Bill Schmalfeldt, production manager for the NIH Radio News Service, demonstrates the new ISDN equipment set up in the new studio adjacent to the Visitor Information Center in Bldg. 45.

Radio stations and news networks conducting telephone interviews with NIH researchers and scientists can now avail themselves of a technology that sounds as if the interviewer and subject are actually in the same room.

The NIH Radio News Service, part of the Office of Communications and Public Liaison, OD, has installed an ISDN transceiver in its new studio adjacent to the Visitor Information Center in Bldg. 45. An abbreviation for "integrated services digital network," the ISDN line eliminates the traditional degradation of sound usually associated with a telephone conversation. As more radio stations convert to digital audio, their news departments are relying more on broadband communications for long-distance interviews.

Bill Schmalfeldt, production manager for the NIH Radio News Service, said the new ISDN transceiver at the Natcher Center will allow NIH'ers to take part in interviews (where the radio station or network is also using an ISDN decoder) that will sound more clear and natural than the traditional interview by telephone.

"A lot of news directors in radio are getting away from doing telephone interviews because of the way such interviews sound," Schmalfeldt said. "But with our new ISDN equipment, that negative aspect is eliminated. To the listener, it sounds like the interviewer and subject are sitting down, chatting face to face. It's convenient for the radio stations, and makes news directors more agreeable to conducting a long-distance interview."

For more information about using the ISDN transceiver, contact Schmalfeldt at (301) 435-7557.