COMPETITION !

We are running a contest for the best design (and prototype) for that portable studio. Anyone can enter, individuals, groups and companies. There is a “cash-prize” of €5,000 for what the Synchromesh partnership considers to be the best solution.

Background

Audio drama is a highly accessible art form which can now be made using low cost but high quality technical equipment, free editing software and can be widely distributed online. 

The Covid-19 lockdown provided new opportunities to record audio remotely from actors’ homes – a development from the time honoured tradition of voiceover artists sticking a duvet over their head. The potential with a broadcast quality portable studio that can be sent and opened anywhere tardis-like is tremendous. 

Design  Competition

We are running a contest for the best design (and prototype) for that portable studio. Anyone can enter, individuals, groups and companies. There is a “cash-prize” of €5,000 for what the Synchromesh partnership considers to be the best solution.

There is no entry fee. Instead shortlisted designs will be asked for a prototype at your expense. Note that “economical to make” is one of the key features of the competition and the prototype should therefore not prove overly onerous.

The  Challenge 

The design challenge as we see it is that the features needed for this studio appear to be contradictory. This studio needs some exceptionally clever thinking.

We need a low cost portable recording studio “in a box”. The box – ideally no bigger than a couple of  suitcases – would contain everything required for an effective recording studio – microphones, insulation etc. It would be available to order as a home assembly kit which could easily be assembled by the most technically challenged in their own home.

Key Features 

1. Portability: we need to be able to send this out to someone in the back of a taxi

2. Quality: the studio should to be able to deliver broadcast quality results

3. Insulation: as part of quality about we need a studio that offers a good measure of sound proofing

4. Acoustics: the studio is for spoken word. We need a “dead” space that soaks up sound.

5. Budget: we are looking for something that can be produced by pros and enthusiasts and most of all young people. So it needs to cost hundreds not thousands.

6. Accessibility: ideally this should be something that an enthusiast could order in parts or follow instructions and make from a kit themselves.

7. Idiot proofing: the studio needs to be user friendly – really user friendly for people who can not handle Ikea instructions for construction and can only do “press and record” for the electronics.