The post-production department at Toei Studios in Kyoto, Japan has upgraded the audio monitoring in its premier screening room with the installation of a new Meyer Sound cinema system.
With 42 seats for screenings, the facility can be converted to a dubbing stage with removal of a few seats and replacement with a mixing console. The room, in constant use by directors, producers and post-production professionals, is part of Toei Studios’ extensive Kyoto post-production campus that includes Foley, ADR and editorial facilities. The studio produces a steady stream of Japanese language films and television programs, mostly for domestic distribution.
Shinichi Yokoyama, director of the post-production center for the past two years, notes the importance of accurate translation in a screening room audio monitoring system. “We strive to convey the sound as originally intended in the production,” he says, “and we’re proud that now the sound heard at the dubbing stage can be fully reproduced in the screening room. It’s a strong selling point.”
Meyer Sound’s Acheron Studio full-range loudspeakers anchor the three screen channels and the LFE program is reproduced by three X-800C cinema subwoofers. The screen channels and LFE are driven by a single Galileo GALAXY 816 Network Platform. Ten HMS-5 surround loudspeakers complete the system.
The Toei Studios post-production staff evaluated different options before selecting the Meyer Sound system, according to Yokoyama: “I had listened to a Meyer Sound system at Warner Bros. studio a few years ago and I very much liked the clear and direct sound quality, particularly with the English dialogue. I thought the system would convey that same clarity for Japanese dialogue.
“Compared to the prior system in the screening room, the circumstances are much improved,” he continues. “We now have better sound isolation, and the prior loudspeakers could not compete with our current Meyer Sound system for intelligibility. We have had very good responses from all our audio people, including the recording engineers.”
The Toei Company is headquartered in Tokyo but also maintains major production facilities in Kyoto. The company is known as one of the “big four” film studios in Japan, while also operating movie theatres and holding interest in television companies. Toei’s predecessor company was founded in 1938, with the current company established in 1951. Toei was the exclusive Japanese distributor for 20th Century Fox until the Disney acquisition in 2019.
