Penn Elcom recently completed the design and installation of a wiring infrastructure for a new recording studio in Hasting for songwriter/producer Paul Godfrey, creator of the trio, Morcheeba.
The installation, within an old Methodist Church building in the heart of the town, 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.
The building has been utilized meaningfully in the conversion to serve as 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.
Whipp 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.
Penn Elcom’s HQ and factory facilities are nearby. The multicores 1 x 16-way and two 12-way multicores were pre-built and prepped, all using Syntax connectors with Neutrik connectors utilized for the other terminations. “There was an emphasis on quality throughout,” says Whipp. The 19-inch patch panel and all the wall boxes were all fabricated according to Whipp’s design.
“The quality, reliability and breadth of the Penn ranges is great and the service excellent,” comments Whipp, who has also undertaken similar work via Culture Club, Blue’s sound engineer Jimmy Sarikis, and Tinie Tempah’s engineer Raphael Williams among others.
“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.”
