It seems that the topic of Europe and this country’s links with it, especially the Eurozone, have been in the news a lot recently.  So it got me thinking about voiceover work and Europe…. and beyond.

Before I was a voiceover artist I used to work as a radio presenter. When I first started in radio, in the days when CDs were new technology and recording was done on open reel tape machines, I used to come across voice-over artists from time to time. In those days they were an unusual rather peripatetic breed. They would travel the motorway network going from radio station to radio station to record the voiceovers for adverts and promos.

They would come into the reception at Mercia Sound (as it was in those days) and be ushered up the back stairs away from the on-air studios and offices up to the top floor which was the home of commercial production.  Mic anoraks might like to note that the favoured mic in those days in Mercia Comm Prod was an Electro Voice RE20 (see below).

Anyway by the time I started running my voiceover work alongside radio presentation ISDN was widely available. Voiceover artists would, initially, go into ISDN equipped professional studios to do their VO sessions “down the line”, but after quite a short while most people who were serious about their voiceover career set up their own ISDN equipped studio at home.

The considerable investment by voiceover artists in rack mounted ISDN units and booths was good news for those using their services as now producers didn’t have to pay expensive studio fees so often.  I admit that when I originally got my ISDN set up some years ago it was because I saw it as a badge that said you were serious about doing voice work professionally.

Now we’re into an other transitional period.  Despite being 80’s technology, ISDN is still widely used. However, increasingly I’m finding it’s being used as a good quality monitor feed.  In many sessions now I’m directed over the ISDN line – but actually do the recording at my end and then ftp the files afterwards.

I haven’t yet invested in Source Connect but many studios and VO artists, especially in the States, seem to be getting it so perhaps its just a matter of time.  Its a software system that allows the remote studio to take control of your studio computer, direct you to do the VO session and record it – and by the end they have full quality wav files sitting on their computer.

Some other people have experimented with Skype and similar on-line systems. At the moment broadband is not quite reliable enough for professional quality recording sessions but I’m fairly sure it will be eventually.

The key element in where we are now is the internet.  I wouldn’t have a voiceover business without the internet. Almost all my new voice work comes to me via my website, or from some of the on-line lists I’m on.

I used to send clients CDs of my VO recordings but now I just send the files over the internet. I used to post invoices to clients but now I just email pdf files.  I used to do voiceover work for local video and audio production companies – now I’m also able to work for companies all over the world.

During the last year I’ve delivered voiceovers for production companies working with clients like Disney in the US, Deutsche Bank in Germany, Saccone and Speed in Gibralter.  I’ve worked with several clients in the Netherlands including HBO and a couple of clients in Norway too. Plus I’ve recorded voiceovers for ads on radio stations in the UAE and Spain. All thanks to the internet.

So what’s all that got to do with Europe?  Well I suppose the point is perhaps it doesn’t matter whether we, in the UK, are in or out of Europe because the internet seems to have a way of dissolving those geographical boundaries. So I hope, whatever the politicians end up doing, that I can continue to work with more and more people who need a voiceover that I can deliver to them where ever they are in Europe….or the world.