HARMAN Professional Solutions’ JBL, Crown, BSS help
provide sound and networked audio for the first and only university-based immersive
audio film production program
NASHVILLE Tenn. – In mid-August 2015, Belmont University’s Curb College of
Entertainment and Music Business moved into the new $87 million R. Milton and
Denice Johnson Center, a 134,000-square-foot structure featuring a new home for
the music business, motion pictures and media studies programs. Functional
spaces include classrooms, labs, performance spaces, production spaces and
research rooms. Additionally, the Johnson Center features a 250-seat theater
and mixing stage equipped with Dolby Atmos immersive audio system. HARMAN
Professional Solutions’ JBL loudspeakers, Crown amplification and BSS networked
audio are proud to play a role within this important entertainment education
facility.
“Curb
College has always offered excellent state-of-the-art technology resources for
our students including the best of music production, sound stages, audio
recording and editing,” said Dave Warburton, Manager, Recording and Film
Studios, Belmont University. “With this latest expansion, we’ve greatly enhanced
this world-class facility to offer advanced audio for film and film editing
facilities with immersive sound production and editing and networked audio
experience.”
Serving as
a home base for a wide range of entertainment, music and film students, Curb
College offers a comprehensive curriculum for majors including audio
engineering, songwriting, motion pictures, music business and entertainment industry
studies. University officials worked with Nashville-based AV Integrator, M3
Technology Group, who provided the systems, technologies and installation on the
project.
From a
technology point of view, the college offers a comprehensive set of facilities,
including a TV Production Studio for producing and capturing student newscasts,
commentators, product shots and small interview productions; a Motion Capture
Space to create live-action computer-generated imagery, allowing for 3D
animation, digital compositing and motion graphics for any production; a
2,500-square-foot Sound Stage for making single- and multiple-camera motion
pictures; 24 Student Edit Bays in which students can view, process,
synchronize, edit and mix video and audio program material, and a Foley/ADR
Suite to capture sound effects and atmospherics for replacing and enhancing
sounds in audio, video and film productions.
A crown
jewel within the new facility is the 250-seat Johnson Screening and Mixing
Theater, which serves as a screening room for motion pictures and a mix theater
for audio mixing for film. In fact, this makes Curb College the world’s first
and only university-based film program capable of teaching the process of
developing and producing theater-ready films in the Dolby Atmos immersive
format.
“Often with
school film projects and amateur productions, the audio is usually the first
element to drop off. Student film courses at most schools don’t dedicate the time
and resources to teaching and creating professional audio,” said Warburton. “Directors
regard audio as half the film experience. Our goal is to give students the
opportunity to work with the very latest in audio production tools and
technology and enable them to create projects that look and sound professional.”
The Dolby
Atmos Rendering and Mastering Unit (Dolby RMU) allows faculty to teach the
process of creating and compiling movies in immersive Dolby Atmos sound, as
well as traditional 7.1 and 5.1 formats. The system design for the loudspeakers
alone presented some unique challenges, with the overall goal of providing
maximum sound quality and flexibility.
“Designing
and installing the Atmos system within the Johnson theater was fun and
rewarding,” said Keith Martin, Senior Account Manager, M3 Technology Group.
“Every
speaker in the theater is independent and we’re able to create a completely
immersive audio experience. With different imaging between all channels and
speakers you can make sounds come from an exact location in the theater,” added
M3 Senior Designer Engineer, Todd Lewis, CTS-D, DMC-E.
The Johnson
theater has 34 JBL 9320 high-power cinema surrounds, 5 JBL 5732 3-way
high-power ScreenArray loudspeakers and 4 JBL 4642A dual 18-inch bass reflex
subwoofers. The entire system is powered by a set of 14 Crown DCi Network
amplifiers with a total of 64 channels, connected through BSS BLU-806 audio
transport.
“At one
point we were challenged to come up with a ceiling mount solution for a few of
the JBL 9320 speakers. We fabricated a nice mounting system that is completely
flexible, allowing for angle changes and adjustments,” said Martin. “This
turned out to be a great feature for this working classroom. If students want
to work with how speakers are angled and mounted, and how it effects the room
in either 5.1, 7.1 or immersive. They can make it what they need. It’s a very
flexible sound system.”
A great
deal of planning for audio transport infrastructure went into assuring the
entire facility had fast, flexible access to data. Treating each room of the
four-story facility — theaters, sound stages, production suites, edit bays — as
a network node, engineers were able to create a robust system to support the
university’s current and future needs.
“We deployed
a HARMAN-based system with JBL speakers, Crown DCi amplifiers, BSS BLU Link because
it all works together seamlessly,” said Lewis. “Another huge advantage for
a HARMAN solution is that the Dolby Cinema processors also use the same
transport protocol. This makes the entire system reliable, efficient and easy
to install and use.”
BSS BLU Link
by HARMAN is a high-bandwidth, low-latency audio bus that can be used as a
standalone technology or used as a complement to Dante, AVB and CobraNet.
“Essentially
we daisy-chained all the Crown DCi network amplifiers, DSPs and
the Dolby processors on a loop with Cat6 cable between each
box for access to the entire system. Except for a few analog input cables
and speaker cables, the entire audio system is in the digital domain, said Lewis.
“We used Dante to integrate the Avid products into the BSS DSP so everything is
connected digitally.”
ABOUT THE MIKE CURB COLLEGE OF
ENTERTAINMENT AND MUSIC BUSINESS
In 1971,
Belmont University first established a music business program designed to
prepare students for operational, administrative, creative and technical
careers in the music industry. The program grew in both size and reputation,
leading to the advent of the full Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music
Business in 2003. Currently home to more than 2,500 undergraduates with majors
in five areas including music business, audio engineering technology,
entertainment industry studies, songwriting and motion pictures, Curb College
boasts an impressive faculty of academic scholars and authors, entrepreneurs,
songwriters, producers, filmmakers and sound and recording engineers. The
college serves as a world leader in music business and entertainment industry
education and the only freestanding college of its kind.
ABOUT HARMAN
HARMAN (harman.com) designs and engineers connected products and
solutions for automakers, consumers, and enterprises worldwide, including
connected car systems, audio and visual products, enterprise automation
solutions; and connected services. With leading brands including AKG®,
Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, Mark Levinson® and Revel®, HARMAN is
admired by audiophiles, musicians and the entertainment venues where they
perform around the world. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today
are equipped with HARMAN audio and connected car systems. The Company’s
software services power billions of mobile devices and systems that are
connected, integrated and secure across all platforms, from work and home to
car and mobile. HARMAN has a workforce of approximately 30,000 people across
the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $7.0 billion during the 12
months ended September 30, 2016. The Company’s shares are traded on the New
York Stock Exchange under the symbol NYSE:HAR.
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