Radio Facilities

For a radio station to work and succeed, they need to have the equipment (Hardware and software) in order to broadcast and do it successfully. The central hub of the radio station is the radio station in which the station or show is produced and this is for both live broadcast or for recording for a later broadcast or even a podcast. There are many forms of equipment that is used within a radio station ranging from the software that the station uses to broadcast to the style of mixer that they use to control the levels of the audio (This includes both the levels of the music that is being played and the levels of the microphone in case the presenter is too loud).

My group was tasked with interviewing a technician of e6 radio what sort of equipment the radio station uses, how they use it and about the room itself in case it is soundproof or not. So in this document I am going to be explaining the equipment and what it does, after this I will be comparing it to RPC Audio and how it compares to e6 Radio.

S-Radio Octomix with Planet E-Stream

First of all, the unit itself is an S-Radio Octomix which includes a touch screen for easy use when playing jingles and selecting songs. This includes the Planet E-stream software which allows them to broadcast anywhere that has internet connection, but due to licensing issues it is only allowed to broadcast to all of the Salford City Colleges though since the college only uses a wired connection so they are only able to broadcast to the cafeteria in Eccles College. Included in the software is the live module which allows e6 radio to broadcast live whether that is via the internet or through a wired connection to the cafeteria. There is also an option for scheduling which is for compiling and scheduling shows for later on, this is seen as pre-production and lastly the production module which is used for importing and organising media, which includes music.

OCTOMIX Professional Broadcast Mixer

Along with the software that came, the Octomix Professional Broadcast mixer is a high quality eight channel Analog mixer which includes three channels which are for microphones with mic inputs, one stereo input which can be used to

plug DJ Equipment which can be also used as a telephone imput and 4 stereo line inputs which are assigned to play and control the music. The Octomix is perfect for e6 as it is a small and efficient 8 channel mixer which has everything that e6 needs to operate.

Microphones

Within the e6 broadcasting studio, they have two microphones. The first one is a AV-JEFESTM9 Condenser microphone and this is the main microphone (The Presenters Microphone) which is held up by a crane for easy use for the presenter as they are able to position it

however they see fit. The next mic which is the guest microphone is a Rode nt2000 but unfortunately as the guest mic, they are unable to move it around and position it how they want as it is only held on by a small microphone stand.

Behringer ha400 Headphone Microamp

Within the radio studio is a Behringer 4 Channel headphone amplifier is able send the audio to four channels so that means that you can have up to four headphones being used at once which works more efficiently in a small studio. This means the studio is able to support one main broadcaster and three guests, the best thing is that the amplifier is cheap and Affordable for any small radio stations or people who want to start out which is why E6 radio has chosen it for their radio studio.

Headphones

In the studio there are two different brands of headphones but they were not mentioned in the interview so they either were unbranded or not common enough to be well known, but in the studio there were one pair of headphones that are strictly for the presenter and the other three pair of headphones are designated for the guest speakers.

DAW (Digital Audio Workstation)

To finish off with E6 Radio, We have the DAW’s (Digital Audio Workstation) which can be used for editing pre-recorded shows and also perfect them for a podcast encase there was some unnecessary dead air though this would only be able to do on a podcast and not something that is being live broadcasted. The Digital Audio Workstations that E6 use are Reaper and audacity.

Reaper (Rapid Environment for Audio Production, Engineering and Recording) is an audio production and editing software which is both cheap and effective which is useful for a small radio station such as E6 Radio but not for a big commercial station such as Capital or XFM. The other software that they use is a free open source digital audio editor called Audacity, which is good for recording and can be used for post-processing of all types of audio, including podcasts by trimming and fading in and out. E6 Radio have used this as it is a free program that is primarily focused on recording and editing all types of audio which means they can focus their money towards better studio equipment.

Within the RPC Studio, You will find:

Audio Technica Mics (AT4047) with Safe Sound pre-amps

Pro Tools and Adobe Audition Waves and Focusrite Plugins TC Finalizer Mastering Processor DAT and Mini Disc machines for

mastering. Inovonics FM 250 Audio Processor BCX 3 Playout System Fibre Broadband connection for audio delivery CDQ Prima 120 ISDN Codec

The difference in comparison to a radio station like e6 to a radio station like RPC audio that e6 is a community based radio station that is run by volunteers for education purposes whereas RPC Radio is a professional based radio station that audio broadcasting and Programme production. The equipment that they run is of better value and professional compared to the equipment that is used by e6 radio. For example, the mixer that RPC use which is a MBI Series 24 B was given to them by the BBC after being

de-commissioned from broadcasting house. These are the mixers that you would expect to see within the BBC or a Commercial radio station like XFM. Since RPC are responsible for creating Jingles for customers, they need the equipment to produce and master the audio at the best quality, which is why within the studio they use professional grade equipment. Since E6 Radio would be classed as a low budget radio station, RPC on the other hand would not be since equipment would be costly but would produce better and high quality audio. The only difference between e6 and RPC (Besides the value and quality of the equipment) is that e6 is only for audio broadcasting whereas RPC is a multipurpose station for both audio broadcasting and programme production (This includes the production of jingles, Intros and Advertisements