Remote radio spectrum information acquisition

A system for controlling and monitoring selected functions and settings of a scanner in real time, the scanner including an input/output remote control port, the system comprising:

• (a) a processing unit in communication with the input/output port of the scanner, the processing unit including:
• (i) a digital interface associated with the scanner, and
• (ii) a remote control and video encoding application;
• (b) a scanner control workstation physically remote from the processing unit and the scanner, the scanner workstation including a remote control and video decoding application;
• and
• (c) a transport network having at least two edge nodes, the transport network being in communication at one edge node with the processing unit and being in communication at the other edge node to the scanner control workstation, wherein the transport network, digital interface and remote control and video encoding and decoding applications allow the workstation to control and visually monitor selected functions and settings of a scanner in real time and to enter commands to selectively control functions and settings of the scanner in real time.

A system for creating traffic report information using one or more scanners, each scanner including an audio signal output, the system comprising:

• (a) a processing unit which receives an audio signal output of the scanner and prepares the audio signal output for transmission over a network by encoding the audio signal output to digitally encoded audio, the audio signal output including events that affect traffic;
• (b) a scanner workstation physically remote from the processing unit and the scanner, the workstation including an application for receiving the digitally encoded audio and decoding the digitally encoded audio to an original audio signal output of the scanner;
• (c) a transport network having at least two edge nodes, the transport network being in communication at one edge node with the processing unit to receive the digitally encoded audio and being in communication at the other edge node with the scanner workstation to provide the digitally encoded audio to the scanner workstation in real-time, or in near real-time, and without buffering of the digitally encoded audio;
• and
• (d) a user workstation including an audio output and a user interface which allows a human agent to hear the original audio signal output of the one or more scanners provided by the scanner workstation and enter traffic report information into the user interface based upon the events that affect traffic in the original audio signal output.

A system for collecting traffic related information and producing traffic reports using one or more scanners, each scanner including an audio signal output, the system comprising:

• (a) a processing unit which receives an audio signal output of the scanner and prepares the audio signal for transmission over a network by encoding the audio signal output of the scanner to digitally encoded audio;
• (b) a scanner workstation physically remote from the processing unit and the scanner, the workstation including an application for receiving the digitally encoded audio and decoding the digitally encoded audio to an original audio signal output of the scanner;
• and
• (c) a transport network having at least two edge nodes, the transport network being in communication at one edge node with the processing unit to receive the digitally encoded audio and being in communication at the other edge node with the scanner workstation to provide the digitally encoded audio to the scanner workstation in real-time, or in near real-time, and without buffering of the digitally encoded audio;
• and
• (d) an entity which receives and converts the original audio signal output into a traffic report.