Dan Zimbelman, Director of Sales and Marketing at API, with the 64-channel API Vision console at the 133rd AES Convention in San Francisco in October 2012.
With 17,000 students and more than 44,000 alumni filling the ranks of the entertainment industry, Full Sail University in Orlando, Fla., is among the best known and highly respected institutions for audio, film, design, show production, game development, computer animation, and entertainment business education. Its flagship recording arts program dates back to the school’s founding more than 30 years ago and is currently supported by a massive studio complex. After a comprehensive search and thorough vetting, Full Sail has announced it will replace the existing console in Studio B with a 64-channel API Vision analog surround sound console.
Because the API Vision can mix in stereo and surround sound simultaneously, Full Sail will be able to merge it with audio-for-video courses and projects.
“It was important that we provide our students the invaluable experience of working with high-end analog audio,” explains Dana Roun, director of audio arts at Full Sail University. “Today, most of our incoming students have been working with digital audio their entire lives. And yet the sound that defines our industry, the sound of the classic albums, the benchmark in professional audio, is the sound of finely crafted analog equipment. API embodies that real analog sound.”
Round says that some of the school’s audio educators and technicians met to whittle down a long list of possible replacements. “We considered everything, but we were aiming for that boutique, sought-after, no-questions-asked, flat-out great analog sound.” Once a short list existed, Roun and a small party of faculty traveled to Nashville, where they could test-drive each console in close proximity. “We left Nashville sure in our decision that API had the sound we were after,” he adds. “When we heard it, it felt unmistakably right.”
“API is pleased not only to be chosen to build and supply a custom API Vision console for Full Sail, but also to show this 64-channel console on the floor of the recent AES Show,” says Gordon Smart, managing director of API. “This special desk, scheduled for commissioning at Full Sail on January 2, 2013, was unveiled at this past AES Convention in San Francisco. It’s exciting to welcome one of the most prestigious secondary schools on the planet into the API family.”
For more information visit www.apiaudio.com and www.fullsail.edu.
