No crew? No problem. This S’porean biz lets you easily record podcasts solo.

Singaporean company LFG Content Co. officially opened its new concept, The LFG Pod, to the public today (June 9), claiming it to be the world’s first fully automated, unmanned podcast and content studio.

The private space of the LFG Pod allows one to step in and record a podcast or media content without the need for further setup. Vulcan Post Singapore was invited to visit the studio, and here’s what it was like recording a podcast in thirty minutes there.

Keeping content creation costs low

But first, we spoke to the founders behind the LFG Pod, comprising a quintet of content creators and producers: JJ Ong, Wong Jian Liang, Wong Jiang Ming, and Isaac Ho.

The team first started a semi-automated podcast studio named the LFG Content Co.

The LFG Content Co. studio is the bigger brother of The LFG Pod and is physically overseen by the team in Aljunied. It currently features more camera angles than The LFG Pod and offers more customisation capabilities, with a significantly larger set space and various props.

However, don’t let the smaller LFG Pod fool you with its simpler capabilities. The team claims that it delivers professional-level content with its user-friendly equipment, for a fraction of the price at LFG Content Co. and at much lower costs than competitor studios.

Unlike its predecessor, the new unmanned studio eliminates the need for manpower, enabling users to operate it independently.

This helps reduce costs and complexity in traditional content creation, allowing them to set rentals at affordable rates and scale their studio to a wider audience beyond traditional content creators.

A self-funded project

The founders collaborated with the creator behind the Gym Pod, Damian Chow, who is behind the app’s booking system. The LFG team shared that the alliance allowed them to provide a seamless booking and customisation experience for users with the intuitive app, where users have control over the studio’s main lighting and recordings, apart from the SPECTRA control deck (more on this later).

Sharing that the ideation stage for their second project took around six months, it also took another one and a half years of attempting to build the SPECTRA and the studio of the LFG Pod.

Despite the good reception of the services at their first studio, the second project was entirely bootstrapped by the entrepreneurs themselves, Isaac shared. He shared that it was not easy to convince investors to put money into LFG Pod because many of those they knew of were in the Venture Capital (VC) and finance scene who were not interested in the content industry.

They also note that a lot of startups fall apart due to partners disagreeing and so they wanted to make sure partners who invest in them align in the interests of the content creation industry.

Prior to their official launch on Monday, the LFG Pod opened its doors to existing clients from its first content creation studio, LFG Content Co., and users who expressed their interest by privately messaging them on Instagram.

Clients at their first studio ranged from local content creators like Simonboy to MNCs such as Carlsberg and Lego. They also saw political candidates working with them to record content during the General Election period this year.

However, during the soft launch, beyond influencers and celebrities, the team’s clientele included a much wider range of individuals, from tuition teachers to business owners and coaches.

Many would simply record a lesson by plugging in their own tablet to the SPECTRA system that records both the footage in the camera and the screen of the tablet where they draw their diagrams. These users then post-process it themselves by putting them in software programmes such as Adobe Premiere Pro or Capcut, said JJ.

How the LFG Pod works

Image credit: The LFG Pod

To tackle this, the entrepreneurs came up with an all-in-one trade-secret machine called the SPECTRA, which sits in the middle of the room. It is connected seamlessly to the only items seen on the table, the SPECTRA control deck and a tablet for uploading scripts to the teleprompter.

Image credit: The LFG Pod

Consisting of a teleprompter for users to read their script off of and a screen to watch themselves as the camera rolls, the SPECTRA is easily customisable with the SPECTRA control deck on the table.

Image credit: The LFG Pod

The SPECTRA control deck consists of a wide array of buttons that allow users to make significant changes to their camera work with just the press of a button.

By default, the SPECTRA records in both landscape and portrait modes simultaneously allowing users to upload the recorded videos seamlessly to various social media platforms such as TikTok and YouTube without much hassle.

The camera can be adjusted according to the number of content creators, such as zooming in on an individual, or zooming out to accommodate up to four people in the frame. There is also the option to choose between wide or close shots as well.

Image credit: The LFG Pod

There are also customisable settings to change the lighting of the set where creators can choose from seven background colours and adjust the brightness of the lights accordingly.

A white curtain can be drawn over the black background if users prefer a lighter setting as well.

The studio is equipped with an industry-level condenser microphone that is hidden from the camera. The audio is immediately processed by the software in SPECTRA, which includes noise cancellation, multiband sound compression, and equalisation to reduce distortion and enhance the audio, making it crisper.

This does away with the need for traditional handheld or clip-on microphones that are visible on camera and where the sound produced requires further post-processing.

This setup captures clear, natural audio without requiring users to stay close to a microphone, ensuring a seamless, unobstructed, and comfortable recording experience.

Each session starts from S$39 per half-hour session block.

Future plans

Within the year, the team teased plans to add more decorations to the set, as well as launch another key feature: live streaming.

Live streaming could be as easy as connecting one’s phone to their LFG’s intelligent automation system, SPECTRA.

Plans for another new Pod with a full LED wall installed are also in the works, where the team aims to bring more customisation to users.

On the other hand, they have big plans to bring their technology and the LFG Pod out of Singapore where many places around the world like Hong Kong, Dubai, and the US are struggling with the costs of manpower involved in content creation.

They are also working on new ideas to reduce costs of pre-and pro-production and make it less cumbersome for users themselves.

• Read other articles we’ve written on Singaporean startups here.

Featured Image Credit: The LFG Pod