Has anyone ever heard of Broadcast Audio Corporation? I picked up a nice 6 channel console thinking it could be a rehab job, but I'm not finding anything about them on the net.
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Broadcast Audio Corporation
- Thread starter Bengalsfan
- Start date
I vaguely recall them from about 25(ish) years ago. I think they were originally made by Dave Evans and sold by Beaucart. They were pretty rugged. Eventually, the line was bought up by another company, probably Fidelipac or LPB. Try Dave Strode of SANDIES - 215 547-2570. I think he has all of the LPB, Fidelipac and Broadcast Audio Corp designs. If that doesn't pan out, you might inquire of John Devecka at Loyola Universty (WLOY) about them. The Devecka family owned LPB.
I do believe they built the Centurion series for Cetec.
http://erights.penton.com/departments/signoff/radio_shaping_radio_today_9/
Paul Gregg may have some info.
http://erights.penton.com/departments/signoff/radio_shaping_radio_today_9/
Paul Gregg may have some info.
thanks guys, I'll follow up with Dave and see if he has any information on it. It's a nice little console, well taken care of. I'd hate not to be able to use it because of no documentation.
I have serial #23 or so of the original series with 12+ fader positions. The inlaid logo says "Beaucart." I have a photo copy of the manual somewhere, but I cannot guarantee I can locate it to scan. The week spot for the consoles is that as they aged, the amplifier cards for the busses (mine had 4 stereo, plus 1 mono) would die, some of them fatally. Some of the components are obsolete and 7 years ago LPB had already run through their last NOS supply of the amplifier cards.
Good looking console and would be great to have on display, but I would never put one back in service.
Good looking console and would be great to have on display, but I would never put one back in service.
Dave Strode was able to send me a manual with schematics and information to suppliers for the switches, meters and lamps. We are cooking with gas now. Thanks for the help guys.
The Wattcher said:
Has anyone come across a scanned copy of a Cetec/Sparta catalog from the late 70's? I've found Harris, Collins, etc, but nothing on Cetec/Sparta. Sure would love to take a trip back down memory lane - that catalog was one of my favorite "books" as a kid... it had pictures of the "insides" of the equipment LOL!!
SFM-Ptgal said:ejeuler said:
Tech porn... ;D... Thanks to it I found the difference between the Stereo 80 and the Dualux 80
Stereo 80 was the first board I worked on, both as a board op/jock and engineer. I'd love to find another one in great shape.
Answering the question above regarding fatal:
Beyond economic repair. Even when new, the Broadcast Audio/UMC Beaucart boards were noisy and all the connections had to be soldered onto posts on the motherboard. There's plenty of room to that, but unless you had no choice, there are plenty of better, more reliable options out there to put into service, including Audioarts R-55, and now all the entry level stuff even has specs that beat out these consoles.
Lovely to look at and heavy as a tank. But if I insisted on putting a vintage console into service, I would choose an LPB Signature over even attempting the BA/Beaucart.
Beyond economic repair. Even when new, the Broadcast Audio/UMC Beaucart boards were noisy and all the connections had to be soldered onto posts on the motherboard. There's plenty of room to that, but unless you had no choice, there are plenty of better, more reliable options out there to put into service, including Audioarts R-55, and now all the entry level stuff even has specs that beat out these consoles.
Lovely to look at and heavy as a tank. But if I insisted on putting a vintage console into service, I would choose an LPB Signature over even attempting the BA/Beaucart.
ejeuler said:
I do have a copy of this catalog, which features Centurion consoles, Century series cart machines (with the rocker switch for start/stop), and "Spartamation" -- and, yes -- the insides of some equipment are shown. It's catalog 101 with a yellow cover (probably the first edition, if the numbers were assigned like the serial numbers on most transmitters!)
I promised David E. some BM/E magazines for scanning, and will ask if he can scan this as well without removing the binding as I would like to retain this in my collection.
Who else remembers the postcard schematic of the Sparta 680 FM Exciter? That was the 2 rack-unit box with only a power switch, pilot light and frequency trimpot on the front panel. The Sparta folks wanted to offer a cheap alternative to competing products with metering and status indicators, so their sales pitch focused on the exciter's "simplicity". Classic marketing -- take a negative and sell it as a positive.
Studio1 said:Does your console look anything like this:
That's a nice looking board.
Mine is in a reasonable shape ;DBengalsfan said:SFM-Ptgal said:ejeuler said:
Tech porn... ;D... Thanks to it I found the difference between the Stereo 80 and the Dualux 80
Stereo 80 was the first board I worked on, both as a board op/jock and engineer. I'd love to find another one in great shape.
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