The ‘Working From Home’ Dream
I don’t think there are many people who don’t wish they could work from home in some way. Make your own hours, no commuting, access to your own kettle. But not every home comes with an office – or for a voiceover’s purposes, a recording studio. If you’re lucky, you might already have a room suitable for working in like an office or spare bedroom. I spend almost my entire working day in one small room (and one even smaller voice booth) broken up with trips to London once or twice a fortnight for sessions. My home workspace was functional, but not fun. In October 2014, I decided to change that. I wanted a home studio that better reflected my needs – and my taste!
Here’s how I got to that decision. I became a full-time Voiceover Artist in 2008. Prior to that, I’d spent about ten years working full-time in radio and television, but in every role, there was a certain amount of voice work included. In radio, I was a traffic reporter. In television, I was a Continuity Announcer and Producer. During that time I did paid voiceover work as and when asked or invited. But after nearly eight years at Comedy Central, I decided I had racked up enough audio and production skills and time behind the mic to go it alone as a home-based Voiceover.
I left my job in the early summer and leaped into the terrifying waters of freelancing. Well, not immediately. First I took three months off to bimble around sitting in the sunshine, drinking Pimms and watching the Buffy The Vampire Slayer box set that had been sitting on my shelf for months. It was a good time to put in some reading and research too. Then in the autumn, I got to work seriously setting up a space where I could work as Voiceover.
I had the office at home and a perfectly sized voice booth. OK fine, it was the downstairs loo, but after a bit of treatment it turned out to be a pretty good recording space. However, the office next to it was small, with one tiny window and a panoramic vista of my neighbour’s wall.
And that’s where I recorded and edited. For six years.
Eureka!
I’d always wanted a better space to record in. And a better view, frankly. But the office was too small to accommodate even the footprint of the smallest of the off-the-shelf voice booths and there was nowhere else in the house suitable for transformation unless I took over the only other good-sized bedroom. Moving house was a bit drastic and I’ve had loft conversions in the past. That might have been the answer, but the thought of going through the chaos, inconvenience and unavoidable dust and mess for a second time (I’d had one on my previous home in London) was a major deterrent.
A chance holiday in a Norfolk barn filled with home improvement magazines featuring more pictures of Kevin McCloud and George Clarke than I ever want to see again provided the answer. A garden room!
At the end of my garden was a large shed. Great for storage as well as other garden paraphernalia, it had a concrete base and an electricity supply. Why not knock it down and build a studio? I started getting quotes.
I contacted one of the companies featured in the magazines and Martin from Swift Garden Rooms and Extensions came round and we talked through some ideas. He quickly clocked my love of Art Deco and incorporated some of those features into both the internal and external design. The final plans were for a 4m x 3m room, with extra sound insulation in the walls, floor and ceiling, acoustic glass and air con – something which would be blessed relief in summer! I chose to have the whole room as insulated against external sound as possible and forgo a separate booth – because in order to accommodate the insulated floor and keep the building within the rules for permitted development (i.e. no planning permission needed) the ceiling height would be too low for a standard off the shelf VO booth. I also like the idea of having some flexibility with the space. I did get a quote for a customised booth with reduced height, but decided against it after I came round and could breathe again.
I also wanted my broadband and ISDN lines extended to the room. Wi-Fi would probably be fine for day to day emailing and surfing but I’m frequently uploading and downloading large audio and video files and wanted to maintain the fastest connection possible. For both this and the ISDN, it should be straightforward (notice my use of should) as I wasn’t moving the sockets, just extending from the router and ISDN points inside the house back out to the studio using armoured cat 5 cables.
I signed the contract on the build in late October.
2015: Out With The Old
Work started at 8am on 5th January 2015. That was a shock to the system so soon after Christmas, I can tell you.
In just two days, Swift’s builders had taken down the old shed, and erected the walls and roof of the new room. Work slowed a little after that as they worked on the detail, but they put in long hours and were out in the garden in all weather, drinking copious amounts of tea and coffee and apparently surviving on HobNobs.
The work wasn’t without its mishaps. Working after dark with two hot lamps in freezing weather too close to the new doors caused one of the panes of horribly expensive glass to crack.
And unfortunately the electrician, whose knowledge of ISDN was zero, was convinced that the ISDN and the broadband could share a cat 5 cable to the studio, despite my insisting they were two very different types of signal and should have their own lines. He tried to verify this with BT (I know, I KNOW) who unsurprisingly, told him he meant ADSL and yes of course they’d be fine on one line.
So, at the time of writing I have broadband in the new studio. Or ISDN. But not both at the same time. There has been no disruption to service, just a bit of faffing and unplugging/plugging at my end prior to any sessions. So for now, ISDN sessions continue to be done in the space in the main house.
For the most part though, I’m now working in what has been christened the Sound Pound. It had to be called something; I’d been calling it the “shed-sorry-studio” for weeks. It has some lovely Art Deco lights, a leather sofa (all studios need a leather sofa) dark purple and cream walls, is very, very, quiet and I have a view of the garden instead of a brick wall. Eventually I might even squeeze in some martini glasses, a cocktail shaker and some refreshing spirits for when I wrap up for the day.
I’m still recording in my old space as there are some internal finishing touches that need to be in place before I can really assess what I need in terms of acoustic treatment and I need to do some testing and experimenting before moving my mics into the Sound Pound permanently. But even at this stage, it’s a huge improvement on a downstairs loo and a boxroom.
The bulk of the work took a little over two weeks. There was next to no disruption in the house (unless you include workmen using the bathroom) and watching the building take shape was hugely exciting. I’m writing this sitting more or less exactly where my lawnmower used to be. But it’s much warmer and drier and has fewer spiders.