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Technical Advice

Rob Watson has come up with a list of Twelve Tips for Creating a Safer Radio Studio - feel free to adapt as necessary:

  1. Gloves Aren’t Just for Hospitals. They don’t prevent you from doing your job and they generally work with touchscreens.
  2. Bring your own headphones. Each person should wear their own headphones and not share them. They should also be wiped with an antiseptic cloth, or a damp soapy cloth. Dispose of the cloth after cleaning the headphones.
  3. Don’t touch the mic. Even in the healthiest of times, engineers say touching the microphone is a bad move. Don’t touch the mic, leave it where it is.
  4. Get a mic muff for each employee. The cost may be £20 per muff for standard mics, but the muff doesn’t need to be the exact model for the mic that’s in the studio. If in doubt use a clean sock that you can carry with you for your own use.
  5. Make sure there’s hand sanitizer in the studio, even if it means bringing your own.
  6. Wipe it down. While disinfecting wipes have suddenly become tough to find they are worth using. Wipe down the audio console, mic arms, headphone jack areas – the things you are going to touch – like the knobs and keyboards. If a sanitiser cloth isn’t available, use warm soapy water to dampen a paper cloth, then once you have wiped the surface dispose of it straight away. Special attention should be the headphone and speaker volume controls, as they are touched more than anything else in the room. Telephones should be wiped down regularly. Make sure that keyboards and mice are cleaned thoroughly.
  7. Don’t spray the touchscreen. Don’t use cleaning or disinfecting sprays on any studio equipment that has slots in them, such as an audio console with faders that move up and down. Instead, use a wipe so that stray fluid does not enter through the gaps in the console and damage the electronics. Alcohol-based wipes are fine for any surface that’s in a modern studio.
  8. If you’re sick, stay home. In an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, experts are urging people who are not feeling well to self-quarantine as the only effective way to keep the coronavirus epidemic at bay.
  9. Take work home instead. A lot of presenters do their voice-tracking at the studio, but a lot of this can now be done at home. Find out what you need to purchase. Get a decent microphone or headset, a USB converter into your laptop.
  10. Practice good cough and sneeze etiquette. Cover your mouth when you cough, or sneeze. In a confined space like a radio studio that may be even more important. Place tissues in every room, in the studios, offices, lounges – and a rubbish bin.
  11. Don’t touch your face.
  12. When the on-air shift is over, wash your hands.

Adapted From: http://www.insideradio.com/free/tips-for-creating-a-safer-radio-studio-in-a-coronavirus/article_5d948476-6503-11ea-8b4e-5f577a0bce6d.html

Example risk assessment from Radio Ramadan, Leicester

Radio TechCon

The Radio TechCon team is offering the following help below:

Radio is like a family, so the Radio TechCon team would like to offer our support to the wider audio and engineering community at this time.

We have already written to the Community Media Association and Hospital Broadcasting Association, to offer our committee members’ services to stations who are in need of support to set up remote recording in order to stay on air.

Radio TechCon’s Stephen Clarke has written a blog summarising different options for stations to stay on air - especially useful for smaller stations who might not have a technical team of their own.

Extra pairs of hands

We are also aware that stations may need help with extra staff, and freelancers might need extra work during these times.

If you are freelance, please complete this form to register your availability and skills.

If you are a station who needs extra resources, please check this list of people and contact them directly.

Please share this resource with others!

Need extra help?

Feel free to post a question to theRadio TechCon Facebook page so that other engineers can help you if you are stuck. Job offers are also welcome there!

You may also find the UK TV/Radio Broadcast Engineers’ group on Facebook a useful resource for advice and support (not run by Radio TechCon but full of friendly folks).

We will endeavour to keep these pages updated as and when guidance and information changes.

technical_advice.1586119293.txt.gz · Last modified: 2020/04/05 20:41 by cma_admin