Production, News & Radio Studio Renovation on a budget: Part 2

When we last left our so-called “hero,” Cap’n Radio, he was just admiring the shiny new Arrakis ARC-10 consoles slated to go into the Production Studio, one of three studios being renovated during the Summer of 2008.  The studios were also now equipped with new custom furniture designed and built by Graham Studios.  The furniture had been assembled on site by Cap’n Radio himself and his able assistant, Johnny Robinson, Director of Custodial Operations at the Specs Howard School of Broadcast Arts in Southfield, Michigan. 

See Part I here

PREPARING FOR THE BIG PROJECT 
No matter how much preparation and thought you put into a studio project, you can never do too much planning.   Even the best laid plans will and do go south when unexpected problems arise.  Although I did some of my pre-work, I had more than my share of unexpected “issues” with this project.  You’ll read about those in “Part 3”, yet the point that be made is projects that are put together totally “on-the-fly” always take more time, cost more money in one way or another and have even more problems or unexpected surprises at the end that have to be fixed.

Set priorities, budget limitations and specifically what you want to accomplish as early as possible.  Develop equipment and supplies lists and specifically WHICH vendors to use to acquire this equipment.   This is easily accomplished using a simple Excel file.

There may be surprises, even at the equipment selection phase!  Equipment models are frequently discontinued, alternate options develop that may be more expensive – or even less expensive.  Manufacturers frequently modify their product lines, or they stop making products altogether.

For example, originally, JBL’s “Control 1” speakers were not supplied with any mounting brackets that were ordered separately.  The current model “Control 1 Pro,” INCLUDES the mounting brackets.  Another surprise last year was discovering legendary microphone boom manufacturer, “Luxo,” recently stopped making microphone-related products.  They still make arm-mounted copy-holders.  O.C. White is the only remaining broadcast boom manufacturer that you may known that has been in the business for a while. 

Broadcast vendors will be helpful in getting your list together and there are many good ones who support this publication.

For this project, I used Broadcasters General Store (BGS), Broadcast Supply Worldwide (BSW), and for the odd parts, MCM Electronics. 

Your list should ultimately contain cable, any connectors required, mounting hardware and cable control supplies.  Punch blocks as well as extra drill bits should also be on the list along with saber saw blades and any tools you don’t already have at your disposal. Your corner hardware store, Home Dept or Lowes will cover all those needs. 

Don’t forget extra power strips.  Don’t buy the cheap $6 fire-hazard strips from the corner hardware store!  
Most of my studios have at least one Furman (or similar) rack-mounted “line conditioner” per rack.  By the way, the term Line or Power Conditioner is simply a better quality surge strip.  If you’re on a budget, the no-frills entry-level Furman rack-mount model is just under $50 from a broadcast supplier

For mission-critical applications, invest in an APC or Tripp UPS (conditioner with battery back-up).  If there is a computer on the equipment list, make sure it has its own adequate and dedicated UPS.  Don’t load a bunch of studio gear on the same UPS as a computer.   Both companies make UPS models that are rack-mountable. 

The drawback to rack mounted conditioners is most models also have front mounted power switches that operators trying to be “helpful” will turn off and disrupt programming or other equipment that is supposed to be kept on.  Furman or Middle Atlantic needs to develop a model with a power switch that is either rear mounted, or equipped with a key switch or a power switch that is simply defeatable from a harder to access location.

When building a studio, when possible, I prefer to bolt everything in place rather than having anything loose behind the rack.  That isn’t always possible, however, in the case of AC wiring, proper and neat routing is a crucial ingredient to doing a professional job.  It can also impact performance of the studio.  Most import (to you especially) it also makes the studio easier to service if everything is plugged into a central MOUNTED device.

The current Furman model (“Mx8”) also has extra spacing for a couple of wall warts (plug-in power supplies) as well.

While assembling the furniture, I added many cable-tie mounts and “loops” in anticipation of where I thought the wire runs would be. 

The preliminary furniture assembly took place in an unused video studio to eventually be moved to the actual studios. 

PRE-WIRE PLANNING
It’s time to make another of those Excel lists! 

This part of the planning should start once you have ordered your new equipment.

Since I have built so many studios at Specs Howard and elsewhere I have settled on many standards (such as “wire #1 and #2 are always mono, MIC-1 and MIC-2”).  Part of those standards also include labeling each and every cable that passes audio or control, pre-cutting most of the cables to length and adding the connectors BEFOREHAND – if required or if appropriate.

The Excel list includes a list of designated WIRE numbers, a separate column for the SOURCE equipment a column for any PUNCH PIN-OUTS and finally, the DESTINATION equipment, providing the equipment pin-outs if necessary.

A column for special remarks can also be included.

Since the Production studio was an all-analog installation, I used traditional wiring techniques using single pair Belden 9451, however, these same methods can be applied with the growing popularity of using Cat 5 (four pair) network cable to wire the entire studio, providing all audio is balanced audio.  For this renovation, the studios being built are analog only which was dictated by budget and type of consoles.  The only difference (if it were done with Cat 5 cable) is each WIRE number represents four pair.  Those pin-outs should also be shown on your Excel wiring chart. 

A separate block diagram can also detail any special wiring that may be required.

Each wire run required for studio assembly needs to be pre-cut if you are building your own pre-wires in house and from scratch.  In general, it is better to over-estimate the lengths required and allow extra length for a service loop (or cut the surplus off at installation time and re-label the wire).

Wire runs to various parts of the rack should also be pre-bundled with cable ties, even if your shipment of the actual racks hasn’t arrived yet. 

TOOL TIP! 
Use good quality tools! This includes such things as the ever-present diagonal cutters.  A small green-handled pair of FLUSH cutters will allow you to trim cable ties.  The “cheapie” cutters are generally not of this type and will leave a little tail of the cable tie where you trim them.  This “tail” can and will cut your hands as you pull wires through the nooks and crannies of the furniture.  Spend $19.95 rather than $4.99 on your diagonal cutters and save your hands from being hacked up.

OTHER TASKS & TIPS…
Those O.C. White microphone booms need to be pre-threaded with the appropriate cable and XLR connectors added to each end.   I use actual microphone cable such as from Canare or Belden, rather than the thin line-level cable, simply because it last longer, and is less subject to noise from repeated flexing.  The XLR jacks can also be mounted on the countertop near where the boom base is located.  Use a ¾” spade drill for the jacks, then  1/16” bits for the screws.  I used the tiny #4 ½” flat head phillips screws for this application.  Be aware of what is beneath the countertop before drilling.  Drill the holes first, then put the screws in by hand.  If you try to high-speed the screws, you will either strip out the very small amount of wood below or tear up the face of the screw.

If you selected Shure SM-7 microphones, use right-angle XLR connectors from Neutrik so the microphone can fully rotate.   Right angle XLR’s can be a real challenge to attach to the end of a braided-shield mic cable.  This is why these type of tasks are best completed BEFORE the actual construction begins, perhaps when you are less stressed, have more patience and can take time to do a really good job with tasks such as these.

You can also use screw-on extensions from microphone accessory manufacturer, Atlas to extend the mount. This allows the use of traditional XLR connectors.

It is important to take care of whatever details you can think of that can be pre-assembled before your studio furniture arrives.  Once the studio construction begins, the many “little details” you forgot or didn’t around to will only add to your studio downtime.  

TEST THE NEW EQUIPMENT...
If necessary, assemble cables specifically for testing.  As mentioned, the control / logic of the Arrakis ARC consoles selected needs extra attention.  Work out the details of what is required to make it work and bench test the console.  I also played music through the console for weeks while it was on the bench and tested each input.  This is not always practical, but modular plugs for this model made it easy. 

One of my tasks some 30 years ago (back then I was “Assistant to the Chief”) was to frequency sweep and measure distortion on all the inputs of our Pacific Recorders consoles.  These tests were performed and the results recorded PRIOR to installation and last I heard, those consoles are STILL in service some 30 years later.

Today, manufacturing methods including quality control, technology and simply available time make these tests less important or at least less practical.  If you can feed some audio in from a CD player and simply confirm it passes and sounds okay, calibration is in the right neighborhood AND take care of this BEFORE installation, you are ahead of the game.  If you catch something flakey, it’s easier to send it back to the manufacturer before it is installed and while you haven’t gotten around to throwing out the shipping cartons!    If you buy one of these ARC consoles from Arrakis, however, it is important to hang on to the shipping carton as already mentioned.

The next part of this article covers problems encountered during the demolition of the old studios, the nitty-gritty of getting the studios up and running and eventual 2009 replacement of the DAD workstations supplied by Enco Systems.

Specs Howard also has 21 “practice” studios which are soon also to be equipped with “Presenter,” Enco Systems’ new broadcast interface. This enlarges the school’s existing audio network from 3 workstations to 24. We plan to document this project in these pages as well. 

(Bob Burnham can be reached at bburnham@specshoward.edu)

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