‘Around four years ago, the TV world shifted in a big way,’ says Craig Hunter, principal at RH Factor, a leading independent audio post house in Burbank, California. He is referring to the sea change in the way television programmes are being made and distributed.

‘The streaming sites very quickly became a major player in how TV is produced and consumed,’ he continues. ‘That means more original content every year, and more work for us, and it also means changes in the production quality. Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and the others have all been churning out great content, and the cable networks have stepped up their game too.’

Through these changes, RH Factor has called on Genelec monitoring in its Studio B (a 5.1 mix room that is principally used for episodic television) as well as its three other studios (including a feature mix stage, a television mix stage, a layback studio and a Foley/ADR stage).

‘It’s a whole different world now than five years ago, and luckily we had a solid audio foundation of Genelecs in place to face these new challenges,’ Hunter notes.

Studio B’s current audio set-up includes a 5.1 system comprising three Genelec 8260 Tri-Amplified Smart Active Monitors, a rear pair of 8240 Bi-Amplified Smart Active Monitors and a 7270 Smart Active Subwoofer. Studio A uses Genelec 1038 Studio Monitors for LCR, a pair of 8040 Studio Monitors in the rear and a 7071 Studio Subwoofer.

‘We’re always striving to produce the highest possible audio quality,’ Hunter says. ‘In our audio monitors we want no colouration, no hyping – just accuracy as defined by the original recording. We use Genelec tools in Stage B to optimise the room response using GLM [Genelec Loudspeaker Management software] and AutoCal [Automated Calibration software]. To have our monitor system able to calibrate room deficiencies and optimise frequency response as part of that process is a significant benefit to any studio owner. It’s a very high-quality reproduction of whatever it is that I’m working on. It’s important to me that if there is a problem, it’s not masked. I don’t want something that gives me the impression that my problem isn’t a problem, and the Genelecs make those elements shine through very clearly.’

One shift in TV production has been a general ‘loosening’ of audio limiting while preserving loudness – meaning that TV audio is now generally more similar to film audio in its dynamic range.

‘It used to be that the studios wanted a more restricted soundtrack, which works better for older-style TVs, but isn’t really necessary in today’s world of digital devices,’ Hunter says. ‘That means we can get a bit more creative in the way we approach the audio on our projects, which is definitely a welcome shift for us, and Genelec gives us all the range we need to accurately monitor these productions.

‘I don’t see these trends reversing or slowing down. Bandwidth is less and less of an issue, which means people will be consuming high-resolution content any time, any place. We can’t predict exactly what the future holds in this industry, but I know that with our Genelec systems, we’ll be ready for whatever comes our way.’

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