“ It doesn ’ t matter whether you ’ re a master control operator listening in a master control or QC room , a video editor or producer in a control room , or an audio guy mixing in a post sound mix theatre or control room – we want everything to sound the same for everybody .”
getting the [ required ] number of channels without increasing the budget .”
Again , they stress , the decision to favour Xilicia was partly informed by the company ’ s attention to detail : “ Their entire focus is on the support of high-sample rate material and they ’ re highly regarded in terms of the specificity of their approach ,” Nunan emphasizes .
While Nunan and Baggley won ’ t necessarily need to work at the crest of the sample rates the products can accommodate anytime soon , “ There ’ s an automatic presumption that , when you ’ ve got a piece of gear that ’ s capable of working to a very high level of precision at a higher sampling rate , it ’ s going to do great work at more conventional sample rates ,” Nunan says . “ And really , we wanted something that was going to be as close to a straight wire as possible . We didn ’ t want anything in the chain that was going to needlessly colour things .”
Baggley adds that , in his home , he uses an older Xilica product as a crossover for his speaker system . “ Xilica was recommended , and I have to say it works really well as my three-way crossover .”
While the Atmos configuration was pre-existing in Post 207 , it was previously unprocessed beyond the room correction that was being done “ inside the box ” using the capabilities of the Neumann gear . That ,
ACR 7 EQUIPTMENT ROOM
Nunan says , was owing to the fact that they had yet to find a product that offered the kind of wide processing that met their requirements . “ Post 207 started life as a 5.1 room filled with K & H loudspeakers for the Vancouver Olympics , so we swapped out the Neumanns about the same time we started deploying Neumanns elsewhere . Similarly , ACR 7 , which was commissioned in Summer 2017 and we built last year , from day one had those loudspeakers in it , so ACR 7 was brand new , an empty box , and the Xilica went in slightly before Christmas .”
In terms of loudspeaker placement , Baggley says : “ In ACR 7 , we ’ re configured as 5.1 . Suffice to say that Michael goes to painstaking ends to ensure the speaker placement is optimal and , basically , the loudspeakers are all equidistant from the optimal listening position and properly balanced to zero reference the room .”
Prior to the installation of the Xilica , however : “ We had not timed the room ,” Baggley continues , “ so that was a big part of what the Xilica brought to us . Suffice to say that the speakers are in a logical configuration and not being impeded by anything within the room . We had a decent sounding room right from the get go . I think that Michael would like to see it be absolutely zero timed out , have zero reference as the optimal listening point . Most of the stuff that we ’ re doing in that room , honestly , would be posted by [ CTV Post Sound Supervisor ] David Midgely in 207 so we want our references to be the same .”
Baggley provides a specific anecdote as to why that ’ s key : “ We were having a little bit of trouble with [ the audio ] for one of the characters on The Beaverton after the first post session . This was following my tracking the show and giving it to Dave as a 5.1 composite mix . They use my 5.1 surround mix as a reference , sweeten with some applause to cover edit points , and basically smooth over the show . If there is a point that they need to rebuild , they have all of the elements in Pro Tools . Anyway , David had a bit of a problem with the way the character ’ s voice was sitting in the mix , so he asked me to take out 1.5 and 2.8 [ kHz ] and I did and it worked flawlessly for him . We had the same reference point . I don ’ t tend to be heavy handed with my equalization – I ’ m kind of a minimalist – but that one simple thing made the difference because he felt , from a mastering standpoint , it was sticking out and we both had a really decent point of reference , so that ’ s where it really helps .”
In Post 207 , the loudspeakers are arranged in a 7.1 configuration using 12 KH120s , with three duplicate KH310s at the left , centre , and right . “ The 310s are our primaries , but we can listen to the mix on a matching set of 120s , which is exactly how everyone else in the facility is going to hear it . The 7.1 is at ear height and then there ’ s a 5.1 configuration of KH120s as the height element in the room . So basically , it ’ s 5.1 stacked on top of 7.1 , which allows us to support Atmos and to scale up to other formats . In Atmos , we ’ re mixing at 7.1.4 , but most of our work day to day is in 5.1 , so that monitoring configuration is very agile .”
The two 801 subs are on one channel , he adds – one being used for the 7.1 and one for the 5.1 configurations .
ACR 7 is equipped with three KH310s , two KH120s , one O-810 sub , and three M-52Ds . The control surface in ACR 7 is a pre-existing , 42-fader Studer Vista 9 , upgraded with Studer ’ s Infinity Core 400 , and two Studer d23m and d21 frames for a total of 14 MADI I / Os plus Misc Analog and AES3 I / O . Other gear includes TC Electronic ’ s System 6000 signal processor , Avid Pro Tools HD | Native , Avid MADI I / O and SyncHD I / O , an RTW TM-9 loudness meter , and Lawo MxGUI .
Similarly , Post 207 is running Pro Tools HD using an Avid ICON D-Control
28 • PROFESSIONAL SOUND