News

AES New York 2022

‘Tomorrow’s technology’ will be revealed at the AES New York 2022 Audio Engineering Convention taking place at the Jacob Javits Center, October 19-20, with pre-and post-show activities on the 18th and 21st, followed by an online component, October 26-27.

In the workshop ‘Mixing Spatial Audio in the Game Engine,’ Mirek Stiles, head of Audio Products at Abbey Road, will walk through the recording, DAW mixing and final Unity game engine mixing process for creating a ‘gamified’ 6 Degrees of Freedom [6DOF] Virtual Reality music experience. A stem mix of an ‘in the round’ string quartet recording of a piece by film and game composer Stephen Barton will provide a proof of concept.

In the session ‘Human Machine Creativity,’ Nadine Raihani — head of UX at Native Instruments — will be joined by iZotope associate director of engineering Caroline Lacoste, for an exploration of how innovative assistive technology tools can unleash creativity.

Register now at AESShow.com.

Sennheiser acquires Merging Technologies

Neumann.Berlin and Swiss company Merging Technologies will now be working together under the umbrella of the

Sennheiser group. “We plan to strengthen Neumann’s offering, particularly in the area of digital workstreams. Merging Technologies’ products and solutions are an excellent complement to the Neumann product portfolio,” said Ralf Oehl, CEO of Georg Neumann GmbH. “Both companies share a passion for excellence and a commitment to always set new standards in audio,” added Claude Cellier, founder and CEO of Merging.

“We are very pleased to welcome Merging’s employees as part of the Sennheiser Group,” said Andreas Sennheiser, co-CEO of the Sennheiser Group. “As a family-owned company, we want to grow sustainably on the strength of our own resources in the coming years. We are investing significantly in our professional business.”

www.merging.com www.neumann.com

RAK go immersive with Genelec

The legendary London studio, which has recorded a catalogue of iconic music, from David Bowie and Pink Floyd to Adele and Arctic Monkeys, has transformed its historic Studio 4 into a ‘gold standard’ space for immersive mixing, with a scalable 9.1.4 monitoring solution based around Genelec’s ‘The Ones’ Smart Active Monitor family.

The decision to rebuild rather than retrofit gave RAK the opportunity to work out exactly what it wanted to achieve, a process it went through with the support of Level Acoustic Design for the acoustics and Studio Creations for the build. “In a project like this, you either do it properly, or you don’t do it at all,” states Emma Townsend, Studio Manager at RAK. “We just had to tear the whole thing down and start from an empty shell.”

The resulting solution features nine 8361 three-way coaxial monitors in the front and surround positions, with three W371 woofer systems extending the low frequency LCR performance. Four 8351s serve as the height channels, with a pair of 7380 subwoofers handling system LF duties. GLM software was employed for the main system calibration, taking care of in-room frequency response compensation, distance delay and level alignment. “We already had three absolutely excellent tracking rooms. The one thing that we were missing was a really good listening, writing and mixing room, and that’s what we’ve got now,” reflects Townsend.

www.rakstudios.co.uk

Amazon editorial in Avid AWS cloud

Avid and Amazon Studios have announced a three-year agreement to bring cloud-based

editorial to Amazon Studios’ slate of more than 300 original movies and series. Editors need to access massive sets of media files that have traditionally been stored in the same location as the editing team. In collaboration with Avid, Amazon Studios will allow creative work to happen from almost anywhere. “Avid is delighted that our open technologies are being chosen by more customers who are innovating how content is produced in the cloud, on a global scale,” said Jeff Rosica, chief executive officer & president of Avid.

“We are on a journey to provide a best-in-class creative platform for our productions,” explains Ben Stanbury, worldwide head of technology for Amazon Studios. “Studio in the Cloud is our overarching vision for how we provide our creative teams with a cloud-based toolset that they can use wherever they are in the world.”

www.avid.com

Tokyo concert hall installs SSL

The Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre recently marked its 30th anniversary with the installation of a new Solid State Logic Duality Fuse console in the recording room of the theatre’s concert hall.

Mr. Koichi Ishimaru, sound director of the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, comments, “Prior to installing the Duality Fuse, we had been using an analogue console that had been installed since the theatre opened. When we were considering replacing it, we thought about installing a digital console or a system without a console, but we thought only an analogue console would do.” For The Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, the combination of its SuperAnalogue microphone preamplifiers and mix bus, flat frequency response and exceptionally low noise floor made it an ideal choice. An important part of the theatre’s decision process was choosing a console that could capture its programming in an accurate and authentic manner.

Opened in 1990 by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government for the purpose of promoting arts and culture, the arts centre comprises four venues, including a concert hall with a separate control room and one of the world’s largest pipe organs, and also encompasses a variety of exhibition spaces and conference spaces.

www.solidstatelogic.com

Lawo mixing consoles were a key ingredient to the live sound production and broadcast of a giant classical music concert in Paris marking the anniversary of the start of the 1789 French Revolution on July 14.

The Concert de Paris, followed by the City of Paris’ traditional fireworks display on July 14 remains one of the largest classical music events in the world. Approximately 150,000 spectators had the opportunity to attend the concert — with the Orchestre National de France, the Chœur and the Maîtrise de Radio France, as well as soloists — on site. The event was followed by millions of listeners and viewers on Radio France and France Télévisions channels and was broadcast live or recorded in many countries via the Eurovision network.

“It is a real pleasure to collaborate with Radio France for such a prestigious event and to see the enthusiasm deployed each year by the entire team to get a little closer to perfection,” said Joffrey Heyraud, Lawo’s sales director for France. “Radio France’s renewed trust is a tremendous confirmation of the company’s technological choices in a constant search for excellence and reliability.”

www.lawo.com

Lawo mc² consoles mix Bastille Day

APPOINTMENTS

The Audio Engineering Society has announced the incoming officers and governors following the 2022 board of directors and board of governors elections. The Society’s membership has elected Leslie Gaston-Bird, as PresidentElect. Also on the board of directors, Valerie Tyler has been re-elected as secretary and Marina Bosi re-elected as treasurer. In the AES Elections for the board of governors, Angela Piva has been elected vice president eastern region, USA/Canada, David v.R. Bowles has been elected vice president western region, USA/Canada and Jamie Angus-Whiteoak has been elected as vice president Northern Europe region.

Thomas Gmeiner has been named Stagetec CTO. Gmeiner brings many years’ experience in the fields of R&D, bringing expertise in product development and innovation to his new role. His leading positions have included a role in professional audio, consumer electronics and automotive at Harman/ AKG and Knowles. ‘Development is impelled by creative individuals who are often highly diverse,’ Gmeiner says. ‘As CTO, I will particularly enjoy the challenge of orchestrating a team, managing and focusing the expert knowledge of the best.” CEO, Wolfgang Salzbrenner added: “I am convinced that bringing in Thomas Gmeiner is essential to achieving innovative top performance.”

POLAR, established supplier of key industry brands to the installation, MI and professional audio markets, announced the the appointment of Mark Jennings to the post of business development manager, integrated solutions. Mark is a respected sales professional with a detailed understanding of the unique requirements of schools, further and higher education settings. POLAR MD John Midgley commented: “The market in educational technology is strong and growing; Mark’s wide-ranging experience, and ability to communicate with clients to help them understand exactly what will work best in a given setting, make him an excellent addition to the POLAR team.”

APPOINTMENTS

Eventide Audio announced that Joe Cozzi and Bohan Xie have been promoted to new sales leadership roles. In the new role of sales manager–Americas, Joe Cozzi will manage accounts in the Americas for audio and broadcast lines. He joined Eventide in 2015 as a national sales manager, where he has spent the last seven years traveling the US and Mexico supporting the dealer network. In his role as Sales Manager–EMAC & APAC, Bohan Xie is responsible for leading sales efforts for the company’s hardware and software products in these regions, as well as expanding the scope of distribution for Eventide products in those areas.

“We are extremely grateful to welcome so many bright and innovative minds to the DPA Microphones team,” says CEO Kalle Hvidt Nielsen. “The experience these individuals bring will be a great asset to the company. We look forward to their contributions to the brand as we reinforce our commitment to the industry.” top row (l to r): Nikolaj Vejen, senior product manager; Richard Watts, regional manager — Southern UK; Konrad Majchrowski, area sales manager — Poland; middle row (l to r): Helga Somava, director of product management; Torben Ekenberg, head of R&D; bottom row (l to r): JC Bittence, area sales manager — Midwest US; Carlito Cobos — area sales manager, Southern US and Latin America; Tetiana Kulyk, digital marketing specialist.

DiGiCo has appointed RMS Proaudio as its new distributor for Portugal. “RMS Proaudio have been consistently successful with the DiGiCo brand across Spain, so when the time came to appoint a new distributor for Portugal, they were an obvious choice,” says DiGiCo sales application specialist, Fernando Delgardo. “We have been distributing DiGiCo to the Spanish market for more than 18 years and now we are excited to bring the same level of experience, support and technical service to Portugal,” says Miguel Angel Jiménez, general manager of RMS Proaudio.

Calrec for EMG operations centre

OB and technical services provider EMG UK has turned to Calrec to equip its latest Remote Operations Centre (ROC) in Stratford, London, a fully remote extension to the

four current EMG UK ROCs located in High Wycombe. Stratford ROC offers full UHD, HDR and Dolby Atmos remote production for BT Sports’ Premier League football matches.

The Stratford ROC is designed with 8K in mind, so EMG opted for 12G for the video infrastructure. For the audio, it installed a 56-fader Artemis, alongside an IP-native Type R (handling music playback operations). Calrec’s Hydra 2 networking technology has also been installed alongside a Calrec AoIP Gateway. This ensures SMPTE 2110 is in place for the Type R sub mix console, but also has an eye on future connectivity. EMG UK is also using a Calrec RP1, the company’s compact remote production unit.

The audio workflow allows the ROC remote control of all presentation audio signals via the RP1. This allows the sound team to control parameters like EQ and dynamics remotely, and to provide IFB mixes in real time. Other signals are derived from the OB match truck and passed through the RP1 via MADI. Intercom signals are connected on the remote Dante network, to which the RP1 also is connected. Over 200 audio signals are processed and embedded at the OB, with all signals arriving at the ROC through diverse connectivity.

www.calrec.com

Italian residential studio installs Genelec

La Casamurada studio in Penedès, Spain, has expanded its monitoring capabilities with a pair of Genelec The Ones 8361 three-way coaxial

monitors. The studio itself is located in the former wine cellar at the base of a defensive tower in a 12thcentury fortified farmhouse. In 2007, Jesús Rovira, bassist and composer for legendary Catalan rock band Lax ‘n’ Busto, decided that the acoustics made the cellar perfect for recording, and set about creating a space that would give musicians everything they need from a residential studio, while also respecting the original fabric of the building.

“We use the new 8361s for recording — their primary use — and mixing,” explains Rovira. “We’re very satisfied with their performance; in fact, all the engineers who have been in the studio since the 61s were purchased have been very pleased and have told me so in no uncertain terms!”

www.lacasamurada.com

Sweet Justice Sound

Sweet Justice Sound, have recently updated their South-Coast based UK cinematic post facilities to include two new 7.1.4 ATMOS studios designed by The Studio People in consultation with Dolby Laboratories.

The larger 30m2 SJ Studio 1 is built around ProTools MTRX with Madi Atmos RMU, running JBLs M2s, LSR708i, and SUB18 (with Crown amps) for the main configuration, in parallel with a nearfield PSI A23-M / A225M Sub setup, with both being processed by a Trinnov MC Pro calibrated by Dolby to meet home theatre standards.

SJ Studio 2 utilises a complete 7.1.4 PSI monitoring solution and is also calibrated through Trinnov with Dolby oversight to meet specification. The entire building is run on Dante, with a hardware central master clock aligning everything. The Sweet Justice team includes over a dozen movie and game industries award-winning production pros, including Ben Minto (Resolution V15.8) who told us: “All equipment was supplied and installed by HHB Communications Ltd (huge thanks to Oli and Andy for the late nights!) and by the fantastic Paul Mortimer at Emerging.”

www.sweetjusticesound.com

Lawo upgrades manufacturing capabilities

Lawo has announced that it has invested in a SMD production line purchased from Fuji Europe Corporation GmbH in preparation for increasing product demand for the

company’s audio and video products. “As a manufacturer of top video and audio technology, we guarantee compliance with the highest production quality standards,” explains Andreas Hilmer, chief marketing officer at Lawo. Lawo develops, manufactures and distributes network, control, audio and video systems for TV and radio, industry, live sound and theatre applications. These IP-based products are manufactured at the company’s headquarters in Rastatt, Germany, where Lawo employs about two-thirds of its approximately 300 worldwide employees.

Lawo has invested in three new Fuji AIMEX-series pick-and-place machines, which can reportedly assemble around 30,000 components per hour of even the smallest component size, EIA 01005, equivalent to twice the diameter of a human hair. The new production line also includes an integrated vapor phase soldering furnace and automated component storage cabinets, which save working time and space and extend the shelf life of parts and components.

Snarky Puppy record with Lauten mics

Four time Grammy-winning Snarky Puppy’s upcoming album Empire Central was tracked live in front of a studio audience — tasked with capturing 19 musicians simultaneously, recording and mix engineer Nicolas Hard employed 26 Lauten Audio microphones for the group’s 14th album.

The list of Lauten microphones used on the sessions includes four LA-120, ten LA-220, five Atlantis FC-387, three Clarion FC-357, and four LS-208. The session setup included three complete drum kits, where each tom was recorded with an LA-220. Hi-hats were captured with LA-120, and a Clarion was used for the kick drum. Atlantis mics were chosen for percussion overheads and solo trumpet. “I find the extensive filters/roll-offs extremely useful for drums, and I had no EQs available to process sound on the way in, so I was taking advantage of the options available on the Lauten mics,” explains Hard. “I used a Clarion on a kick, and it sounded great!”

www.lautenaudio.com

Quested for Marshall Studios

Legendary amp-maker Marshall’s world-class recording studio in Milton Keynes (Resolution V21.5) — boasting a 273 sq m. live room and a 40-channel vintage Neve 8048 mixer — recently upgraded their control room with a Quested monitoring system.

“It was like fitting that last piece into a jigsaw, or getting the right key for a lock,” said Marshall studio manager Adam Beer. “The Quested Q212FS monitors are just perfect for the room, and for the type of music we record. The imaging is absolutely spot on, you can accurately pinpoint everything throughout the stereo field.”

The Q212FS free-standing system has been adapted to allow for the Q212 element to sit on top of the QSB118 sub-bass, and be at a perfect height for the mixing console. The Q212 element is a three-way monitor utilising dual twelve-inch radial chassis drivers, a custom soft-dome 3” mid driver, coupling with a soft-dome HF. Rock duo Nova Twins tracked their Mercury-nominated album Supernova on the Questeds, and British Blues Award-winner Laurence Jones has been in the studio mixing his new album.

www.quested.com • www.marshall.com/recording-artists/the-marshall-studio

EVENTS GUIDE

IBC, Amsterdam 9-12 September Tokyo Game Show 15-18 September Synthfest Sheffield 8 October Broadcast India Mumbai 13-15 October BPM Birmingham 15-16 October AES/NAB New York 19-20 October SMPTE Los Angeles 24-27 October AFIAL Madrid SATIS Paris

25-27 October 8-9 November LDI Las Vegas 18-20 November Reproduced Sound Bristol 15-17 November Interbee Tokyo 16-18 November Radio TechCon London 28 November CES Las Vegas 5-8 January 2023