|
625 Content: 2002 : #3
Studio furniture and suspension
Michael Lvov
Fine feathers make fine birds.
It is not a secret that a matter of purchasing studio furniture, shelves, racks, and other additional facilities for equipping TV areas and studios is often put in the last place. This can be easily explained from the financial point of view: most TV companies and production studios have rather limited budget, and the main part of money, dug up or taken almost by force from their founders and sponsors, is spent for TV production equipment: video cameras and video tape recorders, non-linear edit systems, racks, light, etc. And when entering edit room, you can see video tape recorders of more than 10 kg and several tens of thousands of dollars each, standing one on another (imagine if you need to get the lower one out), mixers and edit controllers, placed on a usual desk that is moved practically to the wall. And all this magnificence is crowned with a web of various cables, whose interlacement can be understood by a very experienced pathfinder. And when you face any problem of commutation, necessity of equipment service or redesigning the room, something unimaginable happens: to reach the connections you have to clamber under the desk, make the leanest employee to get between the desk and the wall, or just disassemble all the stuff. And how many times did many editors feel exhausted after, it might seem, a simple editing! No wonder: they had to perform acrobatic feats to reach any device, and to turn their heads into 360° like fighter pilots trying to see anything on the stupidly placed monitors. And how many times did engineers damned cram and stupid placement of equipment during elementary works on precautions and service of the equipment! And how many times did problems during broadcasting happen because someone didn't manage to reach quickly the necessary cable, button, or connector! All this happens just because of lack of or wrong selection of studio furniture and accessories.
 |
Video console with the rack, ready for
equipment installation |
The present range of furniture for TV production industry being wide, only listing variants requires additional several-page article. Of course, not everyone may afford spending pretty penny for purchasing products of such famous companies as Winsted, Protec or X-Mark. But often it is not necessary. First of all, there is enough number of Russian system integrators who have begun domestic manufacture of furniture and racks. These products are much cheaper and there is a possibility of ordering a custom-built product for specific area. In the last resort, it is possible to order furniture directly from domestic manufacturers, having provided them with good draft and requirements specification. We do not want to tire our readers with listing and analysis of standard dimensions of various studio furniture and means of equipment's installment and mounting. All that can be found in special literature. We think it will be enough just to formulate some principles in concordance with which studios and working areas must be combined with furniture.
 |
| Video console |
The first obvious principle is functionality. This may sound simple. But for maximum effect it is necessary not only to define exactly current configuration of the production unit (e.g. edit room) for which studio furniture is selected, but also to understand clearly its further expansion. For instance, if a BetacamSP-type linear edit room, containing three record/playback posts with monitors, mixer, edit controller, and audio equipment, is supposed to become non-linear edit room, there is no point in purchasing a console with a cut for mixer or controller plants: they will become unnecessary and the cut will look strange as soon as edit becomes non-linear. Functionality includes not only rationality. It is also necessary to provide the staff with comfortable working conditions. This means that all control units of the equipment must be accessible, monitors must be placed in a way that does not tire worker's sight and back or neck muscles, etc. Besides, equipment, installed in consoles, shelves, and racks, must be available for prevention and service, in other words there must be provided a full access to all connectors, located, as a rule, on the back panel of devices, as well an easy extraction and installment of equipment, fixed in racks, shelves, and consoles. Upholding of requirements as for equipment cooling mode plays also important role. If the equipment is placed too densely and, moreover, moved up to the wall, normal cooling will not be available.
Basically, there are many variants of equipment's arrangement. If playback and recording equipment is supposed to be controlled distantly (for example, via edit controller or computer), it is better to place all video tape recorders and/or record/playback disk devices onto shelf, leaving only mixer, controller consoles, audio unit, and video monitors on the table. However, this variant is hardly suitable in cases when frequent change of videotapes in video tape recorders is necessary.
 |
| Set of studio furniture |
As systems of digital non-linear edit are becoming more and more popular, the number of equipment is getting less, and huge "runway" tables, designed for big number of heavy devices, are becoming a history. Practically, for easy operating with digital system it is enough to have good computer table, containing the computer itself and racks with record/playback devices. As these devices are becoming digital and smaller in dimensions, there is a possibility to build the rack straight into the table's pod, achieving even more compactness of the whole system.
When there is a problem of working area, furniture takes on special significance. In this particular case you will estimate at your true worth the quality and functionality of studio furniture. Mobile television stations turn out to be the striking example. Thanks to correctly designed structure of table-rack, small bay of sidecar may store unbelievable amount of equipment!
 |
| Racks of different size |
Monitor stands and racks with playback equipment are most widespread fittings type in on-air areas. Monitor stands are traditionally manufactured out of metallic profile and have sufficiently rigid structure, because monitors still remain quite large and heavy devices themselves. This is caused by cathode-ray tubes, employed in monitors, whose overall dimensions usually define dimensions and weight of monitors. For example, the weight of 17" CRT monitor is fluctuating around 20 kg point. Considering the fact that monitor stand may contain up to 10 and even more monitors, it is easy to see that strength of the stand's structure is very important. That's why one should make exact calculations of the structure's strength in case of using own-production stand. By the way, the same can be said about consoles and other furniture. Usually, all the furniture has metallic carcass edged by wood or plastic panels, otherwise it will not bear the weight of installed equipment. Special shelf, fixable to the wall, is a quite good variant for installing small monitors. The shelf's attachment point allows changing its incline, and special restrictive slat prevents monitor from sliding. There are different variants of such shelves with possibility of installing 1.3 monitors depending on their dimensions. There are also variants of monitor installment: it may be placed just onto the stand's shelf or stationary fixed (in case corresponding elements are available).
 |
| Air facility |
Racks for equipment's mounting are type of stands. These fittings have to be firm and stable enough. As usual, the racks are of standard (19") width and have standard attachment points. And this is important, for in case of poor design the holes of fastening equipment may not coincide with the holes of rack, causing problems with equipment installment. Accuracy of production should be given special attention if ordering such fittings to unspecialized manufacturers. Besides screw fastening, racks may employ shelves with slide rails. Such variant is very convenient for it allows easy in- and out-pulling of heavy devices, for example video tape recorders of Betacam SP or D-9 formats. Important role, especially in mobile television station conditions, is carried by shock absorbers, i.e. buffers between carrying carcass of the rack and shelves with equipment. The absorbers take the main part of mechanic vibrations during mobile television station movement, thus increasing the equipment's protection-from-vibration rate.
One will not overrate the role of consoles in replicating systems. Such consoles employ up to several tens of devices.
Video libraries are one more case where special bays are used. This point is usually quite sensitive, though it may not be on the news. It is important not only to provide storing of big amount of videotapes, but also to have free access to them, the library filling as small area as possible. Consoles with pullout sections, offered, for example, by Winstead Company, may meet all these needs.
 |
| Cart for a videocassettes |
Wheel carts, designed for small amount of equipment, are extremely convenient. For example, carts, designed for a couple of video tape recorders and a monitor, are available. Such configuration allows reviewing material and, if necessary, copying. This variant is good for journalists and editors, and the mobility of this mini-system allows using it by several colleagues in turns by simply moving it from one work place to another. Carts, designed for transporting big amount of videotapes from one edit room to another, from archive room to on-air room and back, are also convenient.
Depending on the area configuration, consoles may be direct, L- or U-type, and also radiussed. Dimensions of such furniture are dictated by type and amount of equipment that is to be installed. Besides, number of decks also depends on this. The upper deck, usually, contains monitors, but this is not a rule. There are variants when monitors are built in the middle deck, the upper one remaining vacant for other equipment. Small consoles, in particular console for edit controller or video mixer, may be equipped with wheels, thus the device may be easily moved from one room to another, if necessary. Big consoles employ the lower deck (under the countertop) having also attachment points, similar to racks, where system units of mixers, controllers, and other devices are placed.
 |
 |
| Genetal view of a stand-rack (left) and its construction |
As for practical questions of purchasing and manufacturing furniture, here one must follow concrete needs, consider expansion outlook, and also choose quality. Here it is not necessary to spend vast sums of money for furniture of popular manufacturers. For instance, "SurgutInformTV" TV-company developed drafts of the necessary furniture by itself and made the order to domestic manufacturers. We assure you that the furniture have turned out of the same quality as that of popular manufacturers, being much cheaper.
next >>
|
«625»
«Audio Producer»
«CET»