Studer OnAir 3000 Digital Consoles Train A New BBC Generation

Studer has supplied four new OnAir 3000 digital broadcast audio consoles for use at BBC Scotland's Queen Margaret Drive studios in Glasgow.
The concoles will be used for production of radio news as well as part of a dedicated training programme to prepare staff for their move to a new state-of-the-art digital broadcast headquarters at Pacific Quay which will be fully operational later this year. The equipment was supplied to BFE, a Siemens subsidiary, and subsequently implemented by Siemens IT Solutions and Services, BBC Scotland's prime systems integrator for Pacific Quay.
Because of the design of the Studer OnAir 3000, BBC engineers at Queen Margaret Drive are able to run two modular mix surfaces off a single SCore DSP engine. In the newsroom, two radio studios have each been equipped with a 12-fader work surface, sharing an SCore, where they are used for recording and for other contributions to the news operation. The set-up is duplicated in the training programme, although the consoles are slightly larger in 27-fader and 21-fader format.
Studer's Andrew Hills explained: "Studer's digital console technology will have a considerable presence in Scotland. Our large-format Vista 8 consoles are being used by BBC Scotland for drama, music and general production. When it is fully operational, the Pacific Quay broadcast HQ will house more than 25 OnAir 3000 desks, popular because of their flexibility and cost-effectiveness. The OnAir 3000 design is based on a completely modular desk and a new DSP engine. It allows the fitting of up to eight fader modules, each using six fader strips to give a maximum console size of 48 faders, and layout options range from a highly comprehensive engineer-operated continuity console to a single fader panel for DJ and newsroom use by journalists."
The console has three main stereo mix buses plus an audition facility, four stereo aux. buses, 16 mix-minus sends, configurable as AUXes and three independent studio monitoring circuits and offers full dynamics, EQ and input/output routing in each channel.
(SP)