What Acoustic Treatment for a Studio Costs and What Moves the Price

When producers ask me what acoustic treatment will cost, I usually answer with a question about the room. A converted office with a hard floor and glass partitions behaves very differently from a purpose-built studio with a lighting grid and a quiet air handler. The same listening problem can take a small adjustment in one space and a full treatment plan in the other.

That is why we price acoustic work from a survey rather than from a rate card. Our published prices page gives the starting points for each service, and the final figure follows what we find in your room. I am a camera specialist by trade, but I sit in on enough acoustic visits to see how quickly the scope changes once Priya has measured a space.

The honest way to read any figure you are given is to ask what it assumes about the room, the equipment and the working day.

Floor area matters, but ceiling height and surface material matter just as much. A tall, hard-walled room holds sound for longer, so it needs more treatment per square metre than a low, carpeted one. Windows, glass doors and bare plasterboard all reflect speech back toward the microphones.

The shape of the set also counts. A news desk placed against a wall needs different treatment from an interview corner in the middle of a larger floor. Where the set stands decides where reflections arrive, and therefore where panels earn their place.

We note all of this during the first visit. It is written up, so you can see which parts of the room drive the plan and which are simply background. Rooms that look similar on a floor plan often come out quite differently once measured.

• Ceiling height and surface hardness
• Windows, glass and bare walls
• Position of the set within the room
• Floor covering and any hanging scenery

Treatment inside the room only shapes the sound that is already there. If a ventilation unit hums at head height, or a corridor door slams during every recording, panels will not remove the cause. Dealing with the source is sometimes the larger part of the budget.

Air handling is the most common culprit. Rerouting a duct, adding a quieter diffuser or scheduling the plant around transmission can change the result more than any wall covering. Equipment racks with noisy fans are another frequent finding, and moving them to a separate room is often cheaper than it sounds.

We separate these items in the written plan so you can see which are treatment and which are noise control. That lets a studio manager decide in stages, rather than approving one lump sum without knowing what each part buys.

A good part of Priya's work costs very little in materials. Microphone choice, distance from the presenter and the angle to the nearest hard surface are decisions made with measurement and listening, not with a delivery of foam. For some small studios, placement alone brings the dialogue to an acceptable level.

What raises the price here is the number of positions. A single news desk is a short job. A set with two interview chairs, a standing area and a guest table needs each position checked, because a fix for one can spoil another.

Time on site also depends on when the room is free. If we can only work between rehearsals and a live slot, the visit is split into shorter sessions, and that is reflected in the quotation. Telling us your calendar early avoids a figure that later has to be revised.

A quotation is only as firm as the information behind it. If you can send a rough floor plan, a few photographs of the room, and a description of the microphones and mixing desk in use, the first figure will sit much closer to the final one.

It also helps to say what you hear and when. Echo during interviews, a low rumble that only appears in the afternoon, or speech that sounds thin on the monitors all point to different causes. Priya reads these descriptions before the visit and arrives with a short list of things to check.

Whatever you send, the process stays the same: an enquiry through the contact page, a written quotation, then an invoice paid by bank transfer. Nothing is committed until you have read and confirmed the quotation, and changes of scope are written down before any extra work begins.

• A rough floor plan or sketch with dimensions
• Photographs of walls, ceiling and set position
• The microphones and desk currently in use
• Times of day when the problem is worst

There is no perfect room, and a quotation should never promise one. The useful question is how much improvement your programmes need. A talk show recorded for broadcast has a different tolerance from a university lecture stream, and the budget should follow that.

We usually present the plan in stages, starting with the changes that make the largest audible difference for the least money. Later stages refine the sound if the first ones leave something to be desired. Many studios stop after the first stage and are content.

If you are weighing two quotations, compare what each includes, not only the total. Ask whether measurement, a written plan, installation and a check after the work are all covered. A lower figure that leaves out the check can end up costing more once the room is in use.