Project Studio Mains!?

[djdumpy]

Hi all.

I am in the process of building a project music studio, allowing me to work from home, but am still confused about what exactly to do about the electrics...

I was doing some reading and stumbled upon this article about studio wiring:

click me

I have read through this a few times but am still not entirely sure what to tell an electrician when asking for a quote.

Does this make any sense:

2 spurs of 50A cable each about 50m in length, connected to 2 separate consumer units.
From each unit, four sets of quadruple plugs.

Any thoughts? What kind of prices should I be listening to?

Thanks!

 

[plugwash]

sounds over the top to me!

i'd say you should try just useing extentino leads from the ring to start with if tinterference is really a problem then maybe consider something more serious

 

[breezer]

they are trying to say that you should have a separate consumers unit and each socket should be wired radialy. (that's how i read it)

the problem with a ring is that it also acts as an aerial, and any hum will be shared by everything, so by having everyhing on a radial, you do not get the hum, since it is not on a ring. a radial will also act as an aerial, but no where near as bad.

Ideally everything should be in steel conduit, this then acts as a screen. trouble is you can not plug your "appliances" in as they have not got screened cable, so it sort of defeats the object.

all socket cables should run verticaly and all "sound" cables at least 6 inches away from mains cables or at leat 90 degrees to them

this is to prevent mains induced hum

but unless you are going to become a top notch studio, i should say t& e vertically on radials webe fine, and do not have flourecent lights

thats my 2p worth

 

[Big_Spark]

The way around any mains noise is to use surge and noise arresting extension leads plugged into the ring, failing that, you could spend a fortune and install sockets with them in..but I think that would be way OTT.

 

[AdamW]

You can buy special power conditioners, intended for audiophile hi-fi owners. These would do well to reduce any mains noise to a minimum. You would need a couple, mind.

Something like a bass amp would probably need one all to itself due to its current-draw characteristics (not just saying that cos I am a bass player mind!)

 

[kendor]

In a normal studio setup the general appliances would come off of a general supply or G.S. Technical equipment, mixers amps etc would be plugged to a Technical Supply this has a completely seperate neutral and earth that are "clean" achieving this can be done in several ways but depends on how much equipment needs to be on tech supply and how it is loaded, one method used a lot is a star /delta wound transformer
of course this necessitates that the studio has a three phase supply which comes into the delta side of the transformer and the star is the output giving a totally isolated clean neutral and earth and phases.
Because your's is a home project and it is unlikely that you have access to a three phase supply then you may have to use filters on your equipment, one word of warning though, if you have any time critical linked equipment (Fairlight Computer for one, the monitor "talks" to the main CPU this is an example that comes to mind but it is probably not in your pockets range) these would have to come off the same filter grouped together as the RCL network inside the filters will alter the phasing and this could lead to more problems than what you had without them, this is why the G.S. and Technical supply route is favoured in a Professional Studio setup. Of course it all depends on how professionally sounding you want your setup to be,
you will probably have to experiment with your setup a lot to get it working right, a badly installed audio setup will drive you nuts trying to troubleshoot afterwards so plan well beforehand and seek advice from a professional studio's engineers.

 

[djdumpy]

Thanks for the help!

Incidently I just got rid of the Fairlight kendor! (Its a pro tools world now )

I am considering buying the cables, consumer units and sockets myself, before getting an electrician to install everything, to keep costs down.

Can anyone recommend a particular type of unit that will suit my cause?

One will be for six sets of sockets and one for four, although a little flexibilty could come in very useful in the future.

I am also finding it very hard to locate 4 gang sockets... are 2 gang preferable?

Thanks Again!

 

[il78]

I am also finding it very hard to locate 4 gang sockets... are 2 gang preferable?

The way I read the specification suggests that one socket per circuit ?

Your shopping list may just get bigger........

Maybe an idea to run in a supply from the mains area to your studio, then install a board there......shorter runs to the sockets.....(may have been suggested above).....

 

[breezer]

the "ideal" is one twin socket / circuit

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I am considering buying the cables, consumer units and sockets myself, before getting an electrician to install everything, to keep costs down.

How does that work, then?

 

[securespark]

DJ#

Three gang are max & they have a 13A fuse built in so you cannot draw more than that from each 3 gang outlet

 

[kendor]

Incidently I just got rid of the Fairlight kendor! (Its a pro tools world now)

Nothing wrong with Fairlights! Pet Shop Boys swore by them, Pet Shop Who? i hear you say! being a non musician it was the only piece of equipment i could think of that could be damaged in that way.
They used to cost around £40,000 then probably cost £50 nowadays