Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Tagish provided perfect setting for Hopkins

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 05:58:34 -0400

Tagish provided perfect setting for Hopkins
by Nansi Cunningham
A Whitehorse Star Archive story originally published May 9, 2003

This is one in a series of profiles featuring Yukoners whose
innovative endeavours have contributed to improving the social
and economic fabric of our communities.
Innovator: Rob Hopkins, CFET Radio.

Innovative focus: An accessible interactive communication server
with advanced protocols supplying an audio signal to a licensed
FM radio network.

Pursuing a longstanding desire to get into film and television
broadcasting, Rob Hopkins set about to learn the technical
aspects of the telecommunications industry.

An opportunity and challenge close to home provided him with an
avenue to gain some valuable technical experience. As his remote
community of Tagish was not being serviced with modern
communications, Hopkins decided to design and manufacture a
telecommunication system that to this day brings dial tone and
broadband data to his community.

Not exactly a simple endeavour.

Many of the needed materials for the system’s infrastructure
came from the municipal dump, recycling centres and junk yards.
These included discarded microwave cables and connectors,
equipment racks, satellite dishes, radio transmitters, computers,
antennae and even radio towers, which now stand on mountain
top transmitting sites enabling an extensive broadcasting area.
“I had to manufacture equipment, cables and plugs without even
knowing what they were supposed to look like (or do), and then
figure out how to hook the whole system together without
blowing something up,” he says with a laugh.

Following advice and encouragement from a local communication
businesses who said “just plug everything in and hope for the
best”, Hopkins did just that. It worked.

TagishTel is a wireless radio system, which has been providing
continuous and uninterrupted operation since 1996 to the
communities of Tagish, Carcross, Johnson’s Crossing and Marsh
Lake.

Hopkins next step was to use the base infrastructure from
TagishTel to set up a rock and roll broadcast radio station. On
Labour Day weekend in 1997, CFET Community Radio 106.7
FM Tagish went on the air.

There are currently only 280 English speaking commercial radio
stations across Canada and this number is increasing as more and
more radio licenses are issued. CFET Radio has, as of
September 2002, joined the list of licensed broadcasters.

Hopkins explains the complicated and time-consuming process of
how shows and/or announcements make their way into the
programming of conventional broadcast radio stations.

If you want to get a message or show on the air, you have to go
through the radio station. The announcement is then approved
and sent into production for recording, and handed to the disc
jockey. Your announcement is recorded in the studio and played
on the air at the jockey’s discretion. This can require a lot of
people power and many hurdles, adds Hopkins.

In small rural areas there is no business case for localized
conventional radio due to the high costs of administration.
However, with the costs of equipment plummeting and more
transport channels available, more communities can benefit from
small radio operations.

In Hopkins case, he is responsible for the broadcasting,
production and programming content for the small Tagish market
and relies on innovative use of technology in order to put on local
shows. There are groups and volunteers who assist remotely from
afar.

“What is needed is innovative solutions to manage and run these
“micro” stations, which would result in a reduced need for
administrative staff and costly technical support,” suggests
Hopkins. “Solutions that to this day are out of reach for most
small communities with limited features, and cost many thousands
of dollars.”

To address this need, Hopkins has developed an integrated
system that allows authorized members of the public to remotely
create “playlists” and upload digitized community announcements
via a simple-to-use web interface without the need of any
personnel in the control room.

A basic application of this system allows you to record your
announcement to a file on your home or office computer and send
it via the internet to the radio transmitter’s computers, where it
would be queued up onto a playlist and played automatically at
the appropriate time.

The same technology can be used for a community’s emergency
public alerting system for instantaneous relay. For example, the
Yukon Forestry Service can quickly send information related to
current wildfire situations via an e-mail file attachment to the radio
station, where the message can be played and relayed to the
listening public instantaneously.

“This kind of community interaction on radio broadcast doesn’t
exist anywhere,” says Hopkins. “I have documented history that it
can be done, cheaply and efficiently.”

While Hopkins develops “Made in the Yukon” communication
technology products to link together to other radio stations in
Canada, there are interested distributors waiting in the wings for
worldwide export potential.

Although Hopkins does not believe you can easily teach someone
to be innovative, he thinks you can create an environment that
innovation will thrive in. The family atmosphere in which he was
raised provides support for this theory.

He spent many years in the workshop of his grandfather, John A.
Kitchen, whose list of technical achievements includes the
development of Pulse Combustion heating, work on the Arrow
and design of the eternal flame at the parliament buildings in
Ottawa. On the other side of Hopkins family was Walter
Redpath, an innovator who designed and manufactured one of
Canada’s earliest automobiles, the Redpath Messenger with shaft
drive and tilt steering in 1903. Walter’s son, William Redpath,
was a pioneer in the Canadian film industry.

Encouragement and open sharing of information and expertise are
other necessary elements for an environment that supports
innovation. Hopkins recalls the many individuals who have
supported his radio endeavours.

Some of these include Jeff Stanhope from Industry Canada who
assisted with support and technical expertise, Marguerite Vogel
of the CRTC, Dan Macarthur and Linda MacDonald from the
Yukon Government, Polarcom, White Pass and the Yukon
Amateur Radio Association.

Self-determination, initiative and the desire to succeed fuel
Hopkins innovative drive.

He enjoys finding solutions to complex problems, while using the
most inexpensive and simplest means. Besides developing
innovative software, he has several other initiatives brewing with
the purpose of making technology easier to use.

Hopkins says, “Formulate a plan and find out your inner
compass’s direction. Choose a destination that is realistic and set
your sights and bearings to help you stick to your course. When
things get in your way you need to go around them or over them,
but don’t just stop.”

For more profiles and other news about innovation in the Yukon,
go to www.yukoninnovation.ca

This series of articles was supported by the Government of
Canada, the Yukon government and the Innovation
Canada-Yukon Committee.

http://www.whitehorsestar.com/storyDetail.lasso?r=45555

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