More Turnkey Than Ever: How ASL Studios Upgraded for 2026

At ASL Studios we strive to provide more value to our clients than anywhere else. Our turnkey video production studio is always looking to our clients to see where we should go next. As 2025 came to a close we looked closely at our internal operations and what improvements were needed to make using ASL Studios a no brainer for all types of content needs.

Our upgrades are now complete and the end result is a more turnkey video production experience for our clients than ever before and more options for clients to explore their creativity than ever before.

Here were some of the problems we faced and solutions we came up with.

Problem:  How to deliver a more finished product in our podcast studio?

In our podcast studio we weren’t recording mixed audio in real time.  Our studio was setup to record iso audio tracks but we would then leave it to the client to sync their audio to video in post and mix the levels.  If asked by clients we would assist them with this post work but often times we left it in the clients hands.

Solution

We added a Yamaha DM3 board which gives us more inputs and outputs to record more people at once and also send mixed audio back to cameras so we can deliver files with great audio and video mixed together for client simplicity.

Problem:  How to have a smoother remote guest experience at our turnkey video production studio? 

In the past when we would bring remote guests into our podcast studio we would be using a mix of adapter cables and plug-in software to handle client requests.  Routing audio and making sure talent and guest can hear each other without interference also known as a “Mix Minus” would cause us lots of headaches and hours of testing before.

Solution

We installed a vMix system.  vMix is a great platform for live stream and remote guest broadcasts. We can switch cameras for line-cuts via v-mix, we can record iso’s and line-cuts within the system and best of all it has a feature called vMix call which provides high quality audio and automatic mix-minus technology ensuring clear communication without echo. Additionally we can customize our audio needs within the program and it has advanced features like talkback, virtual green rooms and we can operate our teleprompter from within the vMix software.  We think this installation will be a big game changer for us, allowing us to do high-tech productions seamlessly in a repeatable fashion in 2026.

Problem: How do we make our control room more versatile and increase our ability to record in all three studios at the same time without issue?

One thing we’ve learned in our two years of running a midtown video studio is that there is a lot that can go wrong and you can never have enough backup recordings, backup equipment and backup technology to overcome challenges in real time.  Additionally, when we are really busy and operating at max capacity our chances of something going wrong were significantly higher.

Solution: 

More everything! The solution we came up with were control room upgrades which vastly increased our input/output channels. For audio this included broadening our use of Dante technology and purchasing a second Tio box so there is now one in each studio. Dante is a powerful technology that allows many channels of audio to be transmitted and received over a single Ethernet cable.  We also added multiple SDI ports and a patch bay so we can incorporate more cameras, monitors and backup options into every recording we do in our turnkey video production studios.

Problem: How do we better highlight our full color cyc space and all its versatility?

Our white Cyc studio combined with our control room technology packs an enormous amount of production potential.  You can see it’s great for things like Impaulsive Podcast above, however if we don’t show our audience the versatile options it presents they wont be asked for.  We already have a top end lighting system installed in our ceiling grid that includes 6 Arri Sky panels and 9 LED cyc lights, but clients don’t utilize their functions very often beyond a standard daylight or tungsten color temperature

Solution

We’ve added some Aputure 25 degree spotlights as well as gobo patterns.  This allows us to mix color and patterns for very cool new background options off our white cyc.

Additionally we added two Aputure LS-600 Lite storm lights which have the same effect features as our sky panels.  If clients want a special strobe, fire or lighting effect it is now easier than ever before.