Soularity Sound upgrades with JBL and Dolby
- Details
Soularity Sound provides post-production audio services for film, television, streaming, commercials and web content in the Austin market and internationally. Services include sound editing, sound design, Foley, ADR, voiceover, mixing and production sound.
Recognising a growing industry trend of adopting the Dolby Atmos immersive audio format as a standard deliverable, Pereira decided to upgrade his 5.1 surround sound monitoring system to a 7.1.4 setup with ceiling speakers for three-dimensional sound. To achieve high-quality results that translate well to cinemas, home theatres and consumer devices, Pereira equipped his studio with JBL 7 Series monitors, a JBL Intonato 24 monitor management and tuning system, and Crown amplifiers.
“Seeing the traction that Dolby has had on the consumer market was one of the big factors that pushed me into the decision,” said Pereira. “Now that iPhones, Soundbars, Apple TVs and other devices are natively supporting Atmos, it seems like it's definitely going to stick around. Especially with Netflix more or less adopting it as a native format, I expect to see more and more spec sheets asking for Atmos mixes. So for me, it kind of hit a tipping point where the technology seemed like it was going to be the industry leader, and more and more people are gravitating towards it in a way that made it worth jumping on board.”
Soularity Sound’s new 7.1.4 monitoring system includes seven loudspeakers and one subwoofer in a traditional 7.1 surround sound configuration, plus four additional ceiling-mounted speakers which add the height dimension necessary for Dolby Atmos.
For the left, centre and right channels, Pereira selected JBL 708P eight-inch powered monitors. For the surround and overhead channels, Pereira chose JBL 705i five-inch passive monitors powered by a network-connected Crown DCi 8|300N amplifier. Finally, to provide ample low-frequency power for the system, Pereira installed a JBL ASB6115 high-power 15-inch subwoofer powered by a Crown CDi 2000 amplifier.
“A number of larger dub stages, at least in the Austin market, use JBL speakers,” said Pereira. “So I like that what I hear on my speakers translates incredibly well in a larger room on JBL cinema speakers. Part of it comes down to reputation, as well. I'm a longtime JBL user and when I upgraded from stereo to 5.1, I ended up going with JBL. So for me, it was a logical progression. The 7 Series definitely stood out to me as the best product on the market right now for doing immersive media, especially for home theater.”
To control the 7.1.4 system, Soularity Sound relies on the JBL Intonato 24 monitor management and tuning system. previewing encoded Atmos content with a receiver hooked up to the analogue inputs of the Intonato.
(Jim Evans)
