2 Control & ISO Rooms & Video Rooms. Comments please

Hi mates, I'm attempting a studio upgrade with two separate control rooms (Studio A & B) and still contemplating whether they share a common BIG iso booth or two separate iso booths. Our main job is Audio Post for television and Voice Overs, and occasional Music / Song Recording. It would be nice if one of the bigger control room can do film mixing, but that would involve a much bigger room and more gears which we cannot afford, so most probably, the larger room can only do preparations and editing for film mix that would be brought to other Dolby approved studios. Iso Booth will be mainly for Voice Overs or Dubbing Jobs, but we would love to attempt folley recording too. We should be looking for a bigger space. The new place have not been found, so now just sourcing for ideas. Studio A will probably be bigger (5.1 or 7.1 setup, some Voice Overs, dubbing, editing and mixing) than Studio B (more Voice Overs recording, dubbing, editing and mixing). Any minimum space/dimension suggestion for the two control rooms and also ISO booths? Since most work have video playback, we might need to have a TV in the front of the console, thus ISO booths might have to be at the side. There might also be a need (still planning) for two more rooms for video editing facilities, a pantry and bathroom area, common rest area, and a space for a fish-tank (most important!!) and also contemplating whether should there be a machine room to house all the computers (4 MACs and maybe 1 or 2 PCs), Master Clocks, Black burst/sync stuffs and tape decks (video) or to have them in the individual rooms. Any help and further reference materials would be much appreciated. I would love to see some photos of existing studios with such layout as reference too! Thanks & Regards, [Charles]

I was doing a bit of further reading again, and found a design by John in 2003. The picture is here: http://johnlsayers.com/Stuff/Plan2_2.jpg Could I have the rough dimension of the two control rooms? and also the Iso / Recording booth's size? Thnx!

Hi mates, Here's an idea I just copy and paste from various samples here, please comment. Thanks!!

Here's another layout idea, any comments / suggestions? Thanks!!

Hi again mates, I am also looking for ideas for 7.1 setup for the bigger studio (A). Does the 5.1 setup guide in sticky apply? Thanks!

charleslee wrote:

Hi again mates, I am also looking for ideas for 7.1 setup for the bigger studio (A). Does the 5.1 setup guide in sticky apply?

Yes. Teh underlying principles (eg. room size, speaker locations, initial times for first reflections) all still apply. As a mater of fact, 7.1 speakers locations are basically the two extremes of the positions detailed for the rear speakers in 5.1! If you read through the recommendations, the reason is explained there! Have fun! Andre

Yes. Teh underlying principles (eg. room size, speaker locations, initial times for first reflections) all still apply.

Thanks for the notes. I did another round of search and realised that for 7.1 speaker placement, speaker locations is only the same for the front speakers, the back speakers positions are different from the 5.1 ones, ie. initially, i thought it's as easy as adding just the side speakers at 3 and 9 o'clock and just turn them on for 7.1 and off for 5.1 So, I guess if this is the case, I cannot flush mount (soffit) the speakers into the walls then. ok, I realised also that I don't get much response in this thread. Guess it's because my location and room dimensions are not fixed yet. But I do hope that once the place is fixed, I could get a more proportional draft done out and get some comments and suggestions from gurus here. Should I start a new thread when the time comes or continue this thread?

Your welcome. If you look at the 5.1 surround recommendations, note the locations vary from 110 to ~150 degrees of axis. For 7.1 use the two extremes for the side and rear surround. Soffit mounting is achievable, but very cumbersome in requiring additional detail in locations. As you get firmer in your ideas and post them, no doubt more responses will start to happen. The vaguer ( a word?) a query is, the more difficult it is to respond to concisely. Also many people have my habit of following a thread and unles I have something specific to add to, I let the main responders handle the discussion, knowing that in the course of the thread my thoughts will be brought out eventually. Just not int he exact same manner that I would have presented them. Personally I suggest add tot his thread, it maintains a continuity on the project from inception. Good and looking forward to more from you! Andre

Hi again, Thanks for the comments. just an update.. I was looking at a place a couple of days back. Was initially Very interested and started doing some drafts of room layouts with their floorplan, but later found out that it is too costly (the rental), so at the moment, I have yet to find a suitable place. Meanwhile, need a suggestion for 5.1 (and 7.1) rooms. The enginner makes the surround mixes, so he should be in the "sweet spot". But the client(s) pays the bills, so should i put the sofa (sometimes clients come in a big group) in the sweet spot? By logic, the Engineer should be more important, but the client(s) are just as important.. so any way to make everybody happy?? Thanks!

Meanwhile, need a suggestion for 5.1 (and 7.1) rooms. The enginner makes the surround mixes, so he should be in the "sweet spot". But the client(s) pays the bills, so should i put the sofa (sometimes clients come in a big group) in the sweet spot? By logic, the Engineer should be more important, but the client(s) are just as important.. so any way to make everybody happy??

Desognt he room so thatt eh sweet spot is laerge enough for as many people that you resaonably expect to be in control (tech,money :D ). Think of it this way: two people minimum; the engineer and the producer (client). Andre