FEATURES: BROADCAST
Every inch counts
Space was the major limiting factor for Stagetec Asia
in its recent OB Van design and installation project for
Radio Television Brunei. James Ling
RTB’s new van in use
Stagetec Asia has been supplying
equipment to RTB for many years
through dealerships. However,
working with its local partner,
Telemedia Technologies, this became
its rst turnkey project for the
broadcaster.
Stagetec Asia’s David Chan with the completed OB Van
OB VAN DESIGN IS A DISCIPLINE
that provides its own unique
set of challenges. Equipment
and production quality must be
comparable to that of a broadcast
studio, yet the space is greatly
reduced and its mobility means that
weight becomes a signi cant factor.
‘It is like squeezing a normal studio
into a van,’ explains David Chan,
MD of Stagetec Asia. ‘The major
differences are utilising the space
intelligently, minimising the power
consumption, splitting the air-con
cooling system and ensuring it is all
acoustically acceptable inside the
OB Van.’
Stagetec Asia wrestled with these
considerations during a recent
three month design and installation
project for an OB Van for Radio
Television Brunei (RTB). The highceilinged van was designed for radio
production and needed to t a studio
for three people - one production
manager, one sound engineer and a
technician. As part of the brief, the
new OB Van required customised
exterior and interior panels, custombuilt racks, the installation of new
equipment and cabling both inside
the van and at the rear.
Rather than the acoustics or the
equipment selection, the starting
point for the design was a practical
consideration for the OB Van’s
functionality. ‘From the beginning, we
had to consider balancing the weight
load of the van with the equipment,
generator and air-con locations. This
is to ensure that the van will be in
a good and balanced position both
on the move or when stationary,’
furthers Mr Chan. ‘Then we had to
ensure the quiet environment inside
the van. This is a dif cult challenge
as this is a mobile studio in which
we do not have the luxury of space
and interior design factors that can
help acoustically.
‘Next, we had to ensure that the
equipment was well positioned
inside the rack and the cabling had
to be properly arranged so that
there is no interference or heat
issues,’ continues Mr Chan. ‘We
used customised equipment racks
to ensure that all the equipment
was installed without heating or
noise problems. The exibility of
the shelves and rack design also
contributed to the space saving
inside the studio. Every inch of
the van space was calculated and
de ned accurately to ensure no
mistakes were made.’
104 PRO AUDIO ASIA July–August 2014
The broadcast setup
inside the OB Van
RTB staff putting the new mobile
studio through its paces
‘RTB stated some basic standard
equipment speci cations. However,
the initial requirements were simple
with the idea that it can be expanded
in the near future with other
equipment,’ recalls the MD. ‘Hence,
we had to design a system that
could cater to basic usage, whilst at
the same time be ready for future
expansion. We needed to allocate
rack space, patch bays and cabling
to be easily upgraded. Further, RTB
also stated that it may use some
existing equipment in this OB Van. So
we had to cater to this requirement
accordingly.’
The system Stagetec installed
includes a Yamaha CL1 digital
production mixer, ADAM Audio A5X
monitors, TASCAM CD500B CD
player, Marantz PMD580 solid state
recorder, a variety of microphones
from Røde and Shure, with Shure
headphones and a Sonifex RB-HD6
headphone ampli er.
‘There are patch panels at the rear
of the OB Van. These enable the OB
Van to link to the studios if required,’
adds Mr Chan. ‘At the same time,
there is a plan to add audio codecs
in the future so the OB Van can
transmit live audio back to the studio.
We have accommodated this feature
into the OB Van design.’
As the end results prove, a lot of
preparation went into the design,
and Mr Chan is keen to praise the
work done by his team. ‘This project
was done with a lot of planning and
discussion. Our internal team did
the planning and the design with
some good advice from our German
counterpart,’ says Mr Chan. ‘We
managed to get all work done in
Malaysia, from customising the van,
to the interior panelling, racking and
cabling as well as the integration.
We did most of the work ourselves,
hence with proper design, all the
work carried out by our own team and
in collaboration with local contractors
made it successful.
‘This RTB OB Van project is one of
the most challenging projects that
we have anticipated,’ continues Mr
Chan. ‘This project has brought the
best of my team in terms of their
technical design and teamwork.
Added to this, I appreciate the
great support we received from
local contractors and our partner,
Telemedia Technologies in Brunei.
We have achieved this project in the
desired timeframe and it is a very
good result. It is our honour to design
and build this OB Van for RTB.’
This view of a successful end result
is shared by the broadcaster. ‘We
welcome the new radio OB Van to
RTB,’ says Hajjah Rosni, RTB’s head
of radio department. ‘We thank
Telemedia and Stagetec Asia for the
great work and nicely designed OB Van.’
The limitations of its mobile nature
means that OB Van design will
always provide signi cant challenges.
However, as this latest addition to
RTB’s facilities shows, by making the
most of what space you have and
using intelligent designs, it is possible
to build a high-quality production
environment in a limited space.
www.stagetecasia.com