Today’s technology enables us to communicate easier, faster and better with people in need.

In disaster response it has never been more vital that the equipment and technical process work well and efficiently to make that happen.

Today is the third day of the workshop when the participants will be learning about:

• Programming planning – arranging broadcast material for 72 hours
• Conducting interviews
• Surviving in the field – health, stress, etc

In recent days the northeast India floods have submerged thousands of villages as rivers burst their banks, leaving two million homeless. Feba’s Hindi and Bangla producers at the FIRST Response trial are developing programmes using the Chrysolite ‘suitcase studio’ for the affected regions where we broadcast on short wave.

View a video about the suitcase studio.

Hear an audio interview.

(Also listen to audio and view video by selecting the icons near the top of the news brief.)

Easy does it?

The ability to set up a radio station within 72 hours of a disaster happening relies heavily on having available equipment that is suitable, quick and efficient for the task. It is critical that it is easily transportable into the disaster area, robust enough for rough handling and simple enough, especially for inexperienced staff, to set up and use under pressure. All of these factors are true of the Chrysolite ‘suitcase studio’ designed by Feba audio engineers. The latest version, the Mark 5, is being used in this FIRST Response field trial.

Setting up portable studio and transmitter

The FIRST Response coordinator of the trial says: “We are looking forward to using the Mark 5 Chrysolite studio in a suitcase because it’s portable, it’s compact and it’s all in one suitcase.” The Chrysolite has proven itself in the past when the Mark 4 version was used in the Philippines field trial last year. Arriving at the police headquarters, setting up on the roof and starting to broadcast only took 45 minutes, so the Chrysolite is certainly simple to use, as the coordinator says: “You open it up, you plug it in, you turn it on, you start recording - you start doing radio right away.”

Included in the Chrysolite is a small mixer, a laptop computer for recording, a CD player to play music and a small digital recorder for making field recordings. The Mark 5 has been developed to be used as a simple ‘on-air’ studio when connected to a transmitter, or when fitted with the optional low power (1 watt) internal FM exciter. To find out more about the Chrysolite Mark 5, view a video clip here.

Normally a FM transmitter, also in a suitcase, would be part of the kit, but for this field trial a FM radio transmitter is being provided by NOMAD, a community radio consultancy in India. Although it’s not in a suitcase, the same demands are being made of it. It has to be small and portable, robust for travel in an airplane and van out to the Tamil Nadu coastal region, and then has to be quick to assemble and start working right away. “At midnight on the first night we’ll be putting this thing up and starting transmission from midnight onwards of the first day of the field exercise,” says the coordinator.

Radios in times of disaster

In responding to a disaster it is important that those affected are able to receive the broadcasts of critical information, so radios for distribution are an essential part of the kit. The coordinator explains: “We can’t assume that people will still have radios, especially after a disaster. People who survived the tsunami were lucky to just get away with their lives and maybe the shirt on their backs, so we have to be prepared to give away radios.” Following a real disaster radios will be passed to relief agencies to include with other non-food items distributed to disaster victims.

A small number of radios are being distributed as part of the field trial to get staff used to this part of disaster response. FM, battery-powered radios, purchased cheaply in a local market will be distributed as gifts to people who have been interviewed or have helped with the radio station. A box of 20 wind-up radios will come with the kit, as they also receive short wave.

Routing programmes over Internet

During this field trial, programmes will be broadcast on short wave as well as FM, which requires a broadband Internet connection. The short wave programmes will be sent over the Internet to a short wave transmitter, to be broadcast back into India. In a real disaster situation this would be achieved in partnership with a relief organisation that would set up an Internet satellite dish, but for the field trial an Internet connection has been set up in a house in Nagapattinam. Should that fail, the team will be dependent on the local Internet café and may even test that out as their backup plan. “We want to run it through the whole system and then hear that programme come back over the short wave radio for our listeners, so that we can say we’ve completed the loop,” the coordinator explains.