Hux Electronics : Gallery 10

 

How to build a radio station. The following photos are of the installation of new studios for Crow FM, a radio station located in the town of Wondai in Queensland. The installation was carried out in two stages in late 2008 and early 2009. Hux Electronics designed the electronic and physical layout, designed the woodwork, specified most of the equipment and carried out the installation.

The old Crow FM studio before it was decommissioned and retired, it did its job well but was in need of lots of TLC by the end. The Elan Audio "Hawk 12" console shown was refurbished by Hux and reused in the position of "Studio Two" in the new building.

The new studio complex is built into the top floor of an old bank building, this photo shows where Studio One is to be built, I marked the floor with tape to show where the woodwork was to sit, the actual woodwork was sited forward of the markings to give more space to the operator.

The radio station wisely standardized on using the same monitor speaker type for Studio One, Studio Two and the Production Studio, the speakers were flown from the ceiling in Studio One and Studio Two and are stand mounted in the Production Studio.

The woodwork in Studio One after painting and before the benchtops went on.

Studio One with the console and other bits in place and the cables going in.

The finished Studio One. The two studio computers are behind a glass door in the equipment rack on the far left. The telephone hybrid, distribution amps, monitor speaker amplifier and console power supply are also in the equipment rack. By pure luck the digital phone system has an "analogue" port on it that allows the telephone hybrid (used for live talkback and telephone interviews) to integrate seamlessly, as a result the telephone voice quality and separation between caller and announcer in this studio is stunning.

Studio One in use and "on-air"

Another "on-air" shot but with a different announcer and with the computer mice moved to a better spot. The broadcast console is a nice Elan Audio "Kestrel 12" which features Penny & Giles faders and dual output busses.

The Crow FM Control Rack under construction.

The fully loaded Control Rack with the front door off to show the workings. The rack also houses a spare STL transmitter and a spare STL receiver just in case. The computer logs the station output and streams the audio to the internet. The monitor speakers on top are Grover Notting CR-2 which are useful "cross reference monitors", they work really well in this application.

The finished Control Rack with its glass door fitted.

Studio Two under construction

Studio Two finished and fully functional. The console is from the old studio but has been refurbished. This studio is essentially the same as Studio One but with a different mixing console, just one computer, and the room is a lot smaller.

Studio Two from a different angle.

The Crow FM Production Studio, one microphone, a computer, a shop bought (and very nice) office table and a pair of monitor speakers and bingo its done. The mixing console is really only used as a mic pre-amp and monitor speaker controller. This is a nice room to sit in.

A newspaper add placed by Crow FM, the photo was taken by Hux (in photographer mode).

This is end of the "how to build a radio station" guide.

A Crest X-Eight live console at The Zoo (a Brisbane live venue), repaired by Hux.

A Fairlight "Xynergi" audio recording system at The Voice Plant, Brisbane, installed in September 2008 by Hux. All of the button labels on every pushbutton switch are actually tiny little colour LCD displays and they change depending on the mode selected, amazing to see in action.

A nice photo of the Fairlight Xynergi and the Amek Media 5.1 recording console at The Voice Plant

An overall photo the Amek Media 5.1 console at The Voice Plant, the console and cabling were installed into this room by Hux in 2002, the only real changes since then have been the replacing of the Fairlight MFX recorder (still connected to the patchbay) with the newer Fairlight Xynergi system and the fitting of new computer monitors. This control room is fondly known as the Chookpen.

This photo shows the second control room at The Voice Plant, Brisbane, it is based around a Yamaha 02R console and a ProTools audio recording system, this room was installed by Hux in the year 2000. This control room is fondly known as the Toolshed.