Almost Finished and Good News.

We have not much left to do on the studio.

Everything is up and running and tested. We are only waiting for new microphone holders and stands. We still have some shelving to install but that can be done any time. We also ordered some wood boxes that look like blanket chests to put all our extra stuff so it's not as cluttered as before.

Now the Good News

We have joined forces with a group in Paris called Francophonie Diffusion. A French music platform for radios worldwide for the international radio promotion of French and Francophone music. This is huge for us as it allows us to offer the latest French releases while still adhering to the Creative Commons concept.

More Good News

Luk went to the Neurologist on Monday and she received a clean bill of health. We will resume our Thai newscasts in a few days.

We just had a frustrating week.

It all started when we went to install a computer. It seems that the guy doing the job built the unit to the size on the drawing. Unfortunately the drawing was incorrect. This entailed pulling out all those miles of wire. We decided that it would actually be easier to just move the computer rather than rebuild the consol. We did that but it took us the better part of a day. The computer is no longer in a sound proof enclosure and that may cause a problem but has not in testing. We are worried about our microphones picking up transient hum or fan noise.
We have the studio almost completed except for some small items that can be done anytime. Our new microphone booms, stands and spiders have not arrived but we can get through until that happens using our old system.
Our biggest concern was that we could broadcast news reports on the weekend, by Sept 19. If there is trouble we also need the capacity to send our news reports to Free Speech Radio News in the US as we are an affiliate station.
So we have a go if not 100% completed.

New Studio Taking Shape....Just!!!!

It's always a challenge when you have something in your mind and need to make it into a reality. Ricefield's new studio is like this. We know what we want but it's not coming together in exactly the way we wanted. Most things are done. The room is finished in a nice light yellow, the floor has a special carpet with a texture that absorbs sound and a nice thick underlay for the same purpose. We had to remove the air con unit and now it's a bit stuffy although it's not hot even being southwest facing but the road is on the east side. We do have a nice big double thick glazed window that we hope we can use at times to ventilate but may have to keep it closed for sound and a ceiling fan that moves some air around without any noise.

We got the main console built yesterday but when we put our computer equipment in place we found that we have a fan noise every time the main system boots into overdrive. We need to added that or we will pick up the noise on our mics and it will make it sound like a plane taking off.

We pulled some wire today, there are miles and miles of wire in a studio for all sorts of things. Once we got it pulled all through the building we tested out and found that we had a problem in the wire itself. Sooooo... Out it came with a few expletives and the new wire was pulled and tested OK.

Next up changes to the console, More wiring, moving the main computer system (runs the radio station software and has the music installed on it), figuring a place to install our stand along 1 terabyte disk, mounting a shelf or two to hold our radio station monitor, we need 2 full computer systems one for editing one for radio and a monitor for the live news feeds. Then when we get all that done we can start to install the mixing panel and all the assorted station gear.

We have not fully decided on out mic stands yet but the ones we had in the other studio, although adequate, were not all that easy to adjust.

We are on target for the end of the month roll out and until then we still cannot d our Thai Newscast or Thai Weather forecasts.

Just a quick note Luk is recovering well from her Brain Aneurysm and will be back in full gear by the end of the month as well.

Have a good day.