Boo's Radio Booth 2 - Music

The process of releasing a second version of a product isn't usually a cut and dry thing. Sometimes it comes from me wanting to improve upon an earlier product (ie when i did my V2 bunk beds) and sometimes it comes from looking at a product that has not been selling and trying to figure out why (ie the original library product that was later replaced with the Lil Town Library).

In the case of my DJ Booths, it has evolved from a customer saying "Do you have a version like this?" and deciding that...perhaps i should!

The Story of the radio booth's is kinda a long one, and is still unfinished. It started almost a year ago when my friends partner set up a DJ booth for his radio station that i don't think he ever really got off the ground. He purchased one that he found on xstreet but expressed frustration that it had so many prims, and was not modify. I had always remembered that so at some point when i got into building, i asked him if i could see it again, and i would try to make something similar, with less prims and modify.

The first booth was a fairly basic thing, some chairs and microphones with a mixer and speakers, set up more like a talk radio booth as i had seen in pictures. I put it on xstreet at a fairly low price, modify/transfer, and it turns out there was a bit of a demand for it. While i haven't gotten many reviews *grumble* I have sold them fairly regularly.

One customer, and i wish i could remember who, asked me if i could recommend a building that the booth would work in. I had only released it as the booth itself, with no walls except the barrier between Sound booth and Interview table. It was then i thought that maybe it would be cool to make a complete radio station.

What started with just the booth, ended up turning into the Lil Town Radio Station, a complete furnished radio station prefab (that has been selling fairly good which means i did something right!). It was set up using the original booth, so it was basically a "Talk Radio" station. I even marketed it as such in the ad:

"Lil Town Talk Radio, the information super station for all things Lil Town. News, Sports, Politics, Commentary, you name it they got it!! This particular station is famous for the birth of shock radio jock Amibugginya Rhapsody, who as we all know went on to great and wonderful things we won't rehash here"

Sure enough another customer approached me and asked if i had done a version for a music station, with turntables and i thought.....well sure i should do that!

It was one of those projects that i spread out over a few weeks, not making it a priority over my other projects but doing a little bit on it every days. I started with the basic booth and pretty much unlinked it all. Then slowly and started to rebuild it, based somewhat on a community radio station i had seen a few years ago.

I thought that most of the dj's in Second Life that i met just play through a playlist, or just take requests (me included really) but many of the professional ones actually beat mix through records like trance, house, hip-hop etc. So when i set out to do this, i was keeping the Mixer Dj in mind.

The result was DJ Booth 2, which included the turntables and dj animation for that music feel, while still keeping that separate talk radio wall, for guests or other programming....i thought it was better to be useful for both (many radio stations feature different formats through the day after all)

Once i had it pretty much finished i decided the one thing i was lacking on the original version was a stream changer...a way for someone to swap streams easily for different programs...so i added a radio script to the main mixer, allowing people to put streams in by name and link via notecard.

Then i contacted the customer who originally asked me about a music station to see if they would like to come have a look and tell me if what i had made would suit what they had been looking for. They came, and while they quite liked it, they gave me a more in depth description of what it was they were looking for, and that i had it close...but with a few tweaks it would be perfect for them.

And I admit, the ideas they gave me made me go "oh yeah cool i could do that..mhm". but no point in scrapping the Booth 2, I am sure it will appeal to someone, so it is now for sale on the Marketplace :)

Today i sat down and de-linked the new version and started putting a new variation of it together! When it is done it will be Booth Version 3....and to think i originally thought i would just do the one and never look at another radio booth idea again :) live and learn!

So here is a sneak peak for you of the new one in progress (and very soon to be released in not only a builders version but in a skybox station version!!! (note image quality is low as i took the piccy on my laptop and not my pc)



And that is the story of the DJ Booth Evolution (so far) :)