Stitcher shows off WSDG-designed podcast studios in NYC

Podcast company Stitcher has built out larger production facilities in both its New York and LA offices with the help of the Walters-Storyk Design Group (WSDG).

Providing a 360-degree suite of production, distribution and monetisation services to artists, entertainers and thought leaders, Stitcher is the parent company of leading comedy podcasting network, Earwolf, as well as Midroll, the company’s advertising and sales arm.

“Our brand new headquarters are in an incredible 20,000 square foot space in midtown Manhattan overlooking Bryant Park. We identified a specific footprint of about 2,000 square feet to be our new production studios,” said chief engineer John DeLore. “From the beginning, we worked closely with Romina Larregina [WSDG project manager] to define our operational needs, both present and future, and to weigh those against the available space.

“The end result is a beautiful suite of three studios and two edit rooms, plus two additional ISO booths. We can accommodate anything from a one-on-one interview, to an eight-person roundtable, to the recording of live music in our Studio A.”

DeLore also noted that most consumers of podcasts listen in earbuds or headphones: “The voices are right there next to your ear drums, so we need to be extremely particular about getting high-fidelity sound up front. That starts with the room design, and WSDG understood how vital it was that our design incorporate complete room-within-room, floating floor isolation to preclude any leakage. Key gear components include Sennheiser microphones and Neumann Monitors.”

Romina Larregina believes Stitcher’s studios epitomise the concept of uncompromising attention to detail: “Decoupled floors, wall and ceiling structures were implemented to insure the level of isolation required between the various studios positioned adjacent to each other,” she explained. “A clean, bright, straightforward floor plan optimises every inch of allotted floor space with the most appropriate acoustic treatments to further enhance the overall high quality sound environment. Studio A was designed to set frequent musical guests completely at ease for their performance sessions. Stitcher Studios represents a new standard for podcast production.”

Image credit: © John Muggenborg