New Studio Update – 2 June 2011

New Studio Update – 2 June 2011

Work is progressing and we are a couple of weeks (fingers crossed) from having the studio ready for equipment installation.

This is not the green screen material! The polythene sheeting stops moisture (primarily from people) in the air getting into the walls and causing problems in years to come. The plasterboard should be on in a week or so after the electrics have been fitted. There is a still some insulation to fit in the roof but nearly there. Fitting the insulation has been my least favourite job! Cutting the boards so they fit around all the joists has been a challenge and did lead to one sense of humour failure!

Am considering a new series called – Woodworking and building for video podcasters!

The pile of boxes of equipment for the studio is starting to grow and taking over a room in the house! So far chairs, stools, equipment rack, UPS, Mixer, cables…. So what is missing?

Cameras – 4 Canon cameras on order (XA10/ HF G10) but while they are shipping in limited quantity in the USA they have not shipped in the UK. While the disaster in Japan is probably to blame the lack of information from Canon to it’s dealer network and customers is amazing. They all just say Canon are not saying anything on delivery dates. I want to keep all the cameras to one manufacturer,  ideally with the same sensor, so I may have to move to Sony or Panasonic. Both of which can supply the models I am interested in. It is the uncertainty on dates that is going to make me change, if I knew they were going to be 1 month or 2 months out that can be planned around, but you can’t plan around unknown information. Come on Canon talk to your customers!

Lights – the investment in lights is likely to be more than on cameras. Many professionals have advised us to move to lower end cameras and spend more on lighting. Plan to visit a specialist video lighting company in the next couple of weeks and see what they suggest. Aluminium tube is on order for the lighting grid.

Video Mixing / switching – Currently have a good Telestream Wirecast setup based on a Mac Pro but also looking at various hardware switching options. More to come on this!

Sets – hoping to have two prime sets in the studio. Both of these need putting together. It may well be that these evolve during the first couple of months of use until we find the best setup.

Monitors – Want to keep the main editing suite together so that means investing in new monitors for the studio – a large Plasma/LCD for use as required in the sets, and monitors for skype boxes, preview and live.

Skype – Two machines for skype, ideally rack mounted. Haven’t found the perfect solution yet but @vancewillis is doing some great work in this area (but not rack mounted).

Microphones – Still debating best solutions!

… and more.

 

Am open to your suggestions!

 

Mark