ABC Radio opened its new studios in Dawson Street Ballarat last week.
The ABC’s Head of Local Radio, Michael Mason has praised the team at the new station, telling radioinfo: “It’s our first new station in years. Our research and the feedback after the first week on air shows a strong demand for the service.
The team there are deeply committed to the region and to the ABC and we are very pleased with what they are doing.”
The station is heard on FM 107.9 and Dominic Brine is the Regional Program Manager.
The new station was built in the past 11 months at a cost of $1 million. Bendigo was the last new Victorian ABC station launched before this one in 1993.
A staff of nine will broadcast local breakfast, morning and drive shifts and 5 local news bulletins per day.
Equipment in the new studios includes:
· Three Logitek Digital Audio Engines to drive the consoles and their routing requirements. Each engine shares its audio with the others via a dual-ring fibre network.
· Two main studios with Numix 12 channel consoles.
· A Remora 10 for the Edit Booth.
· A Remora 4 for the Production Support area.
· Route 3 and Button 12 control boxes for routing input sources.
The system handles all audio routing and distribution, including ABC transmission and network switching.
ABC Technical Services based in Southbank Melbourne will maintain the system via the ABC’s wide area network. Techs in Melbourne can connect to the Supervisor PC remotely, to upload new configurations and see what’s going on inside the system.
Studio shots below:
Main studio
Production Support studio
Equipment and router
