Sean Hannity, host of the nationally syndicated ABC Radio Network program Sean Hannity Show, and the Fox News Channel’s Hannity and Colmes, recently built a radio broadcast studio in his home, which would allow him to broadcast his programs even when the nasty East Coast weather prevented him from commuting to WABC’s New York City studios. He commissioned Harris Broadcast Communications to customize the studio to his specifications and handle the installation.
The challenge for the Harris team on the Hannity studio was to build a system that would enable a broadcast from a small, stand-alone home studio to be successfully transmitted to WABC’s flagship location at Penn Plaza, allowing it to then be bumped up to the network.
Harris built the studio around its compact VSDM, VistaMax digital mixer. The console is complemented by 19-inch EIA standard equipment racks loaded with equipment that allows the transmission to be routed to WABC via several redundant paths, one of which is Harris’ Intraplex system, allowing network connectivity between two facilities over a T1 line.
“Since this is a broadcast environment, we standardized everything on Neutrik connectors,” adds Paul Barzizza, manager of business development for Harris’ Radio Systems Business. “The facility is wired with Cat-5 unshielded cables for all AES/EBU digital signals, so we used Neutrik’s EZ Series male and female XLRs.”
For more information on Harris Broadcast Communications, visit www.broadcast.harris.com. Find out more about Sean Hannity at www.hannity.com.
