Tekserve Institutes XM Upgrades

By Steve Harvey, ProSound News, April, 2006

Washington, DC - Eager to stay abreast of current technology, XM Satellite Radio has started to institute some upgrades at its broadcast center in Washington, DC, calling in New York-based Tekserve principally to supply and install the latest audio offerings from Digidesign. XM's 5-year-old headquarters is the largest digital radio facility of its kind in the country, housing 83 studios in a building covering some 150,000 square feet.

Terry Carr, manager of broadcast applications at XM Satellite Radio's production facility, brought in Tekserve following its work with XM Productions - formerly Effanel - in Manhattan. That division, led by Effanel founder, Joel Singer, contracted Tekserve for a major project last year, outfitting XM's production facilities at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall.

Of the more than 80 studios at XM's headquarters, says Carr, "Some of the studios are on-air and some are voice-tracking and small utility studios. We have 12 studios dedicated to production, strictly for doing commercials and promos and imaging and things of that nature. Those studios have the higher performance editing systems like Pro Tools, and that's where Tekserve has come in and not only sold us the Pro Tools systems but is also helping to set up those studios and get them properly configured."

Although XM typically engineers those 12 production rooms, says Carr, "They traded out the older systems and the older consoles for the new Pro Tools|HD and D-Command." Tekserve, as the audio equipment vendor, has also assisted with integration, he adds.

He continues, "There are many studios here that were built five years ago that don't have a console, so we don't have the automated mixing capability, except with a mouse on the screen. We've tied those into the Klotz broadcast consoles. It wasn't until this upgrade that we decided to put in the D-Command."

Two live-performance and recording spaces take pride of place at the facility, including a 2-story, 2,300-square-foot main studio. "Our large studio is still not in need of upgrading. We have a Sony Oxford console and some nice gear that is adequate. All we've really done is upgraded the Pro Tools system," reports Carr.

"Our secondary studio, which is a little smaller, Tekserve has completely revamped. They replaced the Sony console with a Digidesign D-Command with 48 inputs, and set it up with new headphone monitoring, Aphex 1788 remote controlled mic preamps and [Empirical Labs] Distressors that we'll use for vocal recording. They also did the technical side and wiring."

Carr notes that he is new to Tekserve; their relationship with XM to date has been solely with the New York facilities. "We used the secondary performance studio as a guinea pig model. That's why we did it in that order. When we upgrade the primary studio, we'll probably follow that model; I plan on using Tekserve for most of our studios now that I know the quality of the work that is being done."

Carr, like his colleagues in Manhattan before him, had discovered that Tekserve are more than prepared to go the extra mile. "What they're most handy with is, I'll do my homework and ordering and think I have it correct, but then I might get a call from Chris Payne, our rep there, and he'll say, 'You ordered this, but it's not compatible,' or 'It won't interface correctly,' or "It's about to be discontinued.' I keep Chris busy; probably frustratingly so for him."

Copyright © 2006 ProSound News. All rights reserved.