An Interview With Our Production Consultant Jim Skvaril

After a recent broadcast studio integration project we sat down with Jim Skvaril, one of the founding members of Production Craft and expert on studio construction, to get his thoughts and tips on studio integration.

James Skvaril has more than 30 years of experience as a director of photography, camera operator, and engineer. He has had the opportunity to frame a broad range of broadcast and corporate projects including documentary, marketing, motivational, news and feature programs

Jim also consults on, designs, and manages the installation of complex video systems used for broadcast and corporate communication by clients that include CME Group, the University of Kansas Medical Center, Lockton Companies and William Blair. He co-founded Production Craft in 1984

Why would a company need their own studio?

Immediacy. It gives them access to their own production facilities without bringing in an external crew, thereby optimizing time spent by their executives and staff. Many companies construct an in-house studio for the production of internal and external content for communications, public relations and marketing. They need an easy and inexpensive solution to produce media often.

So how did you get into building studios?

The first broadcast system integration work we did was for the Chicago Board of Trade. They had several cameras situated throughout the building. It was a very basic system that fed audio and video from different locations to a router and microwave transmitter. We rebuilt that system, and went on from that to install more cameras in different locations. A big part of what we did was to make these systems operable by non-technical people. Administrative assistants were tasked with doing live shots for broadcast. They didn’t have broadcast technicians and engineers on staff, so we tried to make the system simple enough and with clear directions so they could operate the hardware to do a broadcast live shot. It required ongoing training and being there when they had a problem. And from there it gave us a foothold to begin providing this service to other large institutions.

There are so many things a studio can be. How does someone know what’s right for them?

You have to analyze your needs, your internal staffing, and try to design a workflow. What sort of programs do you want to produce? Are they simple talking heads? Are they demonstrations? Are they multicamera programs? How many guests will be on camera? So, you really need to start at the base level and ask questions. Find out what content the client wants to produce and how they do this currently so we can enhance that process.

So, in other words, tell us what you do, and we will make a build for that.

Yes, and you’re right that it can be so many different things depending on the client’s needs. It can be a box with sound isolation and no cameras, or it could be a multi-room complex with a separate control area and several cameras.

Are there any pitfalls or things people should be aware of before starting a build?

Equipment doesn’t solve the problem, people do. All the equipment in the world is useless unless you have competent staff to operate it. It’s pointless to build a studio that’s above the heads of the people on your staff. That’s why it’s an important part of our process to assess what staff is needed. In some cases, Production Craft staffs the studio. In others, we’ve recommended full time positions, written job descriptions for those positions, and helped organize contractual agreements with 3rd parties who staff it for them.

Studio development requires a wide range of knowledge, from technical knowledge about the equipment to practical knowledge about installation. Where did you learn the skills to build these studios?

Well, I think what separates Production Craft from other system integration companies is at the heart of our business we are video technicians, camera operators, and audio people who understand how to use the hardware.  And because of this, we know that often times the simplest solution is usually the best one. The practical experience that we’ve gained from years of doing productions in the field helps us design and visualize facilities that a company needs.

A view from inside a control room into the studio

Building a studio must take a lot of work and a lot of moving parts. How do you manage such a large project?

We are very lucky to have an association with a video and design engineer named Mark Sarantakos, who we have worked with for over thirty years. Typically, I act as a manager and client liaison, working with the end user to determine needs.

Tell us about our recent project was with Lockton Companies. It was a pretty big build, with multiple rooms.

Yes, there is a studio, control room and an attached production area which they will use for podcasting in the future. One of the most important parts of a studio design is flexibility. Lockton and other clients need a studio that is ready to do programs that haven’t even been considered yet. We try and predict power requirements, network connectivity requirements, and lighting requirements for the future and try to build in as much infrastructure as possible so its future proof. If the client decides down the line to install another camera you need to consider extra space in the conduit for additional cabling because you don’t want to have to rip up a wall that you spent time and money making acoustically perfect. So, we work to anticipate as much as possible on the infrastructure side, so you have as much room as possible to grow.

So, space to grow, was this something at the forefront of the Lockton build?

That’s really at the forefront of everything we do. We spend a lot of time thinking about what are called broadcast service panels, which are basically just routes for cable to run through. Some of those can be installed with cable and connectors that are ready to go, or they can just be empty in different locations for future cable runs so you can add equipment to a new place.

So, we did a rough order of magnitude cost estimate for different scenarios. Plan one is a room with power, a lighting grid and a separate control room, but it doesn’t have any video hardware. Plan two is the same room but with a camera, lighting, audio, switcher, media storage facility, and edit equipment. And we divide things up into various systems and develop a rough order of magnitude cost estimate. If after putting all that together we get to a number and they say ‘Whoa! That’s too much money,’ we have to figure out how to save some dollars and cents. You can go out in today’s video market and buy really inexpensive hardware that has a lot of features, or you can move up the food chain and ask what do broadcasters use on a day-to-day basis to produce programming? And you have to make a case for the reliability and support you’re going to get for higher value equipment as opposed to the lower cost hardware. So, we make the case that its usually better to spend a bit more money and avoid costly problems later on.

What would you say was a highlight of the project?

Mark (left) and Pat (right) test equipment in the garage before the transfer to Lockton Companies

We typically do studio installations as a two step-process. After the design we begin construction of all the hardware, the racks, the consoles in our facility and we try to do as much as possible so we can minimize our time on location. This way we have less to do when we are out of town and ready access to every tool and connector in our shop.  So, we try to get things down to a kit that’s easy to assemble on location. And we have to label boxes correctly, and anticipate how long cables have to be.

Because of all the prep work that was done here by Mark Sarantakos and Pat McCarthy, everything went according to plan when we got to Lockton. So, the best part is how well things went together when we were there. Our Lockton manager said she was always surprised by how fast we moved and how much we got accomplished in a day.

 So, you do a lot of planning to make the execution go smoothly, and once it’s all done that must feel really satisfying.

Yeah, and there are always going to be hiccups but eliminating as many as possible beforehand is very helpful.

This question is just for fun. If you had unlimited resources what would your dream studio look like? What are key things that it MUST have?

Starting again from the ground up, you need to have a building that’s isolated from external noise, air conditioning and heat that is quiet so you don’t hear it on the microphone, a floor that is level so the cameras can move smoothly, and really what is most important today is the ability to integrate extended reality or virtual reality. That can happen with a variety of different technologies. Everything from LED walls to motorized camera systems that are tied into graphics engines to move the background with the camera so you have an effect like in The Mandalorian.  You can create a world of your own or a world to demonstrate brands, and you can bring all that together indoors in a studio space without the creation of hard set in a believable way.  

To learn more about broadcast studio development: https://productioncraft.com/broadcast-video-studio