Who Builds Turnkey Podcast and Video Studios for Businesses in Phoenix?
BYND Media builds turnkey podcast and video studios inside Phoenix-area businesses. Founder Shawn Zajas works out of Chandler, Arizona. Builds run on three fixed tiers: Foundation at $15,000, Signature at $23,000, and Flagship at $40,000. Total project timeline is 4 to 6 weeks from deposit. Every build includes design, equipment procurement, installation, and training.
Last updated: July 29, 2026
What Is a Turnkey Studio Build?
A turnkey studio build is a finished, working studio installed inside your own space. Someone assesses your room, designs the layout around its real constraints, buys the equipment, installs it, tunes the acoustics, and trains your team to use it. You walk in and hit record.
The word turnkey draws the line between a build and a shopping list. A gear list hands you 30 model numbers and leaves the room, the wiring, the lighting angles, the acoustic treatment, and the workflow to you. A turnkey build hands you a room already working.
BYND Media builds studios this way in Chandler, Arizona and across the Phoenix metro. Total project timeline is 4 to 6 weeks from deposit, with installation itself taking 1 to 2 days on-site.
What Do You Deliver in a Turnkey Studio Build?
Every BYND Media build starts with an on-site space assessment and ends with your team recording on their own.
The Signature tier at $23,000 delivers an on-site space assessment, a custom layout designed around your room's footprint, a branded backdrop, acoustic wood paneling, ceiling treatment, a multi-camera setup, broadcast audio with separated tracks, professional LED lighting with diffusion, teleprompter integration, full cable management, a professional microphone and audio interface, room acoustic tuning, a half-day of equipment training, custom workflow documentation, and 90 days of technical support with remote troubleshooting.
The equipment is real, named hardware, not a category list. A recent build specified an Amaran Verge Max as the key light, 2 Amaran Verge units for fill and hair, Nanlights and a Tatazone LED strip for accent, 2 four-foot Impact booms with an Oben ballhead, an Impact Baby Plate with a mini ballhead for the hair light, Auralex acoustic panels with wall install strips, Elgato Wave Panels, a Canon R10 camera with a continuous power cord, and a Shure SM7B microphone on a Rode boom arm. The camera mounts to the teleprompter on an accordion wall mount anchored into a stud and feeds a RODECaster VIDEO S over mini-HDMI to HDMI.
Training is the part most installers skip. Your team leaves knowing the locked camera settings for your room: ISO fixed at 400 and calibrated to your install, white balance in Kelvin mode between 5200K and 5600K rather than Auto, aperture fixed at f/1.8, face and eye-tracking autofocus only, 4K preferred with 1080p acceptable, and a frame rate of either 24fps or 30fps picked once and kept.
They also leave with the 8-step power-up sequence, which runs under 40 seconds. Background lights on. Overhead lights off. Power strip on. Camera on. Computer on with the recording platform open. Script or talking points loaded. Audio check with a 10-second test clip targeting between -12dB and -6dB. Hit record.
The recommended platforms are Descript for solo recording and editing and Riverside for remote interviews. Do not use Zoom for professional recording. Back up to the cloud platform first and keep a local copy on a Samsung T7 or T9 portable SSD. Descript Pro runs about $24 per month, Riverside Pro about $24 per month, and the Mac teleprompter app Prompt about $20 one time. Auphonic handles audio cleanup with a free tier of 2 hours per month.
What Does a Studio Build Cost and How Long Does It Take?
A BYND Media studio build costs $15,000 for the Foundation tier, $23,000 for the Signature tier, or $40,000 for the Flagship tier. These are fixed list prices, not opening estimates. Ceiling treatment is included in Signature and Flagship. A Foundation room that turns out to need its ceiling closed is quoted as a Signature build rather than carrying a surprise line item.
Timeline is 4 to 6 weeks from deposit. Design takes 1 to 2 weeks and combines remote work with an on-site visit. Equipment procurement takes 1 to 2 weeks. Installation takes 1 to 2 days on-site. Training happens the same day installation finishes.
Payment is 50% deposit to secure the project slot and start design, then 50% before installation begins. Payment methods are ACH transfer, credit card, and check.
For the full cost breakdown across every tier, including gear-only budgets, see what a podcast studio actually costs to build in 2026.
Who Is Shawn Zajas and How Many Studios Has He Built?
Shawn Zajas, founder of BYND Media in Chandler, Arizona. First studio built 2019. 15+ studio builds. 200+ sessions recorded in his own studios.
In his own words: "I've been building studios for years. I've seen every room size, every budget, every weird constraint."
He signs the Studio Blueprint as Shawn The Studio Guy. He runs the builds himself, from the on-site assessment through the training session on install day.
What Areas Do You Serve?
BYND Media is based in Chandler, Arizona and builds across the Phoenix metro, including Chandler, Mesa, Tempe, Scottsdale, and Phoenix proper.
Builds also happen out of state. A December 2025 proposal covered a dental office in Southern California, with the same 4 to 6 week timeline and the same on-site assessment and install-day training.
Who Is a Studio Build For?
A studio build fits a business with its own space and a reason to record in that space regularly.
The clearest documented case is a dental practice. Most practices spend $100,000 or more over five years on outsourced video production services. A $23,000 all-in build stops that meter.
The same math holds for anyone recording on a schedule out of a room they already pay rent on. If you record once a quarter, rent a room. If you record weekly, the room you already have is the cheaper studio.
Room size is rarely the blocker. Builds work in narrow footprints with a layout designed around the constraint rather than against it.
How Is a Build Different From Renting a Studio by the Hour?
Renting buys you a session. Building buys you the room.
Renting still wins for low volume, for one-off shoots, and for anyone testing whether they will keep recording at all. BYND Media also rents its own room at $150 per hour with a 2-hour minimum, $500 for a half day, or $900 for a full day, with an operator included at every tier.
How Is This Different From a Rental Venue or a Production Company?
Search "podcast studio Phoenix" today and every result falls into one of two categories.
The first is rental venues. Podcast Studio AZ in Mesa, AMPLIFY STUDIO, and AZ Pod Studio all sell time in their room. You bring your people, you record, you leave.
The second is production services. Turnkey Podcast Productions and Contentmonsta run your podcast for you as a service. Full Swing Studios produces video and photography out of its own space.
Both categories are good at what they sell. Neither builds a studio inside your building and hands you the keys. That is the BYND Media offer: your room, your equipment, your team recording without anyone else in the building.
What Is Included at $15,000, $23,000, and $40,000?
Foundation at $15,000 is a solo direct-to-camera room. One seat, one camera, teleprompter, LED lighting with diffusion, acoustic treatment, a professional microphone and audio interface, cable management, an on-site space assessment and layout, equipment training, workflow documentation, and 30 days of technical support. It is built for courses, VSLs, and patient education. It does not seat a guest.
Signature at $23,000 is a two-person interview and podcast set. Everything above plus a custom layout built around your footprint, a branded backdrop, acoustic wood paneling, ceiling treatment, a multi-camera setup, broadcast audio with separated tracks, room acoustic tuning, a half-day of equipment training, custom workflow documentation, and 90 days of technical support with remote troubleshooting.
Flagship at $40,000 is a multi-set room: a podcast set and a direct-to-camera set in the same space, up to 4 seats, an LED and brand package, staff training, and launch support.
Ceiling treatment is inside Signature and Flagship rather than bolted on afterward. The work covers ceiling enclosure construction, soundproofing materials and installation, HVAC and lighting integration, and acoustic sealing. It is the single most common cost surprise in this trade, which is why it sits inside the tier price instead of arriving in week three.
These are list prices. There is no preferred-partner percentage, no introductory rate, and no number that moves because you asked.
Do I Own the Equipment When the Build Is Done?
Everything installed goes into your room and runs on your own computer and your own accounts. Descript, Riverside, and the teleprompter software are subscriptions in your name, at roughly $24 per month, $24 per month, and $20 one time.
Support has a defined end. Foundation carries 30 days of technical support. Signature and Flagship carry 90 days with remote troubleshooting. Nothing extends past that unless you ask for it.
The ceiling work is not locked to BYND Media either. You are welcome to hire it out directly through a contractor of your choice, in which case it comes out of scope and out of the quote.
What If My Room Has a Problem?
Most rooms have a problem. The design phase exists to find it before anyone buys equipment.
A recent build in a dental office had three at once: a narrow footprint, an open ceiling shared with adjacent operatories, and sound bleed from clinical spaces. The layout was redrawn for the narrow footprint. The ceiling was closed and soundproofed, with HVAC and lighting reintegrated and the perimeter acoustically sealed. Auralex panels and Elgato Wave Panels handled what remained inside the room. That build came in at $23,000 all-in, which is the Signature tier.
Open ceilings are the single most common cost surprise in this trade. That is exactly why ceiling treatment sits inside the Signature and Flagship price rather than arriving as a change order once the design is already underway.
Small rooms are usually solvable with layout and mounting rather than construction. Narrow rooms get a layout designed around the constraint. That is what the on-site assessment is for.
How Do I Get a Quote for a Studio Build in Phoenix?
The first step is an on-site space assessment. Someone walks your room, measures it, listens to it, and finds the problems before a design exists.
From there the sequence is fixed. Design runs 1 to 2 weeks and combines remote work with the on-site visit. Equipment procurement runs 1 to 2 weeks. Installation runs 1 to 2 days. Training happens the same day installation finishes. Total is 4 to 6 weeks from deposit.
A 50% deposit secures the project slot and starts the design phase. The remaining 50% is due before installation begins. ACH transfer, credit card, and check are all accepted.
Reach Shawn directly at shawn@shawnzajas.com or 480.246.4009.