VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[yarg28]

I was talking about getting an isolation booth to help extend my available recording time. I mentioned that I wasn't going to worry about a ventilation system since i'm cheap. My wife then asked me a question that at first seemed ridiculous but upon reflection seemed pretty legit. "if there's no ventilation, and its all sealed up to prevent flanking, couldn't you suffocate in there?"
.....hmm...
I looked on a couple of the sites and didn't see any warnings or cautions.
Anybody heard of anybody falling asleep while doing a late night audio book and buying the farm?

[Rob Ellis]

1. If you buy a booth, don't cheap out....you will get what you pay for IMO (tho you can find used ones by reputable manufacturers at about 50% less than new if you search carefully and persistently)

2. Make sure that it has some kind of ventilation system. I recommend Whisper Room. Don't know if you would suffocate otherwise, but even if not, Indiana in the summer can get very hot and humid from what I understand (being from Kentucky)

[vkuehn]

I don't really know what hour-to-hour life is like for folks who do a lot of radio commercials and other "short form" work. Maybe you can jump up between tracks, kick the door open for a minute, run down the hall to the john, and come back and slam the booth shut again and get plenty of oxygen and whatever else we expect in the air we breath.

I came to the table as one who as something of a mature citizen decided my "cup of tea" is long-form, narrations. I am currently working on a book chapter that is just a bit over an hour long. There is no way I am going to even think about walking into a rectangular "Thermos Bottle"... putting the lid on it and trying to survive on the air in that small space for an hour or more.

Coal miners used to carry caged canaries down into the mines as an indicator of when the air had become un-liveable. So what does a v-o artist use to serve the function of the canary?

[Foog]

When I was building my new improved boothroom (too small for a room, too big for a booth!), I consulted with some folks that know these things inside and out. I asked the same question: do I really need ventilation? They answered my question with a question, but a good 'un: "Do you like to breath?"

Yes. Get ventilation. Even if you have to shut it off for brief periods to record, you will still want - no, scratch that - need ventilation.
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Andrew Fogarasi

[Lee Gordon]

Your booth isn't exactly Apollo 13, so it is unlikely that you'd need to break out the duck tape and flight plan covers to McGuyver a CO2 scrubber, so you would be unlikely to succumb to oxygen deprivation, but it would sure get awfully unpleasant to be working in there if your intended confinement lasts long enough for you to be asking the question.
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[Mike Harrison]

There are industrial gas monitors made for oxygen level detection, but pricing wasn't available unless directly contacting the manufacturers.

But this is something I wouldn't take a chance on. I think your wife made an excellent point. As sound itself is vibrations of air, and these iso booths are made specifically to block sound, I would think – if you chose not to ventilate – that by the time you became consciously aware of a low oxygen level, it may be too late to either do anything about it or completely recover from (should you faint and no one else was home and heard you hit the floor). I certainly don't mean to be (over-)dramatic, but lack of sufficient oxygen to the brain is – again – something I would not want to risk.

At the very least, set an alarm to remind yourself to crack open the door every so often.
_________________
Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.

[ballenberg]

One: You are human

Two: And worse, you are male

1+2...you need airflow, preferably cooled, or you will be miserable.

Industrial oxygen monitors? ..they've got to cost way more than just getting ventilation. Do it right he first time...you'll be much happier and the reads will be better because you won't be a sweating, gasping wreck.

Just tell your wife she's right..

[DougVox]

I have a G&K booth with a ventilation system.

Haven't used the ventilation in years. And as far as I can tell, I haven't died yet.

(I guess that makes me the canary.)
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Doug Turkel (tur-KELL)
Voiceover UNnouncer®
UNnouncer.com

[Bruce]

I've worked in other people's small booths before and it's usually narrate for five minutes, open and close the door rapidly for 30 seconds to refresh the O-2, and then repeat, again and again for long narrations.


B
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

[Jason Huggins]

It probably depends on a few things.

- How long you are in the booth?
- How is the booth constructed and where is it located?
- How airtight is the door?
- How long will you have the door shut?

My last booth was 8x8, it was in the basement with only an OSB subfloor and one foundation wall exposed. The concrete cooled the room very well, I didn't have ventilation and I almost never got hot (and didn't die), but I did get cold in the winter so I had a silent heater in there. It was not uncommon for me to be in there for 4-6 hours at a time (depending on if I remembered to stop and eat or not).

My new booth is 8x6, it is on the second story and has a roof above it...which means that hot summer sun is heating the booth. It also has one wall connected to the attic (which gets mighty hot too). That means that an hour session in that puppy without ventilation when it is 85 outside REALLY got uncomfortable. I quickly put some ventilation in there after a couple sessions of sweating it out.

So you probably won't die...but you might want to after a while. I don't know if I would want to bank on "probably won't die."

[Quicksilver]

Just leave the door cracked while you are in there. Problem solved

A well tuned gate solves all of my problems but I live alone and don't do audio books.

I cut through the wall to install a window air conditioner in my closet in my very first setup. Seriously. Turned it on between takes to cool things off but it heated right back up in a matter of 5 minutes. Didn't really work at all. Granted the closet I was in was on the top floor and the roof above it got direct sun. A basement would be a different story. Also, window AC units aren't sound proof. I could hear birds chirping through it constantly.

So don't do that

If you get one post pics!

[Kristin Lennox]

Well, I have a booth, in Indiana, but of course, your mileage may vary...

I don't have a ventilation system, but what's weird is that my booth stays a pretty solid "cool" temperature year-round -- it's cool in the summer, and not cold in the winter. It's like a cave...

Of course, that's only when I'm not filling it with hot air -- once I start recording, it heats up gradually. I can go 30-45 minutes, though, without needing to crack the door, and that's all the longer I would want to record, anyway, without a vocal break.

So I'm fine without a ventilation system. And I'm not dead yet... {cue Spamalot number}
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[Mike Harrison]

Hmmm... subsequent posters seem to be proving my concerns ill-placed. And that's great. But I'm stumped as to how the transmission of sound can be stopped without also causing an eventual depletion of oxygen. Kids have suffocated inside toy chests, etc. which don't have all that good a seal. Very curious, indeed.
_________________
Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.

[ballenberg]

[georgethetech]

Fastest way to exchange the air is to open the door. Otherwise, get the best, quietest ventilation you can afford. WhisperRoom requires the VSS kit to be useable.
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