What Studio Design Consultancy Costs and What Moves the Price

People often ask for a price per studio, and it is a fair question, but the figure that matters is the amount of design time a brief needs. A bare floor with a clear purpose takes less of it than a tired building with a dozen competing demands. When I sit in on early calls with Rhys, the first thing we establish is what decisions are still open: where the cameras roam, how the audience sees the set, which walls can carry acoustic treatment, and which services already run through the ceiling.

Studio Design Consultancy at entrelux covers floor plans, sightlines and acoustic zoning for new or refurbished television studios. The price follows those three strands. Each one has a minimum of drawing, checking and revision, and each grows when the room fights back. A simple rectangular space with a regular grid is quick to resolve. A converted warehouse with columns, a mezzanine and a shared wall with a neighbour is not.

• Open decisions at the start set the amount of design time
• Floor plans, sightlines and acoustic zoning are priced as separate strands
• The state of the building matters as much as its size

A written quotation for studio design should name its deliverables in plain terms. For us that means a measured floor plan with camera positions and set zones, sightline studies from the main camera and audience positions, and an acoustic zoning plan that marks quiet areas, noisy equipment and the routes between them. Revision rounds are included up to a stated number, so that both sides know where a change becomes a new piece of work.

We also include a short written rationale for the main choices. This sounds minor, but it is what a technical manager takes to a budget meeting or hands to an architect. It explains why the control room sits where it does and why a particular wall is left untreated. Site visits are listed separately in the quotation, with the number we expect to need, so travel from Swansea is never a surprise on the invoice.

• Measured plan with camera positions and set zones
• Sightline studies from camera and audience positions
• Acoustic zoning plan and a written rationale
• A stated number of revision rounds

Refurbishment usually costs more design time than people expect, and the reason is information. A new build gives us drawings we can trust and a structure still open to change. An existing studio gives us a room that has been altered several times, with cabling routes nobody documented and a lighting grid hung to a standard that has since moved on. Before any layout work we have to find out what is really there.

That discovery stage is where I see budgets drift if it is skipped. A survey day with a tape, a laser measure and a notebook costs far less than redrawing a layout after the first site meeting reveals a beam in the wrong place. On refurbishments we therefore propose a survey as its own line, so the client can see what it buys and decide whether existing drawings are reliable enough to stand in for it.

• Undocumented cabling and past alterations add survey time
• A survey is quoted as its own line
• Reliable existing drawings can reduce that line

Sightlines look like a small part of a design until the production needs them. A talk studio with three fixed cameras has a handful of angles to protect. A drama or entertainment set with a crane, remote heads and a moving audience multiplies the checks, because every move has to clear the set, the lighting and the people. From my own side of the work, camera systems, I know how quickly a layout that looks fine on paper traps a pedestal operator in a corner.

This is why the number of cameras and the type of movement are among the first questions we ask. More positions mean more studies, and more studies mean more time. We would rather price that honestly at the start than cut the checking short and leave a crew to find the problem on the first day of rehearsal.

• Camera count and type of movement drive the number of studies
• Cranes and remote heads need clearance checks
• Audience positions add further sightlines

Acoustic zoning is the strand most affected by things outside the studio. A quiet set is of little use if the air handling sits above it or if a corridor wall is thin. We map noise sources, quiet areas and the paths sound takes between them, and then suggest where treatment and separation will do the most good. The more shared walls, plant rooms and adjoining tenants there are, the more that map has to account for.

Scope matters here as well. Our consultancy produces the zoning plan and the reasoning behind it. Specifying and installing the treatment itself is a separate piece of work for the building contractor, and the quotation says so. Keeping that boundary clear helps the client compare our fee with others without finding out later that two quotations covered different things.

• Shared walls and plant rooms lengthen the zoning work
• The plan and rationale are ours; installation is separate

Start with an enquiry through the contact page, and tell us what you can: the size and type of room, the programmes it must serve, the number of cameras, and whether drawings exist. We reply with a written quotation setting out the deliverables, the number of site visits and revision rounds, and what would change the figure. If something in the brief shifts later, we agree it in writing before the work moves on.

Once the quotation is confirmed, we issue an invoice, payable by bank transfer, and cancellations and refunds follow the payment and refund policy. The Prices page sets out the current figures for the consultancy. Read them alongside the points above, because the number on its own says little until you know which deliverables, visits and revisions sit behind it.