Natick, MA (December 5, 2022)—Gold Tree Studios in Hollywood, which recently opened following a six-month construction and commissioning process, features two rooms outfitted with immersive Genelec Smart Active Monitor systems.
The two main rooms at the new post-production facility, which is on Sunset Blvd., Studio 1 (color grading and screening) and Studio 6 (sound mixing and ADR), both rely on Genelec 8351B speakers. Both spaces include front LCR array and 8331A speakers for surround and overhead speakers, with 7370A and 7380A subwoofers in a dual-sub configuration.
Four more junior and executive editing suites each have a pair of Genelec 4430AM desktop speakers, as does the Video Village room adjacent to the facility’s sound stage.
After the Covid pandemic reduced the scope of film production over the last three years, Gold Tree Studios came about with the idea that clients should have access to whatever post platforms they need or want, with seamless rentals of major industry hardware and software built into its business plan.
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“We sought to make this a true rental facility — our equipment, your equipment, our engineers, your engineers, whatever you prefer — to better reflect the way the post-production business needs to operate in this new climate in Hollywood,” explains Tim Chonacas, Gold Tree Studios’ CEO and a veteran indie film producer. Chonacas built the new facility with associate Bill Immerman, a film legend who as an EVP at Twentieth Century Fox was part of the team that greenlit Star Wars and Young Frankenstein.
“There are very few brands in the top tier of speakers, and Genelec is always at the top of that list,” he says. “The crispest, clearest, most dynamic sound is Genelec. You just don’t hear that depth in other brands.”
Chonacas says they decided to go with a dual-subwoofer configuration for the two largest rooms. “We wanted the dual subs for mixing to feel that low end and those low mids. We wanted deep, impactful bass that really thumps, for film and television, but also for music. You can really feel the 7370A and 7380A while you’re in the chair mixing, and that gives us the low end we need to work on today’s blockbuster film and TV projects.”
The facility relied heavily on a combination of GLM loudspeaker manager software and the next-generation AutoCal 2 automatic room calibration algorithm, he says, also noting that Gold Tree Studios’ Dolby Atmos certification process is already underway. “AutoCal was very important since we were doing much of the setup work ourselves and because we wanted to be up and running as quickly as possible.”