Voice over for in-house TV, podcasts & documentaries

Three formats, three attitudes at the microphone

In the brief, in-house TV, podcast and documentary look similar: a lot of text, long stretches, little room for effects. At the microphone they are three different jobs. Read all three the same way and at least two of them will sound wrong.

In-house TV and internal communication

Your internal audience does not have to be won over, it has to be informed: staff, management, shareholders. The voice must not sell here. It guides through figures, processes and changes, calm enough for dense material and alert enough that nobody switches off after two minutes. With delicate subjects in particular, a reorganisation, say, or year-end figures under pressure, the tone decides whether the message lands as honest or bounces off as gloss.

Podcasts, trailers and intros

The trailer is a podcast’s calling card: 30 to 60 seconds that decide whether someone subscribes. That needs a signature, a voice you recognise the second time you hear it. Then come the intro, outro, section dividers, sponsored inserts and additions for new episodes. I set these elements up from the start so that individual parts can be re-recorded later without an audible break: same booth, same signal chain, same distance to the microphone.

Documentaries and reportage

A documentary lives on telling, not on reading out. The commentary leaves room for the picture, holds the tension over twenty, thirty or sixty minutes and steps back where the protagonists speak for themselves. From my time at a national media company I know this discipline from the inside: speaking to picture, landing a passage on the second, working in corrections as you go.

Dialect or German?

In Switzerland, internal formats are often made in dialect, because they then sound like a colleague and not like head office. Zurich German comes across as urban and direct, Bernese German as calm and trustworthy. As soon as a format crosses the language border or goes abroad, German is the safe choice, either with a Swiss colouring or close to the German spoken in Germany. You get every variant from the same booth, if necessary as parallel versions of the same episode.

Send an enquiry: describe the format, the length and the number of episodes planned, and you will have a quote within 24 hours, including the price list.

Frequently asked questions

Can intros, outros or section dividers be re-recorded later?

Yes. I set these elements up so that individual parts can be re-produced later without an audible break: same booth, same signal chain, same distance from the microphone.

Dialect or High German for internal formats?

In Switzerland internal formats are often made in dialect: Zurich German comes across as urban and direct, Bernese German as calm and trustworthy. Once a format crosses the language border, High German is the safe choice. All variants come from the same booth, as parallel versions if you wish.

How quickly will I receive a quote?

Within 24 hours. Briefly describe the format, the length and the number of episodes planned.