eLink
Some Amazing Connections from our History:

Microwave "Roof-Top to Roof-Top" and Dedicated T1 to ednet’s POP

"Christmas Through Your Eyes", Gloria Estefan

One of ednet’s first links happened in the Spring of 1993, when Gloria Estefan was making her album "Christmas Through your Eyes" at her studio in Miami. She needed to record musicians from several different studios in the Los Angeles area, and needed it fast! ednet already had connections at Skywalker Sound South in Santa Monica, but she also wanted to record vocal backup singers at another studio, The Village. We determined that from the top of The Village we had "line of sight" to Skywalker, and installed a microwave link between the two facilities so we could connect to our T1 at Skywalker.

Additionally, Gloria needed to connect to Capitol Studios in Hollywood for certain instrumentalists, and we again had no time to install our T1 there, so we set up a microwave link between Hollywood Recording, just skimming past the large Church of Scientology Building on Sunset Avenue, and beamed to a hand-crafted antenna attached to the large "needle decor" on the top of the Capitol Tower at Hollywood and Vine.

The result? Everything worked perfectly, the recording went on as designed by producer Phil Ramone, and the hit album was released on schedule!

Microwave "Island to Mainland" and ISDN to ednet’s World

Hal Douglas, Voiceover Artist

Voiceover artist extraordinaire and ednet affiliate Hal Douglas desired a connection to his Martha's Vineyard Island home studio in order to conduct his business without interrupting his summer life style. Why not!

The only problem? There weren't facilities to get ISDN out to the island in the traditional underground manner. ednet arranged to have a special connection via microwave from the mainland.

The network connection installed, all that was left was to attach the equipment, and for that we needed to have it delivered overnight. Guess what? You can't get to the island at just any old time. ednet might have sent John Ammons, one of our dynamo network engineers, to swim over at 6am to deliver and install Mr. Douglas's audio codec, had Mr. Douglas insisted. As it turned out, he arranged a slightly delayed first session, and all have lived quite happily ever after!

Dial-up "Virtual ISDN" via Quintessential ednet Link

Suite Sync Studio, Mexico City

ednet’s most unique network connection was the one to Mexico City's Suite Sync Studios. Online for several years, most affiliates never realized that they've been connecting through a link involving up to five telcos in two countries. Why the complexity?

In our early days, ISDN as we know it now simply was not available in Mexico City from the telco so ednet decided we'd provide it ourselves! ednet engineered a circuit involving a bevy of networking devices to provide US ISDN dialtone via a 2000 mile MCI/Avantel E1 from McAllen, Texas to Mexico City, connecting via dedicated lines from McAllen to ednet’s International bridge at Soundworks in Houston. Dwight Cook's excellent engineering staff at Soundworks were instrumental in helping ednet maintain the 24/7 reliability of this Mexican connection. This unusual dial-up connection -- the only one of its kind in Mexico -- was in place since ednet installed it in mid-1995, for almost a decade.

This line has made possible the utilization of authentic Mexican talent for many audio media projects, including those for Turner's Cartoon Network, Warner Brother's, and many of ednet’s affiliate studios in Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, San Antonio, and even cities outside North America.