What does it take to tell the story behind some of the world’s most ambitious buildings and engineering achievements?
For Season 5 of Smithsonian Channel’s How Did They Build That?, we had the pleasure of welcoming actor and host Jay Ellis to Sound Guru Studios in Belgrade to record narration for Episodes 1, 2 and 3.
The series takes viewers behind extraordinary architectural and engineering projects, exploring not only how they were built, but also the ideas, challenges and ingenuity that made them possible.
Recording the Voice Behind the Story
Great documentary narration has to do more than deliver information. It needs to make complex ideas accessible, create momentum and give viewers space to take in what they are seeing.
That balance was at the heart of our recording sessions with Jay Ellis.
Working from our Belgrade studio, we recorded his narration while the production team joined remotely via Source-Connect, allowing everyone to communicate and direct the performance in real time.
Our role at Sound Guru Studios was to make the technical side of the session feel effortless — creating a comfortable recording environment for the talent and a reliable remote workflow for the production team.
The result: clean, natural voice recordings ready to move smoothly into the next stage of post-production.
Extraordinary Architecture, Told Through Extraordinary Stories
The first episodes of Season 5 travel across continents and explore very different approaches to architecture and engineering.
Episode 1 — Reborn Buildings & Sacred Grounds features the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma, a project created to share the histories and cultures of Oklahoma’s 39 tribal nations; the transformation of London’s iconic Battersea Power Station; and Hotel Marqués de Riscal in Spain, instantly recognizable for Frank Gehry’s flowing titanium forms.
Episode 2 — Earthquakes & Exoskeletons turns to structures that challenge our expectations of movement and engineering: the spectacular moving wings of the Milwaukee Art Museum, Oslo’s Holmenkollen Ski Jump, and the innovative structural design of Los Angeles’ Wrapper Tower.
Episode 3 — Cable Cars & Rooftop Parks takes viewers from the soaring Lotte World Tower in Seoul, to the record-breaking PEAK 2 PEAK Gondola in Whistler, and San Francisco’s Salesforce Transit Center, with its remarkable rooftop park.
Each project has a very different story, but they share something fundamental: ambitious ideas made possible through architecture, engineering and collaboration.
Want to See the Episodes We Worked On?
Season 5 premiered on Smithsonian Channel on July 27, 2026, with the three episodes we worked on airing on July 27, August 3 and August 10.
You can explore the series and check current broadcasts on the Smithsonian Channel.
Season 5 is also available to purchase through Apple TV and Prime Video, with availability depending on your country or region.
Remote Voice Recording from Belgrade to the World
International productions rarely happen in just one place anymore.
Actors, directors, producers and post-production teams may be working from different cities — or different continents — while still needing the recording session to feel immediate and collaborative.
At Sound Guru Studios, remote voice recording has become a natural part of our everyday workflow. Using professional remote recording solutions including Source-Connect, we connect our Belgrade recording studios with production teams around the world for voice-over, narration and ADR recording sessions.
For us, the best technology is the technology you stop noticing.
