28 l March 2014
www.psneurope.com
studionews UNITED KINGDOM Studio 3.2 for Surrey sound students Refurbished recording facilities have been unveiled at The University of Surrey, keeper of the acclaimed Tonmeister course, reports Murray Stassen
THE UNIVERSITY of Surrey, home to the revered Tonmeister sound recording degree, unveiled its revamped Studio 3 in January. The four-year Tonmeister course is taught at the multi-studio recording complex on the university’s Guildford campus. “The first in-take was in 1970 – I think this will be our 40th year of graduates,” says Tonmeister programme director, Dr Russell Mason. Studio 3 was built in 1999, the initial purpose being to increase the number of students that could be enrolled on the course. The room has now undergone a major refurbishment in terms of both acoustic design and layout. The 96-channel Sony Oxford console from that era has now been replaced by an AMS Neve 88D. Mason explains that the need
for a new console was a deciding factor for the refurbishment: “The main reason was to replace the Oxford,” he says. “We took it as an opportunity to redo the acoustics in here – to turn the room around to make the space much more flexible so we can have listening seminars in here as well and to do it up.” John Flynn and acoustician
Sam Toyoshima of Acoustics Design Group carried out the redesign work. The partnership has undertaken projects at legendary facilities such as Abbey Road and Sarm West, an indicator of the quality of work that was sought by the
ITALY First Italian Dolby Atmos mixing room inaugurated By Mike Clark
ROME-BASED STUDIO designer Dino D’Ambrosio recently completed work on Italy’s first cinema mixing facility catering for Dolby Atmos, at Margutta Digital International A/V post house. The facility, which works on Italian productions and Italian versions of foreign films, is in Via Margutta – a few yards from Piazza di Spagna – in a
building hosting cinema sound facilities since the days of Federico Fellini. Work has already begun on the first Atmos projects – the new film 300 – Rise of an Empire, followed by the latest Spiderman adventure and the new Godzilla movie. D’Ambrosio, describing
Dolby Atmos as the “audio equivalent of 3D” explains: “Sounds in this case are identified from a spatial point of
view by their polar coordinates, so my job, after a few small changes to the 15 x 11m room’s tuning, was to design the Atmos-compliant JBL system, guaranteeing its coverage angles by precise positioning of the 18 SCS 12 THX and 22 8350 THX effects speakers.” Since the buildings in this
area of Rome are classified, the forty FX speakers are installed on a special Litec truss structure, designed by HSE, who
also customised the rig to eliminate vibration. The room has a main JBL screen system comprising three 4675 and a SW 4181 sub, plus a pair of 3635 rear subs, and the all-Crown DSi powerhouse has 12 2000 and 14 1000 models. Processors include the all-important Dolby Atmos RMU (Rendering and Mastering Unit) while the console is a 48-fader Avant Plus. The seal of approval for the Rome room was not
Dino D’Ambrosio: Atmos fearless
granted by Dolby Europe’s certification team, led by James Seddon. D’Ambrosio has since announced that he has been commissioned to upgrade three more Rome studio, with a fourth project being negotiated.
www.dinodambrosio.com
Tonmeister academics. The new AMS Neve 88D
features a classic analogue front- end with up to 1,000 channels at 24-bit/96kHz. Tutor in sound recording and studio support engineer, Alan Haigh, adds: “It’s got the same back-end as the
of manufacturers and tried them out,” explains professor Tony Myatt. “We were looking for something that was a music mixing desk but also a desk that people could mix to picture — something that you would find in that sort of environment. The Neve sits in the middle of those two worlds,” says Myatt. The new console carries two quad MADI cards and runs on two DSP engines of 500 channels each. “The reason we’ve done that is
A close up of the AMS Neve 88 D which will be used by Tonmeister students
The refurbished Studio 3 features ATC SCM100
Tonmeister sound academics from L-R: Alan Haigh; Michael Price; Prof. Tony Myatt; Dr Russell Mason
DFC (AMS-Neve DFC Gemini), the big film console, so they can learn the software from that, and its got Encore Automation which is the same across all Neves like the 88RS, so [the 88D] sort of ticks every box, really.” Due the multi-disciplined
nature of the Tonmeister course, it was important to the course administrators that students have access to a desk that would prepare them for high- end studios and dubbing theatres. “We looked at a lot of desks and actually visited a lot
that if anything goes down we can carry on while we’re getting the other one replaced without losing the room,” explains Haigh. “We’ve got 56 in and outs of Pro Tools and also Pyramix here as well because we use that in the classical studio, and you can mix from that in here equally well.” The refurbished studio is now equipped for mixing in stereo and 5.1 surround sound. Monitoring is courtesy of a 5- channel ATC system, while a Genelec subwoofer handles low frequencies. “The monitor speakers are the same as before, ATC 100s,” says Haigh. “We had them in the year 2000 and we’ve got them in the other studio as well. If the place burned down we’d buy them again. The design hasn’t changed, its one of these great things, they cost a lot to start with, but once you’ve got, you’ve got them forever.”
www.surrey.ac.uk www.ams-neve.com
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