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Signal House Studios is set to launch in Shockoe Bottom. (Thad Taylor photos)
The couple behind a local food company is stirring up a new business in the podcast realm in Shockoe Bottom.
Husband-and-wife duo Chris and Kaitlyn Fitzner, the owners of locally-based condiment brand Sijang Chili Crunch, are preparing to launch Signal House Richmond, a multi-set video content recording studio at 2025 E. Main St.
Signal House will soon span three different studios in the multi-tenant building, where podcasters and content creators will have access to professional lighting, cameras and a monitor.
Chris Fitzner said he hopes the space can appeal to not only podcasters, but to a range of industries that may need to create video content.
Fitzner, who has co-run Sijang with his wife since 2023, said the idea for Signal House came both from the couple's entrepreneurial spirit and a need they saw for the community to have a professional set space to record video content without shelling out serious money for equipment.
"There are a lot of podcasters here, and I can see they would benefit from having a consistent location that they can come to," he said. "We see this opportunity for building Richmond's first true, multi-set, easy-click booking podcast video studio, and now we're here."
The Lounge at Signal House Richmond has color-changing lights and a TV for creators to use.
Signal House, which is set to launch this week, currently has two studios for filming. One, called "The Lounge," is a typical bright and airy podcast studio space with wood and foliage details.
Currently fit for one or two people, the space has color-changing lights and a TV where customers can project their company logo behind them as they record.
The Lounge will eventually expand to be able to host four people at one time, Fitzner said.
The second studio, called "The Study," has warmer lighting and a vintage-esque design, with an old-school map of Richmond, bookshelves and details like an old typewriter and a copy of some of Shakespeare's work, printed in the 1850s (the Fitzners have a side hobby of antiquing).
Fitzner said he envisioned this room, a bit funkier and warmer than the Lounge, as a place where more "intimate, personal-style interviews" can be conducted. The set fits one to two people.
A third studio set, called "The Signal Room," which will be able to fit up to four in a conference-style, "Joe Rogan-ish" space with 3D-printed walls, will open up mid-September.
The podcast space also has a small green room with supplies for customers to fix their hair or touch up their makeup before going on camera.
Signal House currently offers both hour-long and hour-and-a-half-long sessions, along with five-hour, 10-hour and 20-hour packs for those looking to schedule out for repeated visits.
And along with being able to choose which studio they'd like to film in, customers can pick from three tiers: receiving just raw footage, edited footage or both edited footage and three short social media clips that can be posted on platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
Though prices are not yet finalized, Fitzner said they will range from $200 to $500 per session depending on what tier a customer wants. Prices do not vary based on which studio a customer would like or how many people are in the party.
"We're definitely coming in well below average (on pricing)," Fitzner said. "This is our first time doing a service business ... we want it to be affordable options."
All three cameras will also be at each session regardless of price, and Signal House's sound engineer will live-cut the episode and switch the cameras live. For those who want just the raw version of their session, the video will be delivered within 24 hours, Fitzner said.
"We wanted to make it as simple as possible, 'do I want an edited version or a raw version?' That's it," Fitzner said.
Signal House's Study set features warm details with a bookish ambience.
Fitzner said the podcast studio also plans to launch a podcast branding program sometime in September to help those just getting off the ground. That program would include assistance creating thumbnails, logos and promotional photos for a customer who might not yet know the brand identity of their podcast.
To book a session, customers can go to Signal House's website, and pick their preferred set and time to record.
"It's overcoming the barrier for people who've never started a podcast but have always wanted to," Fitzner said. "We make it seamless."
Fitzner said that though the idea for Signal House came from the prevalence of podcasters in Richmond, he sees it as being usable by many industries. Small businesses that want to make marketing content, corporate clients who need video for internal communications, and politicians or journalists who want to conduct interviews are all groups he feels Signal House can target.
"I view this place eventually as a creator hub. I would love to build community in here," Fitzner said. "It's for anyone who wants content to reach their target audience in high-quality video format."
Signal House will be open on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays to start, with hours to be determined.
Signal House is currently a team of three, including the Fitzners and a recently hired sound engineer. If the concept is successful, Fitzner said he could look to expand its hours and add on another sound engineer.
The Fitzners will continue to operate Sijang while working on Signal House Richmond.
The Sijang brand originally launched around 2014 as a Mexican-Korean fusion catering company but shut down about two years later. The brand was reborn as the condiment company in late 2023, and now has its products in local markets like Ellwood Thompson's and Yellow Umbrella Provisions and in an outpost in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
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