As the sound-for-picture media industry sector moves deeper into immersive sound, the Sound & Music Technology programme at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida, offers students four studios configured for 7.1.4-channel monitoring, including four overhead/height channels. One studio is additionally certified for Dolby Atmos – one of the only such facilities in pro audio education. These studios and others at the college share an audio-monitoring infrastructure made up of Smart Active Monitors from Genelec.

Two of the facility’s six studios and listening environments, Studios A (the facility’s flagship room) and B, use 7.1.4 arrays using seven Genelec 8350As for LCR and surround arrays and four Genelec 8340As as the height array.

Additionally, rooms employ a pair of the Genelec 1234A’s as a separate main set of far-field monitors for full-range monitoring. Mixroom 1, which is Dolby Atmos-certified, uses Genelec 1238As for its LCR and 8340As for the surround, while four 8330As are used for its height array. Mixroom 2 is set-up in a similar fashion, but uses 1237As for its LCR. All four studios are also equipped with dual subwoofers using either Genelec 7370A or 7360A Smart Active Subwoofers.

Joe McBride, the Teaching Lab Supervisor at Valencia College’s Sound & Music Technology programme, housed in Valencia College’s new Film Production and Sound Technology Building, says the Genelecs offer a combination of transparent sound and leading-edge technology. ‘Nothing sounds as good as Genelec,’ he confirms. ‘Having Genelecs throughout the production rooms means that mixes can translate accurately between rooms. The way something sounds in one studio is how it will sound in any of the others, which is the way all leading sound facilities are designed.’

McBride also relies on Genelec Loudspeaker Manager (GLM) digital-room-correction to manage levels, distance delays, and frequency balances of up to 30 networked speakers from a single interface, and Genelec’s AutoCal, which automatically measures, analyses and adjusts speaker settings.

‘These features are a way that we can have the studios designed to serve different purposes yet always provide a consistent listening environment for our students,’ he explains. ‘Genelec is what professionals use at the highest levels of this industry, so it’s what our students experience when they’re here.

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