Soundcraft makes Money.

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Two Soundcraft B400 on-air audio mixing consoles have been broadcasting get-rich techniques for 24 hours a day at recently launched The Money Channel. From two converted industrial units in Wapping, East London, the Money Channel is carried on the Sky Digital network -- and is live for 10 continuous hours a day.

At The Money Channel's facilities, there are two studios, both equipped with Soundcraft B400 Series analogue consoles. Additionally, the channel's four Avid edit suites have Spirit Folio mixers. The consoles were specified by The Money Channel in conjunction with EMS, a broadcast services company who consulted on the project and handled most of the installation.

"I'd used Soundcraft on many jobs" commented Chris Pearman, The Money Channel's senior engineer, "and felt confident in using them. We went to Soundcraft and told them what we wanted, understanding that these desks are fully customisable, and agreed the order. Then, at the beginning of January, we decided that the number or mono mic channels installed weren't going to be enough, and so Soundcraft came in over a weekend and extended the facilities."

The Soundcraft B400s handle virtually all of the audio processing needs of the two studios with outboard equipment largely being restricted to some additional Drawmer compressors for channel inserts. The B400s' own limiters in the master module are used to control the dynamics of the master audio outputs prior, in the case of Studio 1, to routing to the Presentation Suite, where audio levels may not be touched before transmission.

The simplicity of console operation was important to the channel. Pearman explains: "Operators move between the two studios all day. It is important for the operators to keep on their toes. They may be handling six or seven mics live at the same time and maybe a phone feed, which is a lot for a talks programme. In Studio 1 they are watching a bank of eight video monitors and need to be able to react to any breaking news."