A storeroom and a long list of wishes
Marcus came to us in the early part of the year with a problem many producers know. His small production team had been recording interviews in a borrowed meeting room, and he wanted a permanent streaming studio of their own. The space he had found was a former storeroom behind an office unit, about six metres across on its longest wall, with a low ceiling and a single door at one corner.
His wish list was ambitious for the room: two presenters at a desk, a standing area for guests, three cameras, a graphics wall and a small gallery for a vision mixer. He had already priced some equipment and was ready to order. Oliver Hartley, who leads our studio layouts, asked him to hold off until we had measured the room and drawn the floor plan together.
I joined for the lighting side, because the ceiling height decided a good deal of what was possible.
Measuring first, buying second
The first visit was mostly a tape measure and a notebook. We recorded the ceiling height, the position of the door, the sockets, the air vents and the one window, which Marcus had planned to leave uncovered. Daylight changes through the afternoon, and a window behind a presenter makes a picture that is hard to keep consistent from one recording to the next.
We also asked how the studio would really be used. Marcus mentioned that most programmes would be two people at a desk, with a guest only now and then. That one answer changed the plan. The standing area he had imagined would have eaten a third of the floor for a few minutes of airtime each month.
So we drew the desk set as the main scene and treated the guest position as something that could be set up when needed.
- Ceiling height, door swing and vent positions noted on the first visit
- Window covering agreed before any lighting was drawn
- Real use of the room asked about before the layout was fixed
The floor plan that fitted the room
Oliver drew three versions on paper. The one Marcus chose placed the desk along the long wall, with the graphics screen behind it and the cameras arranged in a shallow arc facing it. The gallery went into the corner by the door, separated by a light partition, so the operator could see the set directly as well as on the monitors.
Putting the gallery in the same room kept the cost down, but it raised a fair question about noise. Fans from the computers and the mixer would be audible if they sat close to the microphones. We moved the equipment rack to the far side of the partition and agreed a distance from the desk that kept it out of the sound.
The cameras stayed within a metre or so of the wall they faced, which left room for the presenters to move without catching a cable.
Cable routes decided before the walls were finished
Cable routes are the least glamorous part of a studio plan and the one people regret skipping. We marked where each camera, microphone and monitor would connect, and drew the paths back to the rack. Power and signal cables were kept apart wherever they ran in parallel, to avoid hum in the audio.
Marcus's electrician fitted a low trunking along the skirting and two drops from the ceiling, following our drawing. A small amount of spare capacity was left in each run, because a fourth camera or an extra microphone is a likely addition within a couple of years.
Labelling each cable at both ends was agreed too. It takes an afternoon and saves far longer when something stops working in the middle of a recording.
- Power and signal runs kept apart
- Spare capacity left in every trunking run
- Each cable labelled at both ends
Lighting for a low ceiling
With a ceiling just over two and a half metres, hanging heavy fixtures was out of the question. I suggested slim, cool-running panels mounted on a lightweight bar, positioned so the light came from the front and slightly to the side, with a softer fill on the opposite side. This kept shadows gentle on the presenters' faces without heat building up in a small room.
The graphics wall needed its own care. Lighting that spills onto a screen washes out the image, so we angled the panels away from it and checked the result with a camera before fixing anything in place. Marcus covered the window with a blackout blind, as agreed, and the picture stopped changing from morning to evening.
The whole lighting set was dimmable from the gallery, which let him match the look from one programme to the next.
What Marcus does differently now
The studio has been running for several months. Marcus told us that the biggest change was not the equipment but the habit of planning a recording around the room, not the other way about. He sets the guest chair in the same spot each time and marks it on the floor, so the cameras and lights never need adjusting.
He also kept the original order list and crossed off the items the plan made unnecessary. Two of the more expensive pieces never needed buying, which paid for the trunking and the partition with some left over.
I think of this job whenever someone asks whether measuring first is worth the time. In this case it decided the layout, the lighting and the budget.
Marcus's studio is modest, and it works because the plan came from the room and from how he really records. A floor plan, a cable map and a lighting sketch cost little next to the equipment they protect. If you are fitting a studio into an awkward space, start with a tape measure and an honest description of your programmes, and let the rest follow from that.