lack of listeners, even on our own campus, so I can understand why the decision was made not to upgrade or replace the current FM equipment. However, I cannot agree with the decision because of the broadcast format the station must now rely upon. The current Internet broadcast configuration has inferior sound quality compared to that of even an FM broadcast, and is based upon proprietary software. Furthermore, as sound quality is dependent upon Lawrence's network resources, so to is the number of possible listeners, which, as you well know, spikes incredibly during the Great Midwest Trivia Contest.
That said, I would like to briefly address the issue of Lawrence's network connection on several grounds. First, the general insufficiency of our connection, and secondly, how this shortcoming has direct implications for the recent WLFM decision. I had heard that this past academic year Lawrence's bandwidth total was 10Mbps, which was then increased to 15Mpbs over the summer. A call to the ITS helpdesk confirmed this, with the addition that they think it may be more than 15Mpbs, but they're not sure (but I think they should be). By way of comparison, this summer I lived in an apartment complex affiliated with Stanford University and was provided an unshared 10Mbps connection, with the option of ten times that bandwidth, for $40 more per month. I am quite aware that Lawrence does not begin to approach the size and resource capacity of Stanford, nor do I wish it to, but the fact that more than 1500 students and faculty share what I was provided individually strikes me as woefully inadequate. In fact, many broadband connections intended for home use approach Lawrence's bandwidth capacity as well (specifically cable modem and DSL connections). This comparative lack of bandwidth relates directly to WLFM, and, most importantly, to the trivia contest. Streaming media is bandwidth intensive, and I have a hard time believing that Lawrence's network can support an all-Internet trivia broadcast. For the sake of argument, if we assume the network could sustain a purely internet broadcast trivia contest, the connectivity of the rest of the campus would be rendered virtually unusable, as it was at times last year.
Sincerely,
Wayland Radin