Putting the finishing touch into my new podcast recording studio seemed to be the ideal excuse to try and start blogging again. The sign you see on the left is an "antique" on-air sign that Jackie bought me for Christmas. I mounted it on the door today and put a little fluorescent light in it, and voila - the finishing touch.Of course, a podcast isn't really "on air" but it is nice to let people know when you are recording so that they can avoid walking in during the recording. The completion of the studio is good for starting something else up again as well - the Podcasting book that I almost finished and then put on hold for a year while we moved out to California, started new jobs and all that other stuff.
I am pleased as punch with my studio - some of the highlights include a video-conferencing and media center powered by a Mac Mini connected to a 32" HDTV, and video conference capable as well. I have the room pre-wired with four microphones so that we can just sit down and start recording a posse episode, and also the mac mini has an output that runs straight into the 14 channel mixer along (with USB output) along with the mics - this means that we can record people in the room plus video or audio conference other people in and record them as well.
On top of all this, there is a monitor output from the sound board to an infra-red headphones transmitter, and four pairs of receiving wireless headphones so that we can all monitor the recording while it is happening, but not have any trailing headphone wires (it is also a wickedly good setup for recording conferences without the people at the other end hearing any echo, or their voice getting picked up by the microphones in the room).
The room is filled with comfy furniture, and I put up heavy curtains around three of the walls which, when drawn, help deaden any echoes. The results are pretty good - you can always judge for yourself at http://javaposse.com.
