AFTRS launches new radio studios: Equipment details and pictures

AFTRS has used the opportunity provided by its Moore Park move to build three state of the art radio studios that will set up the organisation for years to come with one of the most progressive radio training facilities in the Australia.

The radio studios are built around a large control room, which doubles as a teaching space, and also has direct line of sight to the facility’s rack room. The radio studios are interconnected with the new building’s Video Post Production control room, a suite of sound recording studios, computer editing rooms, and a range of tv studios, all in other parts of the building. Audio file transfers are possible from one area to another.

Total connectivity in the building allows the radio students to work with other specialists to experiment with multi-platform broadcasting such as audio and video streaming and digital radio feeds. The 2008 commercial radio class is currently using these facilities to stream its Next FM broadcast on the internet.

The radio studios sit above the main atrium, overlooking visitors coming and going in the building and with a full view of the outside world. Radio broadcasters can also see colleagues preparing other shows in the work area above them, and have direct line of site across the atrium to the Video Post control room.

Director of Radio, Steve Ahern, who came up with the design for the new studios, says he wanted them to be visible to all: “Too often radio studios are poked in the back of a building with little light or connection to the outside environment. We wanted to change that.

“I got together with my team, Kim Rigby, Jen Oldershaw, Byron Webb, Melanie Withnall and Rebecca Ritchie, and we all contributed ideas. It was Kim’s idea for the main studio to protrude into the central building core, and Byron picked microphones that would suit the acoustics of the new studios. Then we got our team of AFTRS Engineering and IT staff to think-tank with us, and more ideas were generated, like having two high quality studio cameras and graphics mixing for vision streaming. When you get a group of radio professionals of this calibre together and pool all their good ideas, great outcomes are possible.

Once the design was formulated, the Radio team consulted with architects Cox Richardson to integrate the radio facility into the larger building. Once the physical structure was built, the project team engaged Richard Fleming from Radio Support Services to execute the equipment fitout.

AFTRS Radio Division wanted to replicate many different kinds of studios so that it can train broadcasters from all sectors in facilities similar to their home stations. The brief included a range of small and large desks (Klotz, Elan and Logitek), plus a range of playout and news systems including RCS, NexGen, Netia, NewsBoss, Voxpro and others.

Richard Fleming has told radioinfo: “Steve Ahern asked a lot of us… it’s different from most other stations we build because they usually want equipment that is all the same. For AFTRS we had to source many different systems to Steve’s brief, and make sure each they would talk to each other.”

The large main studio, which has equipment similar to the ARN, Austereo and Nova studios, has step-like seating in it to accommodate student practical lectures. Studio two is set up similar to many regional studios, and the third studio is for voiceovers and news bulletins. All studios can voicetrack into multiple systems and are digital radio ready.

According to Fleming, one of the most difficult parts of the brief was to achieve equipment switchability across all the studios: “Steve wanted to be able to reconfigure the studios to best replicate each client’s needs. If the ABC books a training course for regional presenters, they need to be trained on a Logitek desk linked to a Netia playout system for instance. But at other times, Steve wanted to be able to play the RCS and NexGen systems via that Logitek desk. It was a big ask, but we were able to make it happen thanks to the cooperation of all the equipment suppliers.”

Ahern says it took a lot of planning to convince all parties to embrace the complex brief, but once they understood the priorities of Australia’s elite media training school they delivered the goods. “The proof is in the pudding! We now have an amazing studio facility that is invigorating for the students to work in and can deliver feeds to many broadcast and online platforms at the same time.”

The equipment list includes:

Klotz DCII console and Vadis Frame, Klotz Xenon console, Logitek console and engine.

Playout systems include NexGen and RCS Master Control with Netia as the number 3 system. Voxpro forms the basis of quick edit systems in all studios.

The Comrex STAC multiline phone system was used for the main on air studio with Comrex DH20 single line hybrids in each of the other three areas. The STAC system emulates a Phone Box or AVT system with call vetting without the price tag.

The control room console utilises an Elan analog console, which is very much overworked in is first few days of operation. A second desk of the same model was purchased for the annual Show Radio outside broadcast.

Fleming says:

“Overall it was a great challenge meeting the many and varying requirements of the school, but what we achieved I believe will work very well for both the school and the students. They all seem to be very happy with it.”

Photos:

Installation Techs in the Rack Room: Richard Fleming, Bob Girdo and Bill Bedford.

The Radio studio looks over the building entry foyer.

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Main Studio 1: Klotz Vadis desk

Studio 2: Logitek desk

Studio 3: Klotz Xenon desk

Control Room with Elan desk and Protools Digi002