Skywalker Sound has installed five Dolby Lake Processor units to optimize the 9-channel loudspeaker system in its Stag Theater, which is already equipped with a Dolby Digital decoder. Located in the Technical Building at Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, Calif., the 300-seat Stag Theater supports any film playback format and provides a state-of-the-art showcase for filmmakers who work at the full-service audio post-production facility. Cutting Edge Audio & Video Group of San Francisco supplied the Dolby Lake Processors, which were installed in March.
With several of Skywalker Sound’s mix stages upgrading to 96kHz operation, the Dolby Lake Processor was initially selected for the performance of its converters. “The main thing that intrigued Skywalker Sound and sold us on the Dolby Lake Processor was the overall quality of the sound without doing any processing,” says Jim Austin of Skywalker Sound Engineering Services. “It’s a really good sounding system and the quality of sound is unparalleled.”
Three of the Dolby Lake Processors have been installed to control five channels behind the screen, plus separate center-top and low-frequency effects channels, with two additional Dolby Lake Processors controlling the right- and left-rear surround speaker arrays. The Stag Theater features a custom TAD speaker system that was developed at Skywalker Sound with Meyer Sound subwoofers.
The Dolby Lake Processor is also the first all-in-one monitor speaker optimization solution to be implemented at Skywalker Sound. Audio quality may be compromised on a typical film mix stage due to budget constraints and the large number of converters, digital signal processing (DSP) and interconnecting cabling required in the monitor path. The Dolby Lake Processor combines multiple channels of high-quality converters and DSP in a single rack unit.
For more information, visit www.dolby.com/livesound, www.skysound.com and www.ceag.com.
