The work that I will do will be strictly "youtube" web based videos. Not broadcast. Not films.
There are effectively no tech or QC standards which have to be met for Youtube, Vimeo, etc., so in effect, you set your own standards. This of course means that saying you want to distribute your content on Youtube is extremely vague as far as the quality you're after is concerned. Essentially, anywhere including or between home video standards and high-end commercial quality. From the vids you posted, I'm assuming a level which appears the rough equivalent of low commercial TV standards (without actually meeting broadcast tech requirements). This certainly makes your budget more realistic than it would be for a broadcast TV or film studio setup.
It's approx 2,700 square feet with 10ft high celings. It's unfinished now and has many separate rooms at the moment. The goal is to have a giant, open space and close off as needed. ... I am not sure what sonically thread means - can you explain more?
Sonically/Acoustically treated: Whenever sound is created (say a presenter speaking) in an enclosed space, the sound reflects from the various surfaces in that room. What you hear (and a mic records) is a combination of the original (direct) sound and the reflected sound. This results in the boomy, echoey effect you hear on home/amateur videos shot indoors, you loose clarity and it sounds amateurish. The closer you get the mic to the direct sound and the further from the room's main reflective surfaces (walls, ceilings), the less of this boomy effect you'll record. Lavs are positioned relatively close to the sound source (presenters' mouth), which is obviously a help and a large TV/film studios also helps, as the sound source can be positioned a substantial distance from the reflective surfaces. In a smaller room or where the presenter has to be close to a reflective surface/s, a solution is to stop that surface from being reflective, IE. Acoustically treat the surfaces, commonly with acoustically absorptive materials. This is obviously a potential issue with Moonshieldmedia's suggestion of just painting a wall to create a greenscreen. You've also got a potential issue with your 10ft ceiling as your presenter is never going to be more than a few feet away from a large reflective surface, which is why commercial TV studios are usually at least double (if not triple or quadruple) standard room height.
Having 1 large space which you "close off" as needed is relatively easy as far as the visuals are concerned, not so with sound though! Acoustic treatment has two basic aspects: 1. Isolation - Stopping external sound/noise entering the recording environment and 2. Controlling the reflections of sound created within the recording environment. If you "close off" the area using, for example, black cloth sheets, you're not going to negatively affect the reflective properties of the room (as cloth is not acoustically reflective) but you're also not going to isolate the closed-off area from the other area/s. Not a problem if you're only using the closed-off area but potentially a serious problem if you want to use the area not closed-off for some other purpose (at the same time). Isolating (acoustically) different areas of one larger space is not easy to achieve and attempting to do so means creating a number of smaller enclosed acoustic spaces which obviously can have the knock on effect of increasing the sound reflection issues for each of those closed-off spaces/areas.
Ideally, in the future we are looking to have full edit suites/audio production.
You could get reasonable results for just a few thousand; some decent speakers/monitors, some basic acoustic treatment (both aspects!) and just use your NLE to edit and mix your audio. Exactly how much this basic setup will cost will partly depend on the acoustic isolation required, for example if you need to use the edit suite at the same time as shooting is going on or at the same time as an additional edit suite (if you have more than one), then you're going to need some fairly effective isolation and that's going to put the cost up. Stepping up in quality will require dedicated audio software (AVID ProTools dominates the pro market), superior audio processing tools, better monitoring environments and obviously the skill and experience to use it all effectively. To give you an idea, a broadcast quality edit/mix room will likely cost anywhere from around $30k near the bottom of the scale to around $500k at the top, theatrical starts around $750k and goes up to around $15m.
My advice would be to get a pro studio designer to help you design the space. Even if you don't actually build or equip your edit suite/s now, planning for them now will almost certainly save a bunch of hassles and money when you do. For example, if you plan ALL your power distribution requirements now then all you'll have to do is add in the additional cabling later rather than maybe having to upgrade/redesign the whole system later. And, there could easily be acoustic considerations which if planned for now may cost relatively little to implement later but if not planned now might be cost prohibitive or impossible later. There are so many acoustic issues which can bite the inexperienced, it's more than worth the cost of paying an experienced professional studio designer for at least some consultation time. $25-$50k may only be small potatoes as far as creating a studio is concerned but it's still a chunk of change to throw away on something which doesn't fulfil it's requirements, only partially fulfils them or only fulfils them for a short period of time!
Audio will be presenters + I would like to set up a separate, voice over booth.
VO booth: A small space, very well acoustically isolated and heavily treated with sound absorbing materials. I'm not a fan of the no budget solutions like putting the mic in a lined cardboard box. Basically you want a VO to sound present but not like someone is breathing and talking right in your ear. You need to get the talent back from mic a bit, so a VO booth is by far the best option unless you've got the time and skill to fix it all during editing/mixing. Again, planning it now, even if you don't need it now, will pay dividends when you do need to build/equip it.
Yes, they will be moving about the studio when we record them. Assume we want to set up for more then 1 person. There will not always be a boom op present.
That means wireless lavs then. Nano/micro budget filmmakers tend to go for relatively budget options, the Sennheiser system is a favourite because it's a decent quality, decently reliable system which costs several times less than the top pro wireless systems and is therefore good value for money. However, I'd advise against it in this instance. In filmmaking, lavs are largely used as a backup to the boom mic and if both lav and boom recordings are unsable, alt takes or dialogue wilds provide a potential solution and there's always ADR as a last resort. With live, unscripted type events though, these solutions/options are typically unavailable. If your lav recordings get screwed-up for some reason, you've got no sound and a re-shoot is probably the only practical way of getting any! In other words, don't cheap out on your wireless system, with 90%+ certainty, you'll regret it sooner or later! Go for Lectrosonics gear and remove the embarrassment/cost that your choice of equipment was the cause of required re-shoots.
Also, when you say more than 1 person, what do you mean? 2 people is more than 1, so you could just buy 2 wireless systems. But, what happens if you find that you start having to deal with situations where you have more people? You could just buy more individual wireless systems but it becomes increasingly difficult to manage their frequency blocks, which can interfere with each other. A better solution could well be a 6 channel modular receiver (Lectosonics Venue for example), with just two lavs and transmitters to start with. Although this would of course be more expensive than just buying 2 individual systems and provide no real benefit (until you want to expand it). There are quite a few different options and you'd need to have a good chat with a Lectro rep or expert. At a guesstimate, you're looking at about $4k for two single channel systems or $5-6k for two channels of a 6 channel modular system and roughly $1.5-2k per subsequent channel (up to 6 channels and then you'd need another receiver unit).
G
