DJ BOOTH
PERSONAL BUILD PROJECT
Background
During my time at Ohio State, I was a member of the fraternity Sigma Alpha Mu. A large part of my involvement included organizing social events so I was always looking for ways to improve these events. In the Autumn 2020 semester, I decided to take on the project of building a new DJ booth for our fraternity house. The old DJ booth was basically falling apart and I saw this as an opportunity to build something unique that would last for years to come. The following content outlines my process for designing and building this booth.
Initial idea concept sketches
I came up with the idea to build a DJ booth like this back in 2018. At that point, I wasn’t in the best position to make it happen. However, that didn’t stop me from creating concept sketches like the ones featured on the right. The main idea was to triple the size of the old booth, add a light bar and customize it beyond anything I had soon before.
Initial idea concept sketches
Two later, the time had finally arrived that I could make the booth a reality. The next step was to create a 3D model of the design. Creating this model allowed me to outline the overall construction and helped create the bill of materials. From the bill of materials, I put together an order from a local hardware store and sent the proposed budget to our fraternity treasurer.
Initial idea concept sketches
Once the plan for the build was approved, we ordered the supplies and shifted focus to the build. With the help of around 10 friends, we worked in shifts to construct the booth. Throughout the process, guided construction, translated the designs and helped build. The pictures above show the build from initial framing to near completion.
paint scheme photoshop mockup
As the build neared completion, I began thinking about paint chemes. Although I had an idea of what what we wanted, I thought a photoshop mockup would be the best way to visualize the end result. We ended up going with our fraternity colors of black, white and purple along with one of the shapes on our seal: an octagon.
Electronics Sound reactive equalizer
My favorite part of this build was integrating the electronics. In the center of the booth, there is an octagon shaped hole covered with a piece of plexiglass. Behind that, I mounted a TV which runs directly to the DJ’s computer. Using the DJ software Serato along with a sound visualizer plugin, I created a set of sound reactive graphics. These graphics would live react to the music output from the DJ’s computer and create a visual equalizer. The video above shows this equalizer in action.
Finished product The DJ Booth in action
The finished DJ booth worked perfectly for our needs and the custom features were a huge hit. DJs loved having more room and protection for their electronics. Everyone else loved the equalizer and even found new uses for the TV like streaming sports events. The new members in charge of party setup appreciated that I designed it to disassemble into 3 pieces for easy transport. Overall, I love how the booth turned out and I’m proud to have made something that people will enjoy for years to come.