Natick, Mass.—RAI, Italy’s state broadcaster, has upgraded the music studio at its Fabrizio Frizzi television studios in Rome with new 5.1 surround and stereo systems based around Genelec’s “The Ones” three-way coaxial Smart Active Monitors.
“This is the center of production in Rome for TV shows, and the room we have upgraded is for mixing the music for these shows,” explains Gino De Dominicis, pro audio product manager and Genelec product specialist at Midiware, the Italian distributor of Genelec’s wide range of professional monitors. “They take the orchestra from the TV shows—it’s just the music they mix—and they broadcast every show that is made in the building in this way.
“They wanted a 5.1 system to mix in surround and a main stereo system in that room,” he continues. “They have to guarantee a high-quality service for the whole country, so we recommended The Ones, which offer very neutral and detailed listening.”
Midiware specified two 8351 monitors combined with a pair of W371 adaptive woofer systems for the stereo setup. The 5.1 surround system consists of five 8341 monitors and a 7370 subwoofer. The room benefits further from acoustic treatment from Artnovion.
“This is a cutting-edge room for RAI, so it had to be The Ones series,” De Dominicis says. “These monitors give RAI a precise and uncolored listening experience with unprecedented management flexibility.”
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The broadcaster was able to see further benefits in the room thanks to GLM calibration software. “Everything has been calibrated and checked with GLM 4 software,” De Dominicis states. “I went there to make the final calibration, and when they understood the combination of high-quality monitors and the calibration software, they were very happy. We made some adjustments, and, in the end, the setup was very convincing for them.”
As part of a large broadcast complex, the studio is used every day by a variety of engineers. “The ability to change between different calibration setups really helps in this case, because they have several people working there and each engineer can fine-tune everything and recall it in a moment,” De Dominicis explains.
The project appears to have inspired RAI to upgrade further facilities. “All of the other engineers who have passed through the room and heard the system now want to have the same setup as well,” De Dominicis reveals. “After this room, we have had three further requests from big production centers for RAI in the north of Italy to have the same system, or even better!”
