Feba UK engineers develop studio in a suitcase for portable radio programme recording and compilation, making Christian radio ministry easier in remote, disaster-struck or unsafe locations.
On the outside it looks like an ordinary case you might take on holiday. Open the lid, however, and you have a ready-made studio! Designed by Feba UK’s engineering team and weighing in at under 20 kilos, this compact little kit contains mixer, computer, portable recorder, CD player, microphones and speakers – in short, everything you need to produce a radio programme.
Training Suitcase
The perfect answer
Many of Feba’s audiences live in remote rural areas. Some programme presenters have to travel long distances to a studio; and gathering people together to record discussions or songs can be a complex and costly business. The suitcase studio provides the perfect answer. “We can carry out recording in all sorts of places,” explains Norman Brierley, Development Director for Eastern Africa, “and we even have a car battery adaptor so that we can run it in a village without electricity.”
Programming teams in Africa, with its huge rural population, are delighted with the new facility. One has gone to Chiconono in the north of Mozambique, where Feba and a partner mission are developing an FM ministry to an unreached people. A further studio has been delivered to a partnership making programmes for a nomadic people, who inhabit a barren desert region of the Horn of Africa.
As well as overcoming problems of geography, the suitcase studio meets a vital need for security. The very first one the Worthing team produced in 2001 went to a country in the Middle East where it would not be safe to make Christian programmes openly.
Chrysolite 'suitcase studio' MK5 The studio has generated excitement not only in the Feba world but among other Christian groups. Low-cost (around £5,000 including parts and assembly) and easy to use, it’s ideal for beginners.
Community radio
Feba UK engineers have the capacity to produce two suitcase studios a month, and are planning new features for future models. The next version will allow transmission using a simple FM antenna. Its advent may prove timely, as radio regulations are relaxing in a number of countries – including India where community radio is actively encouraged. Also on the agenda is the option to run the studio on internal batteries or solar panels – a perfect antidote to the power cuts so prevalent in developing countries.
“living closer to the listener’s world”
“Living closer to the listener’s world” is a goal of Feba’s programming teams, and the suitcase studio is designed to help them do that. Jon Hargreaves, Feba’s International Director, sums up its potential: “Using the suitcase studio we can make relevant, community-based programming – right in the heart of our listening areas.”