Professional podcasting studios offer brands and businesses the opportunity to produce quality podcasts that promote their brand and satisfy investors. However, these commercial level podcast studios require precise planning along with expertise in sound, design and project management.
Brands like Facebook contract professional podcast studio designers to create a podcast space that not only delivers sonically, but is design led and highly functional.
But how does a professional podcast studio designer choose the correct room for a podcast studio? Here we will discuss some of the key elements that need to be considered to design and build a professional podcast room.
How Much Space Do I Need For A Podcast Studio?
Determining the size of your proposed space is the most important consideration to make before planning your professional podcast studio.
Whilst there are many innovations which can make podcast studios more compact, for a practical studio there is a minimum size needed to house the base build-up.
The fundamental build-up of a podcast studio needs to provide a level of acoustic isolation before any other sound treatment is added. To achieve this, a thick substrate made up of multi-layered soundproofing materials needs to be installed along the perimeter of your space.
Whilst this step is essential, it can quickly reduce the size of your space quite dramatically. A professional podcast studio designer will assess whether your proposed space is too small to convert into a professional studio and, if needed, suggest a different space or a more ergonomic design.
Where Can I Build A Professional Podcast Studio?
The next thing to assess during the planning stages of your podcast studio design and build is the location. Ideally, your podcast studio should be housed in an area that is generally unperturbed by foot traffic and passers-by, or other external noise sources such as road traffic or a server room.
The best location for your podcast studio is somewhere that is unlikely to be accessed frequently by employees or the general public. This ensures minimal disturbances, which can distract production workers and podcast hosts.
Situating your professional podcast studio in a low-footfall area also assists in mitigating external sounds that might threaten to affect sound quality of your podcasts.
Can My Building Support A Podcast Studio?
A critical part of the planning stage is assessing whether your building can support the weight of professional podcast studio build.
A complete build can be extremely heavy, depending on the materials used, which may limit where the studio can be situated. Sometimes putting the podcast studio on a desired floor may not be viable, depending on the wider structure of the building.
Your professional podcast studio designer should be able to easily assess the structure of the building and ensure it can take the added weight of a fully integrated studio.
How Big Should My Podcast Studio Be?
When designing your professional studio, it’s important to consider the purpose for your studio and what you need it to achieve. Considering capacity will ensure the podcast studio is big enough for the amount of people working on the podcasts, as well as any potential guests.
At this stage your designer should sit down with you and discuss the intended scale of the platform, as well as your intended goals. It’s important to consider the potential growth of your podcast and to design a space that is future proofed.
Where Do I Keep My Podcast Equipment?
A professional podcast studio will require a fair amount of equipment to run optimally, which can often mean needing a separate space for storing it.
Housing all of the tech and equipment within the podcast studio can be impractical, as it can clutter up the space. To resolve this, your podcast designer should account for a space to store all this equipment.
To ensure the podcast runs smoothly, this equipment needs to be easily accessible at all times. This could be achieved by walling off an area within your space for storage, or specifying a nearby separate room simply for storing the podcast equipment.
How Important Are Lighting & Windows For A Podcast Studio?
Correct lighting is essential for any space, including your professional podcast studio. Sufficient lighting and windows help create the right atmosphere for a space, as well as providing a suitable backdrop if you intend to record a video version of your podcast. Again, this may not be something you originally plan for but with platforms like Spotify recently embracing this medium, it’s best to consider this option at the design stage.
Discussing these elements early with your professional podcast studio designer will ensure that the right treatment and design is applied to the space. Whenever an aperture is added to a soundproof environment, it requires the whole design to be altered.
This also applies to any flush fix lighting that you might add into the design, as each opening that’s created in the perimeter has to be acoustically treated to ensure no sound loss escapes via cabling.
Professional Podcast Studio Designer & Consultant
These were just a handful of the considerations that need to be made before beginning a podcast studio design and build for your business.
Partnering with a specialist podcast design and build consultant will ensure that you are supported at every step of the project, from conception to completion.
Sound Zero offers a complete design and build consultancy process for podcast studios and professional music production studios.
From beginning to end, you are supported by your Sound Zero technical consultant to bring your creative vision to life through a 5-step process including consultation, site visit, 3D modelling, manufacture and installation.
If you’re looking to design and build an in-house professional podcast studio for your business, do not hesitate to get in touch!
