Unique elements

Large windows allow plenty of light into the WDVI control room.

The morning show on WCMF is hosted by Brother Wease. This studio is going to be on local TV in the future, so in designing the studio, everything had to be low profile. Wease's mic is a RE-20 on a 309 shock mount, mounted to an Atlas Sound boom. The guest mics are mounted on mic arms from RAM systems. They are all low profile, so everyone's face is visible without a big mic and arm in front of it. We used Whirlwind HBUC headphone boxes underneath the counter for the guests and talent to plug in their headphones and control the levels.

I mentioned the punch block standoff brackets we had built. I'll note that the labeling on the Krone blocks, which clearly says what each pair is for, is created in CAD. This eliminates needing to look in a document book to know what each block is for.

The control rooms, like WHTK, have traditional furniture layouts.

All the RF lines that run to the roof pass through a custom ground panel built by Harger.

For redundancy in the audio path we used Broadcast Tools SS4.1 Plus switchers on the STL inputs. Basically, we can feed each station directly from the satellite cage in the studio from the Bridge router or the automation with a push of the button. These switches also have a built-in silence sensor that feeds the Enberg panels in the WHAM studio telling the operators if any station is off the air.

One of the voice-tracking rooms that served as a temporary air studio.

To share ISDN units and simplify routing, the previous lot of selector switches was retired and replaced with a Wheatstone rackmount X-Y controller. Station personnel can select any source to feed the remote equipment.

I could write a book about all the work and planning that went into moving the Rochester facility. I think the most downtime we had on any of the stations was 10 minutes. I must say it was a stressful job, but the end result is a very nice facility achieved on a tight schedule within budget. Clear Channel had a great team of IT people who set up all the computers and the prophet system. The local market engineers also went way above the call of duty to make this move happen. I was impressed!

Lightner is president of Lightner Electronics, Claysburg, PA.

All lined up in the rack room.