How do I move a Voiceover Studio cheaply?

Building work has begun on our new voiceover booth - well the chaos for the building work has begun - even if the actual work hasn't  yet. Planning, organising, moving things, thinking 3 steps ahead etc.

Anyway we had to dismantle the production office and and move it so that it could be made larger. Unfortunately I am not the most technical person in the world so I asked the guy who built the studio and supplied all the kit for the booth for an idea of how much it would cost to move the studio temporarily  while the building work goes on.  Answer: Around £1,000. A Thousand Pounds!

So I thought I would have to put aside a day or so and do it myself. Which I have. Everything has been carefully labelled so that part A connects with part B etc. That's all fine but I had to find two very long cables to keep the PC connected to the studio. A few quick calls later and I found a great place around the corner - 5 minutes away.

After the technical guys managed to de-code my layman speak, an hour later one of them was round at BigFish Media towers with two 15 metre cables. And they work! So apart from the short time when the voiceover booth is being refurbished, we are still very much in business.

Oh and the cost? £50!

A Voiceover Artist feeling ripped off

For months now I have bravely battled to use an ageing pair of headphones. I have been using them regularly since I started reading the news on BBC Radio 2 in 1998, and - apart from repairing one of the "ear cushions" - the Bayer DT100's have given sterling service.

I have a separate - and much newer pair - for use by me and other voiceover artists in the Voice Booth -  but I like to have a pair just for broadcasting mainly so that they are always ready to go in my Radio 2 bag rather than having to remember to take them out of the studio to London with me.

Anyway back to the old pair. Finally I got fed up with having crackling headphones and decided to get them repaired. I struggled but finally found somewhere close who said they could do it. So I took them in and a week later collected them. I didn't have any cash on me (or a cheque book - who does these days?) so I offered the business credit card.

However the company's credit card machine wasn't working - and neither was the cash machine outside (which charges £0.95 for cash withdrawal).

So what to do? Very kindly the shop's staff said I could take away the headphones and just pop in with some cash when I was next passing. How unusual! How trusting. But....

...when I next get into Radio 2 to use them I find that they haven't been repaired at all!

I don't think I will be passing that particular - so-called repair shop- any time soon.