What Acoustic Optimisation Costs and What Moves the Price

Why the price is never a single figure

Producers often ask us for a number before we have set foot in the room, and I understand why. Acoustic work sits between a budget line for equipment and a budget line for building work, and nobody wants to be surprised. The honest answer is that two studios of the same floor area can need very different amounts of work, because the cost follows what the room does to speech rather than how big it is.

What we sell is room measurement, treatment and microphone planning, aimed at clean, consistent speech on air. Each of those three parts can be small or large. A measurement visit in a tidy, carpeted interview room is a short job. The same visit in a tall, hard-walled hall used for live shows takes longer, produces more to interpret and usually points to more treatment.

So when we quote, we start from the room and the programme, not from a price list in our heads.

What the measurement stage covers

Measurement comes first because it stops anyone guessing. Tom Ellison visits the space, records how long sound lingers at several positions, and listens for problems that numbers alone can miss: flutter between parallel walls, a boom from a low corner, hum from ventilation that only appears when the studio is quiet and the presenters are talking.

The time this takes depends on how many positions matter. A single news desk is one position with a short list of presenter seats. A multi-set studio with an interview corner, a standing set and an audience area means more measuring and more notes to write up. We report in plain language, with the readings behind each recommendation, so your crew can see why a panel is proposed in a particular place.

Measurement is charged on its own, so you can stop there if the findings show the room is already in reasonable shape.

What drives the treatment cost up or down

Treatment is where most of the spend sits, and four things move it. The first is the size and shape of the room: more surface to deal with means more material and more fitting time. The second is the starting condition, since a bare concrete shell needs far more absorption than a room with soft furnishings and a carpeted floor.

The third is how permanent the result must be. Fixed panels on the walls cost less than freestanding or movable screens that must be wheeled around between shows, but they limit what else the room can do. The fourth is access: working around a live schedule, at night or between recordings, adds hours.

Material choice matters less than people expect. We would rather place fewer, well-sited panels than cover a wall for show, and we say so when a cheaper option will do the job.

• Room volume and surface hardness
• Whether treatment is fixed or movable
• Working hours and access to the space
• Noise sources such as ventilation or lighting fans

Microphone planning and where it fits in

Even a well-treated room will sound poor if the microphones are chosen or placed carelessly. Our microphone planning looks at who speaks, where they sit, how much they move and how close the capture needs to be. A seated news presenter, a roaming host and a panel of four guests each call for a different approach.

The cost here is mostly time rather than equipment. We can plan around microphones you already own, and often do. If the plan shows that something should be replaced, we name it and explain the reason, but buying is your decision and never a requirement of the work.

Planning also covers the quiet details that affect the price indirectly: cable routes, stand positions that stay out of camera shots, and how the audio feed meets the rest of the studio system.

Phasing the work to fit a budget

Few studios can pay for everything at once, and acoustic work divides sensibly. A common route is to measure first, then treat the one or two reflections that cause the most damage, and review before going further. Often the first modest step removes most of what a viewer would notice.

This is why we prefer to write the scope in stages, each with its own cost, rather than a single large figure. You can see what each stage buys and decide where to stop. If a second stage is worth doing later, the measurements from the first visit remain useful.

The programme itself also matters. A weekly interview show has different tolerance for echo than a nightly live bulletin, and we set the target accordingly instead of aiming for a perfection nobody on air would hear.

Questions worth asking before you agree a scope

Before accepting any acoustic quote, ours or anyone else's, ask what is included in the fixed price and what would change it. Find out whether measurement is separate, whether fitting is part of the figure, and what happens if the room reveals something unexpected once the work begins.

Ask also how the result will be checked. We repeat key measurements after treatment and listen on air with your crew, so you are not left to judge the outcome alone. If the result falls short of what the report promised, we want to know and put it right within the agreed scope.

Our prices page sets out how enquiries, written quotations and invoices work, and the contact page is the place to describe your room and your programme.

• Is measurement priced separately?
• Is fitting included in the quoted figure?
• What would add to the cost once work starts?
• How is the result checked afterwards?