Wagons Rolls For BBC Radio OBs And Stagetec

Stagetec is to supply BBC Radio Outside Broadcast with five Aurus consoles and Nexus routing and infrastructure for all six vehicles in its new fleet of General Purpose and Music sound trucks. The systems deliver the flexibility and ease of use essential to meet the demands of the extremely wide range of recording and broadcasting tasks expected of the vehicles.
The four General Purpose trucks are each fitted with a 40 fader Aurus and the first of these, Sound 6, made an impressive debut recently at the University of Derby as part of Radio 4’s University Tour across England and Wales. Parked on campus for two days, Sound 6 recorded programmes as diverse as The Bottom Line with Evan Davis, Just a Minute with broadcasting legend Nicholas Parsons, The Music Group with Phil Hammond and delivered a live broadcast of Woman’s Hour with singer Alison Moyet.
Sound 5 had its first outing on 30th October, broadcasting Radio 5 live’s Simon Mayo show featuring Sparks, Johnny Marr and live music from Snow Patrol, from Maida Vale on the 75th anniversary of the studios’ association with the BBC.
The General Purpose vehicles are fixed chassis 30ft trucks equipped with Stagetec’s 40 fader direct access control surface, a 40962 central router and 4 remote stage boxes, each box connected by military grade fibre optics to the truck. The Music trucks are 40ft trailers with a 48 fader control surface and just 2 stage boxes with 64 channels of Stagetec’s 158dB mic inputs apiece.
One of the primary benefits of the Aurus console is that the bus and channel configuration can be matched to each application and the setup loaded in just a few seconds. The Aurus control surface benefits from the latest digital control and processing but features a traditional analogue style channel strip making it a familiar tool for those moving from analogue systems.
The new fleet is due to be fully operational by next Spring and will eventually replace the oldest vehicles in the existing fleet that were built over twenty years ago.
Stagetec consoles including Aurus, Crescendo and Auratus and Nexus routing systems are distributed in the UK by Aspen Media Ltd. Aspen Media has been supplying audio equipment to the broadcast industry for fifteen years under the leadership of Director Chris Collings.
(KMcA/BMcC)