[SBE] How long did it take you to move the studio

[Barry Thomas]

Good questions and responses so far.  I love this.

The shortest move time I ever had to do was 16 days.  Emergency move of a radio station..lost the lease as well as all of the studio equipment.  We literally had to walk away from a working radio station and set up in temporary space vacated by a sister station...without spending much money.  1 control room, 2 production rooms, newsroom, "mix" studio, and tech center.  The only way this was possible was the fact that the facility had been a radio station and the trunk cabling was in place...that and the incredible assistance I got from the sister station chiefs, an assistant I was able to bring on board just for the project, and my predecessor at the station (did I say that this happened in my 4th month in a new job?...over the Christmas holidays?).

We moved the same station to their new home the company had previously acquired.  It took a 10 months for design, demo, build, wire, install & move.  On time and on budget!

Based on several "ground-up's" and "moves-in-place" I've been able to do, the thumbnail I use is 8 months to a year from the point that a lease is signed (and you have unfettered access to the space) to move-in.  GM's will always freak when they hear that but it's a true.  It's also an aggressive timetable.  9 months goes by really fast when you plan the project properly.

Just remember this mantra:


Cheap

Fast 

Good

You may choose any two.

And once you start remember that the time you spent in design will almost always save you twice as much time of "thinking on your feet" or designing as you go.  Be patient and do all the paperwork first.  Mentally design the whole thing, down to every XLR or RF-45.  Write as much as you can down before you ever pick up a punch tool or order equipment.  You'll be working smarter and you'll be able to assign your tasks to a your team...even temporary assistants, more easily.  In some cases I found I could literally tear off a page from my notes, hand it to a skilled (SBE-Certified) broadcast engineer and keep going...all because the plan was done early.


Barry Thomas CPBE CBNT
President
Society of Broadcast Engineers, Inc.



From: sbe-bounces at sbe.org [mailto:sbe-bounces at sbe.org] On Behalf Of
Glenn Williams
Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 5:50 PM
To: sbe at sbe.org
Subject: [SBE] How long did it take you to move the studio



Hi,



For those of you that had the joy of relocating your studios at one time
or another:



How many Control Rooms/Production Rooms did you move?

How long did it take?

How many workers were involved?

What new equipment did you buy (new service tower, consoles, etc.)? 

What did it all cost?



Any other comments would be welcome.



Thanks,



Glenn Williams

Chief Engineer, KLJC
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