Last year I wrote about designing a cost-effective HD edit suite and compared three budget ranges for both an Avid and an FCP suite. This year I’ve put together one updated spreadsheet (download here). It’s interesting to see that over the course of this past year, some of the numbers have come down and you can assemble a very functional room for even less money.
About the numbers
What’s cost-effective to me might not be so to others. Let’s take a look at the bottom line. My total came in at about $70K for an FCP room. Bear in mind that this includes nearly everything: workstation, consoles, racks, storage, acoustic treatments, etc. Since I used a variety of online resources, actual prices will fluctuate. This is an FCP room using an AJA Kona LHi. This card covers most of your analog and digital i/o needs and is good for nearly all FCP jobs, short of 2K and 4:4:4 work. Add some room construction (or maybe none at all) and you are good to go.
My number also includes a 5% contingency, a 15% labor estimate (installation, wiring, integration), an extra $1,000 for last minute items (more connectors, cables, tools) and an extra $2,500 for miscellaneous software, like plug-ins. This means that if you are really frugal and are a total DIY-er, you might get the same room done for a bit over $55K.
On the other hand, I have not included shipping, sales tax, VTRs/decks/readers or any room construction costs. These will vary depending on state laws, vendors used and support needs, but suffice it to say that sales tax and shipping – plus room construction – could easily add $20K to this total. In other words, the realistic range for this same set of items is from $55K to under $100K, PLUS decks.
Software and systems
My estimate is for a fully-equipped Final Cut Studio room, but I have also included the Adobe Production Premium bundle. Although that package is centered around Premiere Pro, the reason I opted for the bundle is because Photoshop and After Effects are essential in many editorial workflows. These two apps alone justify the bundle, so you get the rest nearly for free. If you don’t see that working for you and just need basic graphic design and photo correction tools, then replace the bundle with something basic, like Adobe Photoshop Elements, Corel Paint Shop Pro or Pixelmator. Instead of $1,700, you would then only spend between $50 and $150.
I’m a fan of control surfaces and one big feature of the new Final Cut Studio update is support for the Euphonix EuCon protocol. I’ve loaded this estimate with three of their panels for mixing and color grading. Unfortunately these don’t work with Adobe or Avid NLE software. If you prefer to build an Adobe-centric room, then simply drop the Final Cut software and the Euphonix panels and save nearly $4,000.
Avid requires a little more mix-and-match. You’d make the same deletions as for Adobe, but also drop the AJA Kona LHi card and breakout box (another $2,000 deduction). You would replace this with either the Avid Media Composer Mojo DX or Nitris DX hardware/software bundle. Mojo DX is a digital unit. If you need analog i/o, then you would either have to pay the higher price for Nitris DX or augment the Mojo DX with external conversion. Options include the AJA FS1 or smaller AJA and/or Blackmagic Design converters. In any case, the uppermost number would be that of the Avid Media Composer Nitris DX bundle at approximately $15K.
To summarize, a Premiere Pro room, using all the same numbers would bring this total into the mid-$60K range and a Media Composer Nitris DX room would top out at about $80K. When you build a room like this, it is realistic to plan on a three-year initial investment before the next major upgrade (not counting routine software updates and support). The difference between a system costing $65K and one costing $80K isn’t that big for a productive business. In short, your choice of NLE will be based on personal preference more than the actual cost of just the software application itself.
Equipment selection
1. Monitors – CRTs are still important, but LCDs are catching up. You still need a CRT for checking interlacing issues, but I don’t think it really needs to be the prime monitor in the edit suite any longer. I put a CRT in the rack, but not in the suite to keep the clutter down. One big issue for an LCD or plasma in a suite is how well it displays standard definition video. Color/image reproduction is obviously important, but if you do a lot of SD work, it doesn’t matter how well the image looks in HD. Most of the professional LCDs work well, including Panasonic, JVC, FSI, TV Logic and others.
2. Scopes – This is an item that people are reluctant to spend money on – especially since many apps have built-in software scopes. I plugged in a Blackmagic Design UltraScope, because I think it fills a good niche at a relatively low cost. Remember that your built-in software scope won’t show the output of the i/o card nor the levels on a VTR. Avid doesn’t display software scopes outside of the color correction mode. FCP’s performance is often challenged when its scopes are active. These issues make an external scope desirable.
3. Audio – Edit suite audio signals are rarely passed through an analog mixer for any purpose other than simple monitoring. Unless you happen to have a personal preference for one brand or another, then go with a reasonable, inexpensive brand for speakers and mixers. Behringer is one such brand, but there are others. Make sure the preamps are decent if you record voice-overs through the mixer, but otherwise, nearly any low-cost mixer will do the job.
4. Racks / terminal gear – The particular configuration I’ve spelled out includes a set of prewired racks that are designed to accommodate several VTRs of various formats. The world is going tapeless, so many people are skipping the purchase of a dedicated VTR. Many rent the deck they need based on each project. That’s fine, but you have to be ready to integrate it into your system, which means having an available location to put the rental deck (like an open shelf in the rack) and a wiring harness that is ready to go. Whether you own or rent a deck or a tapeless device like an XDCAM or P2 player, this estimate includes cables, connectors and patching to make any permanent or ad hoc installation totally plug-and-play.
It’s also worth noting that this rack estimate includes enough spare capacity for the addition of a second room. If you decide to add a second suite later for edit, graphics or audio, then that installation will cost less. There will be less rack and wiring to buy, not to mention a lower labor cost.
Room layout
There are plenty of ways to design rooms and obviously this is going to be based on the space available. Most people don’t have the luxury of a blank slate. A typical office arrangement of two adjacent 12’ x 15’ rooms is enough room to accommodate an edit console, a client desk, equipment racks and a small voice-over booth. More space is nice, of course, but if most of the time only one editor is present in this space, then it will be just right.
The idea behind the two adjacent rooms is that it permits the equipment to be located outside of the edit suite (keeps the noise down), but yet close enough for the editor to get to it when needed. Only a few longer cables are needed, so there is no major expense in removing the gear from the room. If the distance is greater than just the other side of a wall, Cat5-to-DVI extenders will let you place the computers some distance away from their displays.
Acoustics and power
You are building a functional edit suite – not a recording studio. If you have the bucks for the latter, then go for it, but that’s not the situation most are in. Modern edit suites are found in all sorts of home and general office environments. The installed power and HVAC is usually adequate; so, even though it’s not ideal, there’s no real reason to spend tons of money for new circuits, A/C units or other, just to install one basic edit suite. The common 15-amp and 20-amp circuits you run into will power the gear in this spreadsheet. I swear by beefy UPS systems, however. These condition the power by evening out frequency and voltage fluctuation, which adds life to your gear and reduces file corruption. UPS systems also give you sufficient time to properly save, exit and shutdown in the event of building power failure.
How you handle room acoustics depends on: a) whether you are trying to keep out exterior sounds (like traffic noise); b) whether you are trying to keep edit noise inside the suite (speaker volume and privacy); or c) trying to just reduce the natural reverberation within the room. I have included sound treatment kits in the estimate designed to cover the issue of room reverberation (item C), as well as provide some “deadness” for a vocal booth.
If you intend to do more construction, then here are some additional tips to deal with all three circumstances.
1. Parallel walls – Most studios are built with non-parallel surfaces. Check out some of the showcase rooms at Walters-Storyk Design Group and you’ll get some “wow!” ideas based on many of the premier studio facilities in the world. If you are building your own, modest room, then add a slight angle to the walls wherever possible. This reduces “slap echo” – sound that bounces back and forth between two opposite walls. Typically this means that the editor end of the room will be narrower than the client end of the room.
2. Soundproofing walls – Most principles for soundproofing walls are based on density. Check out some of these ideas from Acoustic Sciences Corporation.
Quick fixes for the DIY-er:
– Double the sheetrock on each side of the wall
– (4 sheets of gypsum board or 2 + 2 sheets of sound board)
– Caulk all sheetrock seams
– Screw the sheetrock to the studs, don’t use nails
– Add a plastic vapor barrier in the wall, adhered to the studs
– Stuff the wall with insulation
3. Ceilings – Unless you can build an enclosed room-with-a-room, you will have to contend with drop ceilings in an office space. Sound will be transmitted over the walls through the ceiling. If you have no other option, then the best remedy is simply to load up the ceiling with very thick rolled insulation on top of the ceiling tiles. Make sure the drop ceiling will support this, since the weight adds up.
4. Windows – I like rooms with outside light, but these can be a sound issue. The best approach is double-paned glass. Recording studios tackle this by installing custom-designed windows using two thick, angled glass panes. In the case of an edit suite, upgraded commercial windows will do the trick.
5. Doors – If you’ve done all of the above, then the doors will be the remaining source of sound transmission. Recording studios install massive doors and even sound locks, but this isn’t practical or warranted for most edit suites. Two easy fixes are solid-core, hardwood doors and weather stripping. Solid doors provide mass to stop the sound. The weather-stripping trim around the door and along the bottom of the door will help to seal off sound passing through these air gaps.
© 2009 Oliver Peters
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