Penn Elcom Gets Wired for New Studio in Hastings

Penn Elcom completed the design and installation of a wiring infrastructure for a new recording studio in Hastings, housed in an old Methodist Church building in the heart of the town. The studio is owned by Paul Godfrey, songwriter / producer and well known as creator of the popular trip hop trio, Morcheeba.

The installation entailed delivering all the multicores, cables, stage boxes, patch bays, wall racks plus associated metalwork, and was overseen by Penn’s Leon Whipp who heads the company’s specialist wiring division.

Every centimetre of space in the characterful building has been utilised meaningfully in the conversion to serve as a busy and proactive recording environment offering a large control room, main space and mezzanine floor chamber.

Cat 5 connectors have been used throughout. A 48-way line system from the control room connects the recording spaces (Main Room and Mezzanine) via two stages, with a third stage box for the drum riser.

Video monitor screens linking all three areas are also run via Cat 5 lines.

Leon completed the installation over the course of about a month, but the end-to-end time frame for the installation on site was around three days.

The physical proximity of Penn Elcom’s HQ and factory facilities being just up the road on an industrial estate on the edge of Hastings was a great advantage, and this was where the multicores 1 x 16-way and two 12-way multicores were pre-built and prepped, all using Syntax connectors. Neutrik connectors were also utilized throughout the installation for the other terminations. “There was an emphasis on quality throughout,” says Leon.

Penn fabricated the 19 inch patch panel and all the wall boxes to Leon’s design. The patch is located in the control room, right at the hub of all the routing. There are two wall boxes in the main room and one on the Mezzanine.

Says Leon, “Paul has a mix of the latest and some classic kit, all of which is used extensively in the studio. The key here was to create a neat, low-impact design that makes the studio quick and practical to set up for any scenario. It was great that Paul really understands the need for quality and longevity, so there were no compromises on the materials we used for the wiring elements”.

This is one of a number of such studio projects in which Leon has sourced materials from Penn’s extensive stock of Penn / Comus cables. “The quality, reliability and breadth of the Penn ranges is great and the service excellent,” comments Leon, who has also undertaken similar work via  Culture Club and Blue’s sound engineer Jimmy Sarikis and Tinie Tempah’s engineer Raphael Williams among others.

Photo: Louise Stickland