Life is never boring.   On this day we had a ventriloquist, ‘Dumb’ Blonde, bodybuilder and wrestler vying for a spot as the new Yamaha Representative bringing their owns sets of special skills.  I’m saying this ‘tongue in cheek’ as this was the the theme of the latest Yamaha Commercial.

This was the first rental since all of the sound upgrades and we received two enthusiastic ‘thumbs up’ on the sound quality from their audio engineer.

Originally a half dozen Yamaha bikes were coming on set.  Considering they had a 35+ crew and 2 grip trucks, it probably worked out better scrapping that idea.

Thanks to my gracious neighbors for giving up their parking lots for a makeshift outdoor restaurant.  I’m surprised how much better dinner is from these catered food trucks most restaurants.  P.s.  Thats my dog Nena.

Welcome to Vancouvers best soundstage!  I have put a great deal of effort this year improving the studios sound absorbing abilities and sound barriers.  One of the big challenges has been getting rid of the echo of cinderblock walls in such a large area.  The Monoglass on the ceiling made a huge difference in echo reduction but there was still a subtle reverberation in areas.  It’s a challenge when you have a big open area without carpets and soft furniture to block the waves.  I looked to a studio solution with sound absorbing walls.  These materials were quite expensive and had to be shipped from the US ($$$).  I quickly learned that even mattress foam can be packaged and marketed as a ’sound wall’.  I decided to create my own custom solution and specialty ordered my own foam design to spec.  Most of the products out there are only a medium density foam cel and none had any fire rating.  My panels are fire rated, one of the highest density foams, and 40% thicker than most of the options i found online.   More density = better sound absorbtion.

It was notable that the minute the bundles were brought into the building that there was an immediate ‘buffering’ of the interior noises.  I was getting excited to ‘hear’ and ’see’ the placement on the walls.

Each panel was sprayed with ‘Super 77′ as well as the wall where it was to be placed.

The panels are turned alternately to best ‘capture’ the sound waves from all angles,  that plus i think it gives a great aesthetic!I wrapped the whole perimeter of the studio from the ceiling down 8′,  excluding the cove.  I would have brought it to the floor but that was not practical within a working space, that and the fact that people would probably be touching and tearing them (human nature sucks).   Each 10′ section between the pillars (24 panels) was  $720 ($30/panel).  If you would like any of this product for your space, feel free to contact me.

Next to the new Roof,  this simple enclosure was one of the most expensive jobs i have taken on.  The City of Vancouver sure Sticks it to you with permits and shirking responsibility.  Apparently any wall over 6′ has to be engineered… And engineers aren’t cheap, even for the simple jobs ($1000) .  Then you have to get your building permit and construction permit ($860).   These permits used to include inspections, but on this job my engineer was the one who had to come and inspect the job on 2 occasions ($567).    $2367 and i had not even started the job… for filling in a hole in my wall!!!

Three loads of cinderblock in the truck, and three more loads for concrete and sand.   All these were loaded into the studio when i had a flash of intelligence… I picked up 8″ blocks instead of 12″ blocks.  I forgot my building had an oversized rear wall! -  oh well, i just write it off as needed exercise.

In a photography studio your great enemy is dust.  These are not exactly my favorite projects because of the mess, and that they take so long to complete.

I don’t know what was more painful,  seeing this huge mess,  or seeing this huge mess on my brand new driveway!  The wall had to be built with rebar and filled with concrete,  I think there were no less than 20 bags of concrete, and 40 of sand!

This made an amazing difference for soundproofing the building.  Once the doors were put in and closed,  all the outside noise was cut off… far superior to the garage door!

2010 is most definitely the ‘year of the reno’.  For my 20th anniversary the studio got a major facelift.   This has been a big project i was wanting to tackle for years.  I’m so fortunate to have friends like Gary and Ildyko from Concrete Concepts who did an amazing job for me.

This little beast worked for two days digging up the back lot and leveling the slope.

His crew worked fast, there was not a great deal of set up time as as the concrete had to be at an ideal firmness for stamping.  Fortunately it didn’t rain and wasn’t overly hot.

This is a pretty thick pad,  Probably at least 8-10″ thick in some spots.  I hope i never need to dig this lot up again.

Gary tried a new technique on my driveway,  he pre-coated all the stamps with a dye that colored the concrete.  Previously they used to powder the concrete directly.  This technique worked really well as the dye concentrated at the creases which really emphasized the natural stone look.

Studio 31 is popular as one of the quieter production spaces in Vancouver… I figured it was time to dive in head first and make it the number one sound stage.    This latest project was so daunting, I have been putting it off for years.  I had a faulty monoglass installation from 10 years ago that needed to be stripped out and resprayed.  The studio had to be emptied,  covered in poly and sprayed with fibreglass impregnated with glue and black paint.  You can only imagine how messy this endeavor was.  Not only is the sound quality improved, but this added R20 insulation to the new roof which now totals about R40… yet again reducing our carbon footprint.   Monoglass is also inert and guarantees a minimum of 37% recycled content which is good for the environment.The studio was completely enveloped with Poly

this was the first half of the process – pulling down the faulty insulation.

Although the spraying was messy, itchy, sticky and dripped black paint for a couple of days,  the sound quality of the shooting space is now perfect for my video rental clients.  This will be further perfected with the removal of the garage door and installation of  sound proof steel doors… more blogs to follow.

A total of 4.5″ was applied to the ceiling (over double the listed amount in the above chart)

Well maybe not exactly. . . it was more a hellish year building this kitchen starting with heated flooring and working on up.  Good news is its done and ready to be used. The Cabinetry was all custom thanks to my friends at David Lane Office Furniture. I’m so glad i didn’t go the Ikea route. . . what a quality difference!

With the exception of the fridge,  all the handles run horizontally.  I wanted a very linear look.  The cabinets are tall and narrow contrasting the handles.  The countertops, are all ‘Silestone’ with quartz. . . one of the toughest countertops that never needs sealing – I got them at a great deal as offcuts from a Vancouver apartment project.

As my dad used to say “now you’re cooking with gas!”.   The instant heat is amazing to cook with and brings life to the kitchen.  The stainless steel looks fabulous against the dark cabinets and floor, but the combination has proven to be quite a challenge to keep looking clean.

Here’s the reverse angle.  The slate wall was brought from China, it’s hard to believe that it is cheaper to produce and ship from half way round the world than to buy locally (about 1/2 $).  The flat screens channel cable and video surveillance in every room. . . I’ll never miss a moment of Top Model or Heroes!

For reference,  here’s the kitchen i endured for the last 12 years,  This Reno was a welcome change!

Insulating the studio was and still is big on the mandate. . . phase two is energy consumption!  I”ve long been looking at Solar and Geothermal options, but  right now upgrading the equipment is a much more reasonable option.  I was quite suprised to learn that the old furnace (30 years old now) could be operating at an efficiency as low as 50%!!!!!

I decided to go with this Marvel of the furnace world. . . a Lennox!  Where my old furnace produced very hot exhaust,  this one makes water and a warm steam. . . i’m not kidding when i tell you its a most pleasant exhaust!  This baby is 98% efficient. .  almost twice as efficient as the old unit.

this is the other unit,  a Bosch BWH C 800 Tankless hot water heater.   Hot water is now by on demand and unlimited. The efficiency is 92% compared with a tank around 60%.   Another advantage was getting rid of the big water tank and creating more room, the downside with these units however is a 20 second warm up time  for hot water and temperature fluctuations based on load, but all in all i think the savings are a good trade off.  I’m considering a solar preheat for the water which would raise the efficiency even further.

One pet peeve i want to share is that there were no incentive programs for any of my upgrades.  I will probably never see the payoff by the time i sell the building other than the satisfaction of leaving less impact on the world.  If you purchase the same furnace as a homeowner you get approx $700 back from bc hydro and the gov’t., but none of this applies if you own a commercial building!  No wonder so many buildings are still poorly insulated and running on outdated equipment.

I’m pleased to announce that we have done our bit to reduce the studio’s CO2 footprint with a series of upgrades over the last year.  Its been a pretty hefty investment . . . approx $42000 so far with a few more changes to go.  The biggest project was stripping off 2 complete roofs . . . we filled over 2 – 20 yard containers taking off 33 years of obsolete roofing!

The Roof was upgraded with an additional 2.5″ of insulation giving us approximately  R18 in addition to the sprayed on ceiling insulation of R20.

It took about a week of scrapes, heavy lifting, and that wonderful smell of burning tar. . . with of course a couple major rainfalls ( it’s like washing your car), but it was worth it to finally  have an insulated watertight roof!

Its not too bad a view from the top. . . Now i just have to establish a garden with raspberries and vegetables

Thanx to John from Trimstyle roofing consultation for helping coordinate me and my friends in what would have been a gong show without him.  This is a special shot as all i ever see of him is behind a computer.

Porsche has recently taken over Vancouver on on the same level as a small movie production. Helicopters have been filming Cars racing over Granville street bridge, Neighborhoods are closed off for street scenes, and the studio was packed with grips, directors and assistants for an all night shoot. Apparently this will be an 18 minute commercial, but i’m not sure where it will air. Production started at 7pm and went to 10 am the next day . . . talk bout a long night! You can see it all in this high speed video:

Heres a quick walkthrough starting at the end of the street. At around 1am I ate dinner with the crew on the street in front of a neighbors building. . . that felt a little surreal eating candle lit steak in a makeshift outdoor diner on 5th ave. For such a big production, thankfully they were well organized and had some really great people. You get a sense of how hard they were ‘working’ in this video: