With the opening late last year of its new Sound Arts room, Semillero Estudios in Guadalajara became the first post-production facility in the state of Jalisco to offer Dolby-certified mixing in the Atmos HE (Home Entertainment) immersive sound format. In addition, the new mixing room is distinguished as the first in Mexico outside Mexico City to offer the Atmos HE capabilities using a full 9.1.6 Meyer Sound spatial sound monitoring system.
“Producers and music artists have been very impressed with what we can offer here in Guadalajara,” says Álvaro Arce, founder and director of Semillero Estudios. “A big part of that is the Meyer Sound monitoring system. You can take it to very high SPLs yet it never distorts. It sounds beautiful and it translates well into headphones, where much of the music content in spatial audio is heard lately. You can mix quickly and trust the system without a doubt.”
Arce established Semillero Estudios in Mexico City in 2013 principally for music recording, but the availability of top-notch musicians along with a fast-growing film and video business in his home city of Guadalajara convinced him to make the move back home in 2019. The first studio in the new location also was focused on music recording, but when the music was destined for integration into surround soundtracks the mixes had to be done in Mexico City.
“At first we were thinking of doing a smaller room with only 5.1 capability,” Arce recalls, “and then expanding to an Atmos room later. But our architect Gabriel Beas, acoustic designer Alejandro Lepe, and Carlos Cuevas from Dolby convinced us it would be more cost-effective to go to a larger Atmos room in one phase. I’m glad we did. With the surging demand for immersive music mixes, thanks largely to Apple, we’ve been very busy.”
The Sound Arts mixing room is equipped with three Meyer Sound Acheron Designer screen channel loudspeakers, with six HMS‑5 surround loudspeakers for the laterals (wide, surround, and rear) and six more for the overhead front, mid, and rear. A single X‑800C cinema subwoofer supplies low-frequency effects.
“I’ve always liked Meyer Sound speakers for their amazing headroom and precise imaging,” says Arce. “I recall when we were using the Dolby tool for measuring sound pressure levels, to make sure we could reach the levels we needed in the subsonic frequencies. That’s when I realized a big difference with Meyer Sound, because with the other systems we considered we would have needed two – or even four – subwoofers instead of one.”
Arce also cited the worldwide acceptance of Meyer Sound monitoring systems in major film and video post-production studios, as well as the high level of customer support available in Mexico. “I received a lot of help on design and speaker selection from Antonio Manzo, head of sales for Mexico, as well as from Magu [Mauricio Ramirez] and Oscar Barrientos, who have been friends for years. The Meyer team was incredibly supportive through the whole process, and that can be a real game-changer.”
The mixing platform in the room is an Avid S6, with separate computers for Pro Tools and the Dolby Atmos rendering unit. A Focusrite ISA preamplifier and Neumann U87 microphone allow for the insertion of vocal or synth tracks during the mixing sessions.
The new room opened during the Guadalajara Film Festival in October of 2021, and as part of the festivities, Oscar-winning sound designer Carlos Cortés and re-recording mixer Jamie Baksht (both for The Sound of Metal) came to the studio to teach a master class.
Since opening, the room has been constantly busy with film projects, in-house productions, and immersive music remixes, with Arce and chief engineer Caleb Sevilla taking on the lion’s share of mixing duties. The studio quickly attracted the attention of several notables in the Latin music business, including guitarist/composer/producer Kiko Cibrian, known for his work with Luis Miguel and Christian Castro, among many others. “Kiko lives in San Diego, but he loves the sound of the room here,” says Arce.
Most mixing in the Atmos format has been for music, again driven by the demand for immersive products on the Apple Music platform. The Sound Arts Room has hosted mixes of feature films and documentaries as well, though most are rendered in the 5.1 format. One exemplary project mixed by Oscar winner Carlos Cortés was a “cinema minute” advertising clip for IWC watches featuring American football legend Tom Brady.
Semillero Estudios and associated staff have an extensive list of credits for original music composition, music production, sound design, and post-production mixing, with projects including feature films, television series, and immersive music mixes. The majority of projects are for distribution in Mexico, but about a third are distributed throughout Latin America with some also appearing on Spanish language outlets in the United States.
Bielsko-Biała, Poland, July 2022 – An extensive public address system from Electro-Voice and Dynacord has been installed at Cavatina Hall. Located in the vibrant, historic city of Bielsko-Biała, amongst the Beskidy mountains in southern Poland, the six-story building counts over 9,000 square meters of top-tier office space, a cutting-edge recording studio, a chamber music room and a majestic 1,000 capacity concert hall. The venue itself is owned by leading Polish development company Cavatina and is the first privately owned and funded concert hall in Poland.
As a large, multi-use facility Cavatina Hall required an extensive solution to cover public address across its various areas. This needed to be flexible enough to meet the differing needs of office workers and theatregoers and led to Audio Plus, the company responsible for the coordination and co-designers of the solution, turning to the extensive Electro-Voice and Dynacord portfolio.
The heart of this solution is electronics from Dynacord, with an MXE5 Matrix Mix Engine alongside an IPX10:8 power amplifier. IPX multi-channel amplifiers are dedicated for fixed installations and offer sophisticated speaker processing. IPX also features Dynacord’s unique variable load drive (VLD) technology. For each channel, the user can determine whether Low-Z or High-Z 70V/100V loudspeakers are driven without the need for an output transformer via direct drive technology. The IPX10:8 was the perfect choice for this project due to its ability to harness this technology across eight channels.
“The IPX 10:8 is at the core of the sound system – we wanted something that was technically optimal in terms of control and this amp allows each channel to be individually operated, along with analog inputs from Dante and OCA via OMNEO network inputs – it’s a highly flexible solution for us,” explains Stanisław Mielczarek, Tech Support Engineer, Audio Plus. “MXE5 was chosen as it’s a universal processor that complements other systems in Cavatina Hall – through SONICUE Sound System Software. It integrates perfectly for this kind of project – allowing us to have full control of the entire system of signal routing and signal processing for public address speakers.” adds Tomasz Ibrom, Project and Installation Engineer, Audio Plus, who was responsible for the system integration at Cavatina Hall.
The Dynacord electronics are driving a large 100V Electro-Voice loudspeaker solution combining the strengths of the EVID ceiling and surface mount ranges. “EVID speakers offer a big spectrum of models in the series and were the ideal choice because of their mounting capabilities,” Ibrom explains. “Each piece is exactly fitted for its location.
”In the main auditorium, a pair of Electro-Voice FM6.2 speakers have been hidden behind the wooden sound panels either side of the stage. These are linked to the RTS intercom system and used for addressing the performers onstage. The stage manager or event director can use the system via an Electro-Voice wireless mic to communicate with the musicians during rehearsals. “This additional system works perfectly because the speech is super-intelligible and the speakers are completely invisible,” says Ibrtom. “The team at Cavatina Hall are really happy with it.”
Staying on stage, Electro-Voice microphones have also been selected to cover a wide range of vocal and instrumental needs. This includes everything from the RE97Tx micro-headworn condensers, to ND44, ND46 and ND66 instrument mics, as well as the iconic RE20 and RE320 Variable-D models.
The Hall now boasts superior efficiency in terms of connectivity, which fits in well to the innovative aesthetic of the multi-functional building. Marcin Smolik, Producer and Managing Director at Cavatina Hall concludes: “We are at the forefront of Europe among the few venues that have such a system. Our technology is a treat for artists and for the viewer, it means quality.”
The Los Angeles Bureau of the Fox News Channel has seen its share of rising and falling news personalities but a constant star is ETC.
The small studio in Culver City serves as the Left Coast broadcast centre for several prominent US TV presenters, including Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and Geraldo Rivera. In the late 80s and early 90s it was the home of the late-night talk show, The Pat Sajak Show. In 2017, the stage underwent a complete overhaul – out with the wood-panelled look in favour of a Plexiglas and stainless steel design with a curtain track backdrop that can switch from night to day faster than you can say “breaking news.” With its unusually high ceiling and excellent acoustics, the stage is now home to The NextRevolution with Steve Hilton Sunday night broadcast.
The revamped set design came with a much-needed new lighting package provided by 4Wall Lighting’s Los Angeles office. Lighting Director Eric Reinig and his counterparts in New York specified a mostly ETC LED system. “It only made sense to go LED, for the flexibility and the reduction of heat onstage and the running costs,” says Reinig. “The old rig of standard 1K and 2K fixtures and old Strand gear was well past its prime.”
The new rig features 32 ETC Source Four LED Series 2 fixtures with Lustr arrays and a range of lenses (19, 26 and 36 degrees), serving as the new key lights for the talent and colour washes on the scenic panels. A few classic Source Fours are used as specials, powered by an ETC 24-channel Sensor3 dimmer pack. “Even though we have to colour correct them to 4300 degrees, the conventional fixtures give me a softer look. But you can’t beat the Lustrs for flat field and coolness to the touch.”
Describing the change in lighting control, Reinig jokes: “We went from a ‘baby starter’ two-scene, preset to an ETC Ion 1500 with a 2×20 Universal Fader Wing.” The learning curve more than paid off in the ability to set up pre-programmed looks for Fox shows and any incoming rentals. The nearby Fox Sports One/Fox Deportes studio, where Reinig is also an LD, uses an Ion console.
Reinig’s career path was equally transformative. While he worked in construction, he maintained an interest in photography and operated a DJ company with several DJs and mobile systems for private parties and nightclubs. When he was injured on a construction job, he went back to school – first to Moorpark College, followed by a degree in cinematography at California State University, Northridge. “I was lucky to have a friend at Fox who let me play with equipment and learn the gear – I also was also an apprentice with cinematographer Bill Bennett (a member of ASC) and fell in love with lighting.”
Today Reinig uses studio down time to experiment with new lighting looks and get deeper into the workings of the Ion. Pointing out the extremely long top hats on the Lustr fixtures around the news desk, he explains, “Our host Steve Hilton is bald and we use this technique to reduce hot spots on his head. I am guessing other shows have faced the same challenges in controlling multiple points of light off of the top of their host – it’s a great trick.”
Looking ahead, Reinig already sees a need for 12 more Lustr fixtures and 12 spares, as the studio may expand into more of an entertainment stage. “Every time I go to LDI, my mind starts racing with the possibility of new gear. It’s an exciting time in lighting.”
Please contact us or your nearest ETC dealer for more information on ETC products.
A recent collaboration between London-based venue Spiritland and Audio-Technica UK has seen a variety of the company’s products installed in the venue to help deliver a diverse offering of interviews, Q&A sessions, DJ sets, album playbacks and radio output.
Created as a space to “celebrate artistry and indulge the senses”, Spiritland combines café, bar and radio station with an in-depth musical programme seven days a week (already featuring the likes of guest DJs Jarvis Cocker, Andrew Weatherall and La Roux).
Spiritland’s sound system features a unique pair of Living Voice loudspeakers, valve amplification from Italian manufacturer Atelier du Triode and a towering Kuzma turntable. At the very beginning of the audio chain is Audio-Technica’s ART1000 direct power moving coil cartridge which is employed to provide perfect audio reproduction from the turntable onwards. Additional cartridges selected from Audio-Technica’s new VM moving magnet range are used for vinyl playback from the separate twin decks at the DJ booth.
Five pairs of Audio-Technica’s flagship M-Series headphone, the ATH-M70x, and five BP40 large-diaphragm dynamic microphones are the foundation of the radio studio set-up (with limited edition matte grey ATH-M50xMG headphones available for visiting artists at the DJ booth); while U853R condenser hanging microphones are also installed from the ceiling for ambient sound pickup of the audience in the main seating area. The company’s ATM610a hypercardioid dynamic and BP892 subminiature condenser headworn microphones also feature for live panel and interview sessions.
Audio-Technica UK were also able to provide a solution for the spoken word and background audio with six Apart Audio Mask 6T two-way speakers mounted above the café/bar area, powered by Apart’s four-channel REVAMP4120T bridgeable power amplifier. The Mask 6T’s sleek, curved cabinet design fits well with Spiritland’s considered design aesthetic, while an additional REVAMP4120T powers different pairs of vintage bookshelf speakers which are located in each of the venue’s four restrooms.
Overall the Audio-Technica microphones, headphones and cartridges employed in Spiritland’s signal chain help complete a mix of original analogue equipment, while also playing a part towards the output generated from the venue’s editing and streaming facilities.
“Spiritland is a huge operation in a small space with elements including hospitality, nightly DJ sets, radio broadcasts, live talks, a retail offering and more – and Audio-Technica are involved in every aspect,” said Spiritland’s artistic director Paul Noble. “They have been a fantastically supportive partner in this project.”
Television in Botswana is a rapidly burgeoning industry and Botswana TV is making great use of its three studios, with lighting rigs set up by Prosound. Studio 3, a multi-purpose studio currently used for music shows and dramas, has a perfectly lit cyclorama, made possible with the ETC CYC attachment. 36 fixtures have been used to create this cyclorama with unique CYC lens adaptor allowing for changes to the backdrop in creating exactly the colour needed for the current production in the studio, with ETC’s multi-spectrum LED colour.
Using ETC in a cyclorama application has the added advantage of the LEDs having refresh rates so high that one can use the cyclorama in green as a chromakey with no flicker. ETC Desire D22 lustr+ LEDs and the revolutionary ETC Source Fours complete the cyclorama setup, with a combination of the existing tungsten fixtures. A 16 sectioned moving grid for light fixtures enables Studio 3 to have the ability to accommodate set changes by switching from a direct front light to steeper front lights depending on the setup.
The trussing with powered motors that allow the individual grid heights to change, allows for positioning of light throughout the studio space. An ETC Ion console tops off this dynamic configuration. Studio 1 is used for the Botswana TV news reporting, with the studio space being artfully separated into anchor desk and interview area.
ETC Source Four LEDS are once again used for specific focus on presenters, with De Sisti Softlight Series fixtures to lift the overall intensity of the set. ETC dimmer racks and sensor relays power this multi-faceted lighting system controlled by an economical ETC SmartFade console allowing for an adaptable application with an intuitive direct-access style of operation.
The Los Angeles Bureau of the Fox News Channel has seen its share of rising and falling news personalities but a constant star is ETC.
Overall the Audio-Technica microphones, headphones and cartridges employed in Spiritland’s signal chain help complete a mix of original analogue equipment, while also playing a part towards the output generated from the venue’s editing and streaming facilities.
