Acoustic and studio design consultancy White Mark Ltd has completed a major acoustic re-fit of the audio control room and voice-over booth at Splice TV Ltd in London’s Shoreditch.
“We’re really delighted with the outcome of this project,” says Nag Kirinde, Splice’s head of audio. “The control room and vocal booth both sound amazing, as well as looking and feeling great. Clients and staff are all voicing their approval.”
Established in 2003, Splice is an independent post production facility for the broadcast television market. It offers a wide range of services in both picture and audio and provides a complete post-production solution from storyboard through to final delivery.
Splice’s state-of-the-art facilities include non-linear editing in standard and high definitions, sound, design, effects and grading. The facility’s client list includes many of the UK’s top broadcasters and production companies such as the BBC, ITV, C4, C5, More4 and Virgin, along with international broadcasters such as MTV, Discovery and NHK. It is particularly renowned for its high quality work on television documentaries.
White Mark’s involvement with Splice began soon after the company moved into its new facility in Perseverance Works, Shoreditch, where it occupies two floors of an old warehouse. With more space at its disposal, Splice added two audio suites – one for voice over projects and the other, equipped with the latest Pro Tools HD3 system, for stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixing.
“The rooms looked really good but we felt we could improve on their tonal qualities.” Nag Kirinde explains. “On the advice of Scrub, who installed all the equipment, we called in White Mark to see what could be done to make the rooms sound better.”
White Mark measured both rooms and devised plans to improve the acoustics. This involved installing rear wall and ceiling baffles and a back wall diffuser to absorb the bass frequencies.
“It was a major project ripping out and rebuilding the walls and ceiling whilst working around the Icon. We shut the room down for a week and our builders worked around the clock,” Kirinde adds. “We were worried that the acoustic treatment might make the rooms feel smaller but in fact White Mark’s designs were so good that once the work was completed there was no discernable difference in feel. All the angles and fabric remained the same – it just sounded a whole lot better. When you are using an audio facility to mix 5.1 projects it is vital that the acoustics are accurate because 5.1 is much less forgiving than stereo.”
Clients have been delighted with the improvements to the main control room which now has much more even tonal characteristics.
“White Mark worked closely with us and our builders, Simon Ribchester and Henry Platt, to make this project a success,” says Kirinde. “I was really impressed by their enthusiasm and helpfulness, They were always available and willing to fit in around our very hectic work schedules. Dave Bell and Derek Buckingham from the company spent a lot of time here talking to Simon, Henry and myself making sure that everything went as smoothly and quickly as possible.”
The Pro Tools HD3 system and 32 fader Icon provide a powerful and quick mixing environment. The audio workflow at Splice TV is further enhanced by the entire facility being linked to an Avid Unity server. Audio and video files can be picked up almost instantaneously from the offline and online suites, eliminating play-in and play-out times and allowing clients and editors to spend more time on creative work.
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