The concert hall’s monitor room is where live broadcasts and recordings are made. The speakers are LS5B subwoofers and Auratone 5C speakers.

This hall is used solely for recording BBC Radio programs, meaning it houses a recording studio, and is therefore not as luxurious as a commercial hall. However, on the days when a concert is recorded here, there is a constant stream of people wanting to get in. The 400 seats are said to be always full. The Northern Symphony Orchestra, one of the BBC’s five symphony orchestras, has this hall as its franchise. Whether you’re a performer here, listening to their performance live, or listening in stereo on MTV, you’ll be amazed at the quality of the sound.

Adjacent to this hall is the monitoring room where live broadcasts and recordings are carried out. The dimly lit monitoring room is equipped with the latest equipment, even among BBC studios.

The mixing console is a Solid State Logic SL4000E. The monitor speakers are LS5/8.

Engineer Reggie Butcher, sitting in front of the console, happily plays a tape on the Studer. It’s a performance by the Northern Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the hall’s opening. A violin solo emerges smoothly from the rich, dense strings. The movement of the sound from pianissimo to forte is clear as if you were touching it. Suddenly, you get the illusion of being inside the hall…

This Manchester studio could be called the latest achievement of the BBC. It felt like we were hearing the dawn of a new era for the BBC.

The reality of the BBC’s smallest monitor, the LS3/5A!

The smallest monitor speaker, the LS3/5A, was seen at various BBC locations. As the LS3 number suggests, it was intended for monitoring outside the broadcasting station. I knew this in words, but I wasn’t sure how it was actually used.

However, when I looked inside the Radio Manchester recording van, I saw a black bag with the words LS3/5 A in white letters.

And there it is! The LS3/5A and the dedicated H/H power amplifier are housed as a set. I was convinced by the actual appearance that this is how it is designed to be portable. Doesn’t it look a little bit lively and cute!!!

The LS3/5A is actually taken outside in a case together with the amplifier.

After riding a British Rail train from London for an hour, you get the feeling that Britain is a land of flat land with no mountains. In the hot summer, the green plains (photo above) look like golf courses from afar. Looking out the train window, you can see cows and sheep grazing. Manchester Station (photo below) has a dull overall feel, and is a place with a long history.

I was caught up in the feeling that I was in a provincial city. Compared to London, the way people move and walk seems somehow slower, and the city seems somehow quieter. It was interesting to see that the red double-decker buses, a London specialty, have changed to an orange-based color in Manchester (center of photo).