Professional Sound - April 2018 | Page 27

ACR 7 discover that the product had actually been improved upon .
Only recently , however , is the project – with the creation of ACR 7 – nearing completion . “ That is , completely standardizing , with a single loudspeaker ecosystem for all critical monitoring . And it ’ s taken 10 years , because it ’ s like painting the Golden Gate Bridge , right ?”
The loudspeakers , he adds , were the first “ connective tissue ” between ACR 7 and Post 207 . “ One of the things that won the day for them , and it ’ s still true today , happily , is that , vertically speaking , Neumann ’ s product line is very well integrated and very commonly voiced .”
That ultimately allows CTV to deploy and match various Neumann loudspeakers in any given space – in this case , Neumann KH310s , 120s , O-810 subs , and M-52s – to provide a fully translatable experience between those spaces for listening and mixing . The M-52s , Nunan adds , are essentially used as a utility loudspeaker for communications-grade applications rather than critical listening .
Both ACR 7 and Post 207 are what Nunan calls “ flagship ” spaces for mixing and post . “ And Post 207 will do a variety of production work over its lifetime , not just talking head news .” Therefore , its capabilities cross many formats , including Dolby Atmos in a variety of form factors .
Originally , it was built as a 5.1 room for the Vancouver Games , and more specifically , to handle music creation for the broadcasts , Baggley puts in . “ But we ’ ve augmented it with more loudspeakers , another sub , and a bunch of other technology for our normal , day-to-day post operations in conventional formats . But it ’ s also been our high order surround sandbox for the last couple of years as we ’ ve been exploring the mechanics and the aesthetic of what it ’ s going to mean to have access to plus-height formats in the near future .”
Among the other technology deployed in the two rooms is DSP processors manufactured by Stouffville , ON ’ s Xilica Audio Design Ltd . “ The Xilica thing is a brand new experience for us ,” Nunan says . “ As we all know , there ’ s a point beyond which you ’ re never going to make any improvements short of active processing to combat either the room or the stuff in it . We had not found , until landing on Xilica , a product that we were content with that would allow us to do that kind of processing – largely EQ and delay – on the number of loudspeakers we have . Frankly , the tools we ’ ve used previously were sub-par relative to the kind of tweaking Xilica provides , and we were very impressed with their philosophy , the quality of their builds , and the thought that goes in to their intentions to be , sort of , purists in terms of handling signal .”
One Xilica Neutrino was deployed in ACR 7 while a pair of Xilica UNOs went into Post 207 . “ In Post 207 , we needed 16 channels of processing , and the best way that Xilica could answer that requirement was with two eight-channel UNOs working in concert . We could have done it with two Neutrinos , but at a higher cost , and , given that we don ’ t need the processing to be that agile – because once we dialled in the room it ’ s really not going to change because the room ’ s not changing – it was a simple expedient of
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