Hi, I wonder if anyone can help?
I’m currently working in Umeå, Sweden on a number of sound art projects. One of which is radio-based and is intended to be transmitted over FM for a full weekend (hopefully more than one) during the period when Umeå is European City of Culture in 2014.
I’ve worked in and around the content/production end of radio for a few years but have no experience whatsoever when it comes to hardware/engineering end of things. It only needs to transmit over a range of 3 or 4 km. Could anybody point me in some direction where I can find out:
- what basic hardware I’d need to broadcast with
- the possible cost implications of this (just a rough estimate)
- recommended place to get this equipment from (UK)
- any literature (online or in book-form) that I could use as a kind of ‘do-all bible’ to help in setting this up?
It would be preferable if it could be portable(ish) as it will hopefully be used in other areas in the future (toured if you like). Many questions I know but any help is very much appreciated! Thanks in advance.
Martin
6 Comments, Comment or Ping
Martin
Hello, I’m the CRT’s new Tech Guru and I am here to help!
Firstly, are you sure that the necessary licencing regime exists in Sweden for short-term broadcasting? Obviously we have it here in the UK under the Resticted Service Licence scheme but I don’t know whether that’s the case in other countries.
As regards equipment you’ll need something to play out from and/or produce programmes – a basic studio set up with a mixer, microphones, CDs and a PC or Mac based edit./playout machine would suffice. If you are intending to do a range of programming over a relatively long period you might want to look at a more fully featured playout system like Myriad of one of the free alternatives.
For transmission you’ll need a basic audio processor (optional), an FM transmitter, RDS encoder and an antenna. This assumes you are broadcasting from the same place your studio is situated. If this isn’t the case (perhaps because your studio is in a dip and the rest of the town is on a hill) you’ll also need some way of getting the audio to the trasmitter. You could use broadband, a radio link or even ISDN but the latter would be fairly costly.
Hire charges are likely to be in the range of £500 per week for the transmission equipment and about the same for the studio. This is for professional, well maintained and supported equipment. You could possibly beg, borrow or steal kit to save money!
Here comes the commercial plug! My company – Station Z, is able to hire all this to you and also I can give you or anyone else free advice. Email me on info@station-z.co.uk for more information.
I hope this is of some help.
Andy Bantock
June 1st, 2011
Martin,
I have used Broadcast Warehouse (www.broadcastwarehouse.com) for FM transmitters in the past. As for the studio equipment, I am biased, because my company Randall Concepts Ltd. builds the Ranger 4 portable studio system which is built into an airline sized suitcase. This is avaliable for sale in the UK and internationally, but at present we only hire within the UK.
Best wishes for your project.
Charles Randall
http://www.randallconcepts.com
June 1st, 2011
Thanks for the useful replies. The studio side of things is already taken care of, it’s the transmission end that’s extremely useful to hear about. Hiring will probably be the way to go.
Also, I am not aware of the broadcast licensing system that’s in place for here in Sweden so that’ll be the first port of call. I’m very familiar with our RSL system in the UK but not sure how things operate here in Sweden. I’ll contact you again when the ins and outs of the Swedish broadcast system are unearthed!
Many thanks again,
MH
June 1st, 2011
Hi Martin,
Sweden has a Community Radio licence system not dissimilar to ours here in the UK.
You can also operate a temporary licence so I think that should cover your weekend broadcast.
Your contact in Sweden is:
The Swedish Post and Telecom Agency
http://www.pts.se/en-gb/
We also hire equipment similar to Andy.
http://www.transmittersrus.com/tru/fm-rsl-hire-package/189/product
We are very busy at this time of year so a couple of weeks notice is always appreciated.
If we can assist in any other way feel free to drop us a line.
David
June 2nd, 2011
Great. Thanks again for the links.
Martin
June 3rd, 2011
As a ‘value for money’ playout system I cannot recommend highly enough ‘Station Playlist’ which comprises two programs ‘Studio’ and ‘Creator’. We checked it out at Tempo FM before we started broadcasting on the 30 day demo’ version in 2006 and had no hesitation in purchasing the full version which cost about £350 then and a snip. It has rarely put a foot wrong in automation mode in the 5 years we’ve been on air and most unexpected behaviour has usually been traced to operator error.
June 12th, 2011