Audio post-production house Bang Zoom! Entertainment in Burbank, CA recently added a mix stage for the Dolby Atmos immersive audio format with Focusrite RedNet HD32R 32-channel HD Dante network bridges facilitating networking and more in the facility.
At the outset of the project, Bang Zoom! reached out to Westlake Pro, which specializes in design and integration for immersive studios and post-production facilities. Westlake Pro also supplied all the RedNet products and worked closely with the team at the facility to help ensure the install met Dolby’s specifications.
Bang Zoom! operates from 15,000 square feet of space housing seven ADR recording stages, two Foley stages, six edit bays, and four Dolby-certified mix stages with 5.1, 6.1 & 7.1 surround-sound capabilities in addition to the new Atmos mix stage. Moving all of that sound around the facility is a Dante network, served by six HD32R 32-channel network bridges that act as the backbone of the facility’s content/signal transport infrastructure.
The new stage is designed as a one-person mix position: four HD32R units take up to 128 channels from the Avid Pro Tools | HDX system to the Dolby RMU Atmos rendering and mastering processor; two more HD32Rs serve as the interfaces for the studio’s Pro Tools recording system. August Belfiglio, Lead Audio Technical Engineer at Bang Zoom!, says two of the HD32R units were already in place at the facility before the addition of the Atmos mix studio.
“So instead of having to get a new interface for that increased channel account, we just added two more HD32Rs to the mix rig and then added two more to the dub rig,” he explains. “It was easy to keep expanding with that instead of having to get something new. With RedNet, we could simply expand on the existing system. It gave us a clear and easy pathway forward.”
The RedNet infrastructure also allows the studio to move between its traditional stereo and 5.1 workflows and Atmos. A RedNet X2P 2×2 Dante audio interface with two Red Evolution mic preamps, stereo line out and a stereo headphone amp brings added flexibility. Belfiglio: “It’s there if the mixer wants to mix in headphones, but it also serves a talkback for when we’re on remote-mixed view-downs with clients, and if we ever need a microphone for someone to lay down some quick scratch or [vocal] sound effects. It comes in handy for a lot of things and it’s fully integrated into the entire RedNet system, so it’s always there whenever we need it.”
Danny Fasold, the Sales Consultant at Westlake Pro who worked with Belfiglio on the mix room’s design, says the Focusrite HD32R was the right call for the studio’s Dante network and a key piece to implementing Atmos. “They always knew that they were going to go with Atmos, and they always knew that they needed to build Dante into their infrastructure, tie into their main mix stage, and be able to pull audio to and from any room, so the HD32R was the solution,” he says. “It was the perfect tool to bridge their Dante network to their Avid Pro Tools system. It doesn’t take a lot of convincing — Oh, this is what you want to do? Then this is what you will need: the Focusrite RedNet HD32R.”
Bang Zoom! has earned two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Sound Mixing and Outstanding Sound Editing and provides audio post services for the Adult Swim series Rick And Morty.
