Newcastle Austereo stations NX and KO FM have had a production facilities facelift, installing a new desk and Protools system (pictured).

Group PD Mike Byrne is pleased with the new equipment and the improvement it will make to production within the station.

The image production studio was originally a carting booth running an old MTE console that came up from 2KO’s Hunter Street studios in 1988. Over the years the studio has been modified and was most recently running Triple DAT.

Byrne says: “Over the past few weeks our techs have gutted this studio, replacing all the wall panels, floor, ceiling, doors and benchwork (we’ll really miss the circa ’88 salmon pink and gray bus seat material!)

“We’ve installed the very latest version of Pro Tools (V6.7) with a bunch of shmick plug-ins. It’s running on a big fat Mac and plugged into a brand new Yamaha 02R.”

Byrne expects his image producer Doogie will “quadruple his ouput alongside a quantum leap in quality!”