The Cruet Company is using a Sadie LRX2 location audio workstation to record multi-track audio for the second series of the BBC show The Restaurant.

Due to air in the autumn, the show sees celebrity chef Raymond Blanc put nine couples through their paces to see if they have what it takes to run their own restaurant.

The show is being filmed at Greenford Studios in West London.

The LRX2 can record up to 48 discrete inputs at 48kHz/24bit (or up to 32 tracks at 96kHz/24bit) from a variety of dedicated input cards. It uses a standard PC laptop running WindowsXP.

Cruet operations director Don Knee says the LRX2 was originally acquired for use on The Apprentice and helped to simplify the recording workflow.

“When we took on The Apprentice, multitrack recording had previously been performed using DVD-RAM recorders, which meant lots of recording media was required,” Knee explained. “With SADiE we could record straight to a standard laptop, so at the end of a day's shooting all we had to do was hand over a portable hard drive.”

Knee, explaining the brief for the show, said: “For this particular production we only record multitrack because that is the requirement from the production company. Each contestant and presenter is individually mic'ed, and whilst a rough mix is sent as a guide to cameras, the final mix is done in post.”

The LRX2 hardware comprises a small assignable built-in mixer with automation and eight motorised faders. This allows rapid switching between the input and output busses with bank switching, pre-fade listen over headphone output, direct record track select, plus locator buttons and a separate monitor buss.

It also has professional interfaces that lock the machine to timecode, video ref or gen-locked incoming AES ref, depending on the application.

Since acquiring the LRX2, The Cruet Company has upgraded it by installing a number of digital in/out cards, which are helping to simplify cabling, increase quality and provide greater flexibility. The cards also make the system compatible with another new addition to the company's equipment stock, a Yamaha LS9-32 mixer.

The Cruet Company provides video location crews, equipment and management for broadcast and corporate television production.

The business and intellectual property rights of Sadie were bought by the interface and converter manufacturer Prism Sound in April 2008. Sadie was formerly owned by Studio Audio and Video Ltd which went in to administration in February 2008.

The Restaurant is a BBC production.