Five acoustic mistakes that spoil a live studio and how to avoid them

Mistake one: treating the microphone as the problem

When a presenter sounds boxy or distant, the first instinct is to change the microphone or add processing in the gallery. In my experience as a lighting designer sitting in on many studio walk-throughs, the real cause is usually the room itself. Reflections from a bare wall behind the desk arrive a fraction of a second after the direct voice, and no capsule can remove them once they have been recorded.

Before swapping equipment, stand where the guest sits and clap once, then listen to how long the sound lingers. A short, dry decay suggests the room is behaving. A ringing tail, or a flutter between two parallel walls, tells you the space needs attention first. Priya Shah on our team begins every visit this way, with the room and not the rack.

The fix is rarely dramatic. It is often a matter of finding which surfaces are doing the damage and treating those, rather than buying a better microphone and hoping it compensates.

• Clap test at the guest position before touching any kit
• Listen for flutter between parallel walls
• Treat the room before changing the microphone

Mistake two: covering walls without measuring first

Foam tiles stuck to a wall are the most common acoustic purchase in small studios, and the most common disappointment. Thin foam absorbs high frequencies only, so the voice sounds duller while the low, muddy build-up that makes speech hard to follow stays exactly where it was. The room ends up deadened at the top and boomy underneath.

Measuring first avoids this. A simple decay measurement across the speech range shows where the energy hangs on, and that decides what material goes where and how thick it needs to be. Treatment chosen from numbers tends to use fewer panels than treatment chosen by guesswork, which also leaves more wall free for graphics and set pieces.

Measurement does not need to be elaborate, but it does need to be done at the positions where people actually sit and speak, not in the middle of an empty floor.

• Foam alone rarely controls low-frequency build-up
• Measure decay at presenter and guest positions
• Choose thickness and placement from the readings

Mistake three: ignoring noise that the room makes itself

A studio can be beautifully treated and still sound poor if the air handling hums, a dimmer buzzes or a monitor fan whirs close to a boom microphone. These sounds sit under speech at a low level, so they are easy to miss in a quiet rehearsal and obvious once a long broadcast is under way and the listener has settled in.

Walk the space with the production running and the doors closed. Listen at the microphone positions, not at the control desk, where you are shielded by the glass. Switching the ventilation off for a few seconds during a test often reveals a problem nobody had noticed because everyone had grown used to it.

Fixing these sources, by moving a fan, changing a driver or isolating a duct, is usually cheaper than any treatment, and it removes noise that no amount of absorption would have touched.

• Test with ventilation, lighting and screens all running
• Listen at the microphone, not behind the gallery glass
• Remove noise at its source before adding absorption

Mistake four: forgetting that the set changes the sound

Acoustics are often settled when the room is empty, then upset when the set arrives. A glass-topped desk, a large video wall or a hard backdrop adds reflective surfaces right beside the presenters. A treatment plan that worked in the bare room can sound different once the news desk is in place and the guests are seated behind it.

Plan with the final set, or at least its dimensions and materials, in front of you. Where the design calls for glass or gloss, ask whether a fabric panel can sit just out of shot, or whether a soft material can line the underside of the desk. These small decisions are easier made during design than after the set has been built and signed off.

It also helps to re-check the room whenever the set is substantially changed. A refreshed look for a programme is a reasonable moment to listen again.

• Review acoustics against the finished set, not the empty room
• Look for hidden soft surfaces under desks and behind graphics
• Re-listen after any major set change

Mistake five: treating the room once and never checking again

Studios drift. Panels get moved to make space for a new camera position, curtains are taken down for cleaning and not rehung, and storage creeps against a treated wall. Months later the room sounds different and nobody can say when it changed, because the change came in small steps rather than a single event.

A short routine keeps this in hand. Keep a record of the original measurements and panel positions, and repeat the clap test and a basic decay reading every few months and after any rebuild. If the figures have moved, you have a starting point for finding out why instead of a vague feeling that something is off.

Autumn is a sensible time for this. Heating comes on, windows stay shut and the room's character changes slightly, so it is worth confirming the studio still behaves before the busier broadcasting weeks.

• Record panel positions and baseline readings
• Repeat a short check every few months
• Re-check after moving cameras, curtains or storage

Putting the checks in a sensible order

None of these mistakes needs special equipment to catch. Start with listening, then measure, then deal with noise sources, then account for the set, and finally set up a light routine to keep the result. Working in that order stops you spending on treatment before you know what the room needs.

If you would like a second pair of ears, our Acoustic Optimisation work follows the same sequence: measuring the studio, agreeing what to treat, and confirming the result at the positions where presenters and guests actually sit. Priya leads that work, and I am happy to point you to her through the contact page.