Or whatever those guys are called these days:
Especially when that sink is located on the second floor, above the studio on the first floor. ‘Tis but a small thing really, one of those little details, but in light of the sink also being clogged, it becomes very significant. That, coupled with the fact that the building is uninhabited at night and disaster is afoot.
The water was running slowly all night…
It filled up the sink. It ran across the floor. It soaked the carpet. It seeped into the sub floor and out of the ceiling on the first floor and then into this nice Pacific Recorders BMX III console.
Do you know that burning electronic/plastic smell? Yeah, that’s it, mixed with stale funky water, wet wood and a nondescript mildewy odor; that is what the room smells like. Very pleasing. The furniture below the console was soaked too:
Some of the input module edge connectors; didn’t fair so well:
The backplane for the power supply buss has to be replaced and these switches with the water bubbles in them, have to go too:
We dried out the furniture with an industrial strength hair dryer. By three PM we had unsoldered all of the bad parts and cleaned off the modules and the console back plane.
Parts for repairs are on order from Mooretronix. I doubt this will be repaired before next Tuesday.
Somebody came in and was all “awww, this sucks bla bla bla.” Well, maybe, but I get paid by the hour and frankly, there are much worse things that I could be doing…
I’ve heard stories much worse where soda and other lovely sticky liquids have found themselves in the innards of powered on and mission critical broadcast equipment. If I recall it correctly I know of a Pacific Recorders console that had orange juice poured into it “accidentally” by the morning drive host … and I’m pretty sure you had seen that particular console at least once in your tour of duty at a certain Cumulus station.
Maybe you can take some parts from the BMX you’re replacing below.
I love it when someone hangs a 5 gallon bucket above the tiles…. then forgets about it…. It comes down like an asteroid!
Who puts a sink in a room above the studio? Who forgets to turn off the water? Most importantly, staple some plastic above critical areas of the studio, this will at least deflect the water in the event that there is a water problem.
Hook it up to a radio shack mixer or a production studio board, and keep it on air.
I am an engineer that designs mainly audio equipment. In reading this page, I am seeing many opportunities for improvements in broadcast equipment. In a radio studio, you need something to drink, whether it be orange juice, coffee, soda, etc. I have come up with an optically controlled board that will make damage from accidental spills a thing of the past. But floods from a sink? Is there a toilet up there as well?
Next time, before you install drop ceiling (all studios have them) at least staple plastic tarp to the areas above the equipment so that water is deflected to the sides. But better, choose a location for a studio that doesn’t have plumbing above it.