A remote pickup unit or RPU is a

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a tr ...

system using special radio frequencies set aside for

electronic news-gathering Electronic news-gathering (ENG) or electronic journalism (EJ) is usage of electronic video and audio technologies by reporters to gather and present news instead of using film cameras. The term was coined during the rise of videotape techn ...

(ENG) and

remote broadcast In broadcast engineering, a remote broadcast (usually just called a remote or a live remote, or in news parlance, a live shot) is broadcasting done from a location away from a formal television studio and is considered an electronic field producti ...

ing. It can also be used for other types of point-to-point radio links. An RPU is used to send program material from a remote location to the broadcast station or

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematic ...

. Usually these systems use specialized high audio fidelity radio equipment. One manufacturer, Marti, was best known for manufacturing remote pickup equipment, so much so that the name is usually used to refer to a remote pickup unit regardless of who the actual equipment manufacturer actually is.{{cite news , title=This Pot Reserved for Marti Remote , first=Charles , last=Fitch , publisher=Radio World , date=2005-05-25 Today much of the remote broadcast use digital audio system fed over

ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) is a set of communication standards for simultaneous digital transmission of voice, video, data, and other network services over the digitalised circuits of the public switched telephone network. Work ...

telephone lines. This method is favored because of reliability of

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...

lines versus a radio link back to the station. The radio RPU remains much more favored for ENG however, because of its flexibility.

Footnotes

Broadcast engineering