Glensound (Ex-BBC) Broadcast Mixing Desk GSNT/1. Complete wi...

Hammer

£900

Glensound (Ex-BBC) Broadcast Mixing Desk GSNT/1. Complete with original service manuals & schematics.
A very unusual piece of broadcasting history - an 11(!) channel BBC spec studio broadcast desk from which seems to date from the early 1980s.
*Note that this is a brokerage sale item - all info below is from the seller.

This was designed as a very elaborate "plug and play" studio hub device of its day which thinks of everything it could possibly have had coming into it or going out of it back in the days of tape machines, music lines, gram decks and green cue lights. Comprises of 4 hi spec mic channels and 7 "repro" (+6db line level) channels, the last of which is dedicated to "Gram deck" inputs. Each channel has Glensound's bespoke RSA eq, a Misc (aux) send and, in the case of the mics, a pan pot. Also an "output bypass" which can send a separate bus away from the main output. Faders are P&G BBC spec so they open "the wrong way round" in the tradition of the time at the corporation (i.e. pull towards the user to increase gain). Fader start functionality is available for each channel with ""red light""/mute monitor switching for the mics. There are also wire-able "hotkeys" below this for fader start or green light announcer cue functions. The unit is self contained for all studio functionality including headphone and control room/studio speaker monitoring, monitor routing matrix and ring main monitoring selector, dual PPM metering, elaborate tone generation, talkback mic and facilities, PPL circuits (the logic of this is a bit muddled and baffled even a BBC engineer who serviced it but it works after a fashion). There is a bantam jack patch bay (I have examples of the leads to include) EDAC connections for much of the function on the back (ditto) as well as standard XLR ins and outs for mics, grams and speaker. It comes with a full service manual bespoke to the BBC mods this particular example has had which explains the full back panel connectivity and myriad of possibilities available. Extra historic features that add to the "Tardis quality" of this item include functionality around the old Cue and Control line outside broadcast practises of the BBC which includes a "linesman's phone" built into the right hand side. There are also facilities for reel to reel tape recorder monitoring "off repro head" during recording on left hand red switches 1 to 4 and even a vari-speed remote control for an A80 Studer machine. A time counter display at the top right of the unit adds an extra curio.

Dry stored for the last 3 years, it was previously functional in a private studio for 10 years during which time it had a full overhaul by a BBC qualified engineer. It has its eccentricities in keeping with a unit of this age - there will be scratchy pots and minor oddities and, although much of this was attended to at the last service, I would recommend that it is checked and serviced again by a fully qualified electrical engineer before being put into full use. No guarantee or warranty implied.