The brand new studio facing the N1 between New Road and Olifantsfontein is custom built and has every employees’ “DNA” incorporated into the interior and design. The Broadcast Headquarters boasts enhanced technologies ranging from the world’s newest digital broadcasting equipment, specialised eco-friendly air conditioning and lights, access and facilities which makes disabled access easier for both employees and visitors. The new facility has also made space for top entertainers to perform live concerts and through a unique set of networks, the HQ will be able to host up to 200 guests and listeners to experience these concerts onsite.

The new headquarters presents a brand new, world class state of the art broadcast studios as well as video and production facilities. These technological improvements will further enhance Jacaranda FM’s ability to provide engaging content across all platforms to go with the star studded line up and a superb mix of music from the 80s to today.

For the staff, the station provides a spacious and well equipped environment. The wallpaper has been created in conjunction with the interior design team and is a visual collection of a choice of every employee and the key stakeholders including Kagiso Media’s musical favourites, both artists and albums. “In this way, the station has every person’s DNA inside the building and this is a fairly unique way of saying that the building belongs to everybody who works here and all of our stakeholders too. The open plan design also means that all the employees share the office space and can communicate easily with each other and still have their own space”, says general manager, Kevin Fine.

“We have grown as a company and in order to continue to serve our audience, advertisers and staff more effectively, we needed to create a space that allowed us to do this. The new Jacaranda Broadcast HQ is definitely that space, and having travelled to more than 20 stations around the world I’ve yet to see one as sophisticated, advanced, and aesthetically pleasing as this. Jacaranda FM, together with its holding company, Kagiso Media, agreed that we needed a change that was in line with our growth and vision for the business”, said Fine.

The new Broadcast HQ presents five studios; two main studios, two producer booths and a call screening booth. The newly and fully packaged Axia system installed, allows for shared network which interlinks all studios and enables easy and immediate access to live content. Every audio device is allocated a unique stream which is also available for any of the set up facilities. With a push of a button, the mixing consol can be reconfigured to suit each presenter, including pre-determined mic and EQ pre-sets. The system simply allows a plug in of a CAT 5 cable between PC and the Axia frame and this gives 16 high quality play back and recording of audio.

Jacaranda FM started broadcasting from their new Headquarters on Wednesday, 5 December at 13:00 with Barney Simon breaking through the new frontiers. “I can see that we will have a great time here and the technology installed is going to make broadcasting a lot more edgy and enjoyable,” said Simon.