Singaporean firm LFG Content material Co. formally opened its new idea, The LFG Pod, to the general public right now (June 9), claiming it to be the world’s first totally automated, unmanned podcast and content material studio.
The non-public house of the LFG Pod permits one to step in and report a podcast or media content material with out the necessity for additional setup. Vulcan Publish Singapore was invited to go to the studio, and right here’s what it was like recording a podcast in thirty minutes there.
Retaining content material creation prices low
However first, we spoke to the founders behind the LFG Pod, comprising a quintet of content material creators and producers: JJ Ong, Wong Jian Liang, Wong Jiang Ming, and Isaac Ho.
The group first began a semi-automated podcast studio named the LFG Content material Co.
The LFG Content material Co. studio is the larger brother of The LFG Pod and is bodily overseen by the group in Aljunied. It at the moment options extra digicam angles than The LFG Pod and affords extra customisation capabilities, with a considerably bigger set house and varied props.
Nevertheless, don’t let the smaller LFG Pod idiot you with its easier capabilities. The group claims that it delivers professional-level content material with its user-friendly gear, for a fraction of the value at LFG Content material Co. and at a lot decrease prices than competitor studios.
In contrast to its predecessor, the brand new unmanned studio eliminates the necessity for manpower, enabling customers to function it independently.
This helps scale back prices and complexity in conventional content material creation, permitting them to set leases at reasonably priced charges and scale their studio to a wider viewers past conventional content material creators.
A self-funded challenge
The founders collaborated with the creator behind the Gymnasium Pod, Damian Chow, who’s behind the app’s reserving system. The LFG group shared that the alliance allowed them to offer a seamless reserving and customisation expertise for customers with the intuitive app, the place customers have management over the studio’s primary lighting and recordings, aside from the SPECTRA management deck (extra on this later).
Sharing that the ideation stage for his or her second challenge took round six months, it additionally took one other one and a half years of trying to construct the SPECTRA and the studio of the LFG Pod.
Regardless of the nice reception of the companies at their first studio, the second challenge was totally bootstrapped by the entrepreneurs themselves, Isaac shared. He shared that it was not simple to persuade buyers to place cash into LFG Pod as a result of a lot of these they knew of have been within the Enterprise Capital (VC) and finance scene who weren’t within the content material {industry}.
Additionally they notice that a number of startups crumble on account of companions disagreeing and they also wished to verify companions who put money into them align within the pursuits of the content material creation {industry}.
Previous to their official launch on Monday, the LFG Pod opened its doorways to current purchasers from its first content material creation studio, LFG Content material Co., and customers who expressed their curiosity by privately messaging them on Instagram.
Purchasers at their first studio ranged from native content material creators like Simonboy to MNCs akin to Carlsberg and Lego. Additionally they noticed political candidates working with them to report content material through the Basic Election interval this yr.
Nevertheless, through the tender launch, past influencers and celebrities, the group’s clientele included a a lot wider vary of people, from tuition academics to enterprise homeowners and coaches.
Many would merely report a lesson by plugging in their very own pill to the SPECTRA system that data each the footage within the digicam and the display screen of the pill the place they draw their diagrams. These customers then post-process it themselves by placing them in software program programmes akin to Adobe Premiere Professional or Capcut, mentioned JJ.
How the LFG Pod works
To deal with this, the entrepreneurs got here up with an all-in-one trade-secret machine known as the SPECTRA, which sits in the midst of the room. It’s linked seamlessly to the one objects seen on the desk, the SPECTRA management deck and a pill for importing scripts to the teleprompter.
Consisting of a teleprompter for customers to learn their script off of and a display screen to look at themselves because the digicam rolls, the SPECTRA is well customisable with the SPECTRA management deck on the desk.
The SPECTRA management deck consists of a big selection of buttons that permit customers to make important modifications to their digicam work with simply the press of a button.
By default, the SPECTRA data in each panorama and portrait modes concurrently permitting customers to add the recorded movies seamlessly to numerous social media platforms akin to TikTok and YouTube with out a lot trouble.
The digicam will be adjusted in accordance with the variety of content material creators, akin to zooming in on a person, or zooming out to accommodate as much as 4 individuals within the body. There’s additionally the choice to decide on between large or shut photographs as effectively.
There are additionally customisable settings to vary the lighting of the set the place creators can select from seven background colors and regulate the brightness of the lights accordingly.
A white curtain will be drawn over the black background if customers choose a lighter setting as effectively.
The studio is provided with an industry-level condenser microphone that’s hidden from the digicam. The audio is straight away processed by the software program in SPECTRA, which incorporates noise cancellation, multiband sound compression, and equalisation to scale back distortion and improve the audio, making it crisper.
This does away with the necessity for conventional handheld or clip-on microphones which can be seen on digicam and the place the sound produced requires additional post-processing.
This setup captures clear, pure audio with out requiring customers to remain near a microphone, guaranteeing a seamless, unobstructed, and comfy recording expertise.
Every session begins from S$39 per half-hour session block.
Future plans
Throughout the yr, the group teased plans so as to add extra decorations to the set, in addition to launch one other key function: reside streaming.
Reside streaming could possibly be as simple as connecting one’s telephone to their LFG’s clever automation system, SPECTRA.
Plans for one more new Pod with a full LED wall put in are additionally within the works, the place the group goals to carry extra customisation to customers.
However, they’ve huge plans to carry their expertise and the LFG Pod out of Singapore the place many locations world wide like Hong Kong, Dubai, and the US are scuffling with the prices of manpower concerned in content material creation.
They’re additionally engaged on new concepts to scale back prices of pre-and pro-production and make it much less cumbersome for customers themselves.
- Learn different articles we’ve written on Singaporean startups right here.
Featured Picture Credit score: The LFG Pod
