Apna Radio is based in West Bromwich in the West Midlands and was recently started by Priya Singh and her partner Barry Curtis. Both had worked in radio stations before, but this project gave them the opportunity to provide a radio station output slightly different to other stations by catering more to youngsters and youth broadcasting.
Although the station’s programming, and the music they play, was initially aimed at the younger Asian generation, all ages have been tuning in, listening to a selection of English music, Hindu music, R&B and Hip Hop. Clearly there was a big gap in the market for this project.
Apna Radio uses a Sonifex Solutions radio broadcast studio package for it’s main output. Priya came to Sonifex after seeing an advertisement in a magazine. Barry Curtis, made the final decision to buy the Solutions package because he wanted a fully featured, professional studio but with a low price. Although the package is low in cost, careful selection of high quality, durable and reliable equipment has been made to ensure that quality is not sacrificed and to provide a studio package which is complete in every detail.
Priya commented “We are very pleased with the Solutions 1 studio package. It was excellent being able to have the choice of which equipment we wanted to be included in the package, whilst still being at a low cost. We have had no problems and have found that the package has been very easy to use.”
Managing Director of Sonifex, Marcus Brooke commented “The beauty of the Sonifex Solutions package is that it can be set up easily and quickly and can be operated by a wide range of people of varying ability. This has made this particular studio package very popular.”
The Solutions 1 is centered around the Sonifex MX14S mixing console, set in custom technical furniture. With both guest and presenter positions, the package is ideal for hospital radios, RSL’s, sports grounds, colleges and university media studies departments, as well as community and commercial radio stations.
All equipment is manufactured by leading broadcasting companies and has been carefully integrated to provide an easy to operate professional studio.
The studio furniture is ergonomically designed to house all of the technical equipment and placed frequently used items within easy reach of the presenter. The furniture is L-shaped and can be installed either left or right-handed and comes complete with a 6U CD penthouse top-pod. A sidearm can be added to the furniture to make it U-shaped, allowing more space for turntables, a PC, or a further guest position. The surfaces are covered with bench lino, which is not only robust but also has good acoustic qualities – items dropped on the surface produce a dull thud to which the microphone is not sensitive.
