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Audiography was created by me (Peter Naus aka PC Pete), and was known in a
previous incarnation as
MARS,
or Melbourne Audio Recording Services. Unfortunately, the MARS name was already
owned and branded by a multinational corporation, who refused to relinquish
their domain name (even though their website consists of a single out-of-date
web page). Finders keepers apparently rules!
 We
are based in Mitcham, an outer eastern suburb of Melbourne, in Victoria, the
southernmost mainland state in Australia.
Audiography operates as an owner-managed business, so all that you see here
(and all that you hear when you enjoy our services!) is designed, developed,
implemented, and performed by yours truly.
Although I'm something of a computer guru/specialist in the Asia Pacific area, I
moved away from computer support and development when an opportunity came up for
me to do something else that I've loved for many years - audio editing. What
started with a Kenwood ST255 turntable and a small PC soon turned into a
full-time occupation.
Our current system is a self-designed and constructed system comprising 2
dual-core Opteron 2.4GHz CPUs (4 cores total), with 4G of ECC RAM, a 500G boot
drive, and 3.2Tb of RAID5 storage provided by a 3WARE 9550-SX8 64-bit PCIX
controller. The whole system is watercooled with the assistance of a Zalman
Reserator and waterblocks for each CPU, and cooling is effected through a
16l/min air-cooled water pump and radiator/sump situated around 4 metres away,
under the floor of the studio. The flow is monitored using an in-house flow
rate meter with low-flow alarms that shut the system down should a catastrophic
coolant leak occur. The disk arrays are monitored using 4 in-house thermal
monitor displays, and we have supplementary air cooling designed with positive
input and output pressure (i.e. it both blows and sucks! :)
We run Windows 7 x64, because our capture, editing, and conversion tools run on a Windows platform. Windows 64 also gives us access to all our current
memory, and permits an additional 28G when resources permit. Windows XP and most
other OSes only allow an upper limit of a couple of gigabytes (well, 3 gigabytes
to be accurate).
We have 2 19" LCD monitors side-by-side for an effective desktop size of
3200x1200 pixels. We use a Logitech G19 keyboard (because it's a typist's
keyboard and it's repairable, unlike most cheap keyboards), and a Kensington Expert Mouse trackball for
ultra-precise editing. We also used an Ergodex DX1 ergonomic keyboard with
movable keys to help reduce the inevitable hand movement stress (however we've
experienced major headaches with x64 drivers, so the DX1 is now a trophy only).
The whole studio is powered by a refurbished 3.5Kw power-factor-correcting UPS
located near the cooling subsystem in the basement. This runs 12 7.5Ah
SLA batteries in series to provide 120VDC for the most efficient switching, but
of course it weighs as much as a small elephant and needs to be periodically
inspected for battery maintenance and so on.
Video inputs are handled by a Samsung SV-5000W multi-format VCR through SCART
and SVideo (chrominance/luminance) to a Sony DV camcorder to eliminate frame
errors and reconvert to IEEE1394 (Firewire) input. Editing is done through Adobe
Premiere Pro 2.0, and we also have an analogue capture input for direct AV
capture. We also have a tame Sony SLC-35AS Beta VCR to cover Betamax tapes.
We have designed and implemented an internal hard-wired Ethernet network for
out-of-studio editing facilities and for our security system. All studio systems
are fully isolated from the reticulated mains supply, and we can keep running
all systems at full tilt for around 45 minutes should all external power fail
(or 7 hours reduced facility).
The studio itself is air-conditioned to a stable 21°Celcius,
45% RH day in and day out, year-round.
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