By reservation · 7 daysAges 7 upwardsNo hire fee · one UMMA spot per episode
You have had the idea for months. The studio is sitting empty.
A four-mic broadcast booth, lights, camera kit and a Mac edit bay. No hire fee, the exchange is one 60-second UMMA spot inside your episode. You bring the idea and leave with something you can publish.
- Cost
- Free
- To sign up
- Free NEXGEN account required
- Next step
- Register once for the programme
- If cost is the problem
- Ask us, there is a scholarship fund How it works
Why this exists
The gap is never the idea. It is the room.
Plenty of people can talk for forty minutes about something they know well. Far fewer have somewhere to record it that does not sound like a bedroom, and the moment a first episode sounds amateur most people quietly stop.
That gap is almost entirely equipment and space, and the cost of hiring both is exactly what stops a sixteen-year-old and a small community organisation at the same point.
So we removed the hire fee. The barrier was never talent.
How it works
How a studio booking works.
Community creators record here free. The one ask is a 60-second UMMA spot in the episode. See the UMMA Studio page.
BookRequest a slot
Pick a day and a length. The podcast room seats a host plus guests on four mics. Tell us how many chairs.
BeforeSend the plan
A rough episode outline and your guest list. That sets the mics, camera and lights before you arrive. So you record instead of rig.
On the dayArrive early, sound check, record
Come fifteen minutes early. We set levels and light the set. Then the room is yours.
The askOne 60-second UMMA spot
One 60-second UMMA spot in the episode, instead of a fee. That is the whole deal. There is no invoice.
AfterFiles and production help
You leave with the raw files. You own your show. Editing and a producer are there if you want help.
Good to know
- No fee for community creators, the 60-second spot replaces it. Rather not run it? We will quote a rate.
- NEXGEN and UMMA shows get first call on the calendar. Community bookings fill the rest.
- Studio time is booked separately. It is NOT part of Friday Nights.
- Open to Kids through Stewards. Younger creators record with an adult present.
What you can make
Four things this room is genuinely good at.
Everything below is what the kit in the building actually does. If a format is not listed, ask rather than assume, we would rather say no than have you arrive and find out.
A podcast with guests
Four mics on a broadcast setup, so a host plus three guests all sound like they are in the same room, because they are.
Filmed conversation
Lighting and a camera kit, so the episode works as video as well as audio. Most things travel further that way.
The edit
A Mac edit bay on site. Recording is the easy half; the reason first episodes never ship is that nobody had anywhere to cut them.
Something we have not thought of
An audiobook, a language course, a khutbah series, a school project that deserves better than a phone. Ask.
The deal
Free, and here is the catch, stated plainly.
There is no hire fee for community creators: not a reduced rate, not a first-session discount. What we ask instead is a single 60-second UMMA spot inside your episode, about the work UMMA does for the community. We hand you the audio.
It is a swap, not a giveaway, and it is a booking term rather than a favour, so it is stated here rather than discovered at the desk. You keep your show, your name, your audience and your files. We are not a label, we take no cut, and the spot is the only thing we ask you to carry.
If you are recording something commercial, we charge a fair rate instead: talk to us and we will tell you the number before you book, not after.
Straight answers
What Studios is not.
Not a course
There is no curriculum and no cohort. If you want to be taught production, say so and we will point you at the right thing.
Not a production company
We do not make your show for you. Someone will show you how the desk works; the episode is yours to make.
Not members-only
Membership does not gate the studio. It is open to the community either way.
Not part of Friday Nights
The booth is booked separately. Turning up on a Friday does not get you studio time, and that trips people up often enough to be worth saying.
If you are fifteen and reading this
Nobody is going to ask how many followers you have.
You do not need an audience, a plan, a co-host or any idea what you are doing. The most common first booking is somebody recording one episode to find out whether they like the sound of their own voice.
You will be shown which buttons matter, there are about four, and then left to it. If the first one is bad, that is the normal outcome of a first one, and the room is free again next week.
Bring a friend and record an argument about something. That is a real show, and it is how most of them start.
Before you book
The practical questions.
There is no hire fee for community creators and no session minimum, but it is a swap rather than a gift: every episode carries one 60-second UMMA spot, which we supply as finished audio. If you would rather not run the spot, say so when you enquire and we will quote you a rate instead. Commercial work is always quoted before you book.
The room is sitting there
Record one episode. See if you like it.
Tell us a day and roughly how long you need. Worst case you have spent an afternoon finding out that podcasting is harder than it looks, which is worth knowing, and still free.