Genelec opens US Experience Centre
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This latest Experience Centre is a total rebuild of a former surround sound demo studio designed in-house in 2004, with Will Eggleston, Genelec Inc. US marketing director, providing the acoustical design. Earlier this year, Eggleston called on world-renowned studio architect and designer Francis Manzella, president and principal designer at Francis Manzella Design, to create a new aesthetic and acoustical treatments for the renovated space, which serves as a mix room, a theatre and a research and test centre for new software and other products.
“Sadly, we lost Fran the day before we broke ground,” says Paul Stewart, Genelec Inc. senior technical sales manager, who devised the room’s wiring scheme. “It was tragic losing such a talented and great guy, but I have to say that we really did consider him every step of the way as we worked on the finishing touches to this room and kept his spirit in it.”
The new space is configured to handle formats from stereo through surround to immersive 9.1.6 through a range of Genelec’s Smart Active Monitors (SAM). The installed speakers demonstrate the breadth of Genelec’s product line.
Three 8351Bs are installed for L-C-R, four 8341As support the left and right side and rear channels and six more 8341As are located overhead for the front, mid and rear height channels. A 7370 subwoofer handles low-end extension for the overhead speakers, while a 7380 sub supports the LFE channel and manages extension of the center, side and rear channels. Two W371A Smart Active Woofer Systems are located left and right and are paired with the main left and right 8351B monitors.
More and more content companies now specify immersive audio deliverables, says Stewart, so the time was right to build this new Genelec Experience Centre. “Immersive content is obviously on the rise. Our customer base needs instruction and guidance on going beyond stereo or 5.1, and we need to be able to work with the same tools our customers are using. So the main purpose for this studio, first and foremost, is as a place for people to experience what an immersive room feels like,” he says.
