The university hosts over a thousand Bachelor and Masters degree students, with the Faculty of Design, Media and Information based at the Finkenau Campus. The new state-of-the-art media building features the latest technology in film, audio, lighting and media production. As well as learning theory, media technology students can gain practical experience with the latest equipment, preparing them to become the next generation of production specialists.
"When planning our post-production studio we looked at the current DAW systems including several controller solutions," says Carsten Goldberg, Dipl.Ing, technical head of the faculty's audio department. "We had been using Cubase and Nuendo for some time and wanted something that fitted our current workflow, but was also flexible enough to prepare our students for what is a versatile industry. Nuage seemed the perfect solution, an impression which turned out to be true."
The core production facility is a 70m² octagonal live room with seven metre high ceilings, surrounded by seven recording and editing rooms including a Foley stage and accommodation block. The whole production area is linked via a complex Dante network, providing unprecedented connectivity. Virtually any control room can be linked to the live room or any other edit suite, allowing huge recording sessions as well as independent working for bigger groups of students.
Supplied and installed by Hamburg-based Nuage Partner Digital Audioservice, the Nuage system comprises an NCS500CT Master Unit and two NCS500FD fader units.
"We really like the tight integration with Nuendo, which is our main production system for audio," Carsten continues. "The control interface is very intuitive and, instead of spending ages fiddling about trying to learn another piece of equipment, you can use it like a normal mixing console and focus solely on the sound."
(Jim Evans)
