A new Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 mixing room at Studio 26miles, a three-site hub for broadcasting, content production and local language dubbing in Seoul, South Korea, is equipped with Genelec “The Ones” three-way studio monitors joined by supporting components.
Studio 26miles supports a variety of television programs that include Signal, Stranger, Arthdal Chronicles, Itaewon Class, Voice and Hometown. “TV dramas have a limited amount of time to work with compared to movies,” explains Wave Kim, Studio26’s Sound Supervisor. “So, people often make compromises regarding sound and are less concerned about Foley than they might be for film. However, our studio does not differentiate the way of sound mixing, whether it’s stereo, overseas OTT, 5.1, or Atmos.”
One area where this is particularly visible has been with dialogue. “As a lot of sound is lost due to compression for broadcasting, we have a differentiated approach to dialogue tone, which is critical for matching video and audio,” states Kim. “Since the dialogue is the primary way to feel the actors’ emotions, we use our know-how to enhance the delivery of the dialogue.”
The decision to open the third site and move into Atmos production came from commercial demands. The team’s initial vision for a Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 mixing room was driven by demand from outlets such as Netflix. One of the key decisions for Studio 26miles was the selection of the studio monitors.
“I’m very familiar with Genelec speakers because I used the 1031s when I first started music mixing,” Kim explains. “I’ve been using Genelec for a long time and got so used to the sound of their speakers – so I didn’t want to take the considerable risk of choosing a different brand.”
Working with local Genelec partner Sama Sound, Studio 26miles opted for three 8351 monitors for the left-center-right positions, four 8341s for surrounds and four 8331s as overheads. Low frequencies are handled by two 7380 subwoofers, and the entire system was configured and calibrated using Genelec GLM loudspeaker manager software.
“We’ve changed every monitor speaker to Genelec in all of our facilities,” notes Kim. “With multichannel mixing, we have to be careful about phase, so using monitor speakers of the same brand, if not the same model, is better for managing the channel phase later on. For this reason, it made sense to switch to Genelec speakers in all our studios.”
