The UK’s leading dance and R&B radio station, Galaxy 105,has been enjoying the Ibiza clubbing season with assistance fromSoundcraft, installing an RM1ds radio desk in Cafe Savannah for aseries of live broadcasts over two weeks.
Pictured: Galaxy presenter Paul Kershaw
“With the prospect of two weeks and 20 separate broadcastsfrom the island, we needed a compact, flexible, ‘self-op’radio desk—something that was simple enough for our presenters tooperate, but with the features to handle anything we could throw atit,” said the station’s technical manager, Jon Crew.“Our well-worn and road-weary analog console was now past itssell-by date, and our new RM1ds certainly survived being lugged aroundEurope as air cargo on its first outing. We had a full flightcase made,and for a studio desk, it has adapted to life on the road prettywell.”
For large projects like Ibiza, Galaxy travels with a complete radiostation flightcased up. “It represents about a metric ton of aircargo, but means that we’re entirely self-sufficient onlocation.
“The RM1ds meant we could achieve an end-to-end digital setupon location. Playback from CD, MiniDisc, DAT and PC play out allinterface via AES/EBU to the desk, and the plethora of digital outputshandle codec feeds and record outputs on-site. The desk sounds great,clean and transparent. The built-in dynamics are a massive bonus.I’ve dumped my outboard rack of compressors and can even insert agentle limiter on every channel to keep a check on over-enthusiasticDJs!”
Galaxy 105 will be upgrading to the new version of RCS MasterControl later this year and the crew will begin testing out theRM1ds’ built-in support for this playout system.
For more, visit Soundcraft online at www.soundcraft.com. For more touring news, visit mixonline.com/live_sound_tour_profiles/index.htm.
