Surround sound: for some apps—DVD, cinema spots and films—this format is taking off, but what about TV?

Post, Oct, 2003 by Christine Bunish

The degree to which 5.1 surround sound has been adopted by the audio post industry depends on the markets served. Feature films, cinema spots and DVD content are the foremost 5.1 customers with broadcast programming making progress and broadcast commercials lagging behind.

"Audio is half the experience of a movie," declares sound designer Phil Kovats of Studio City, CA's BI Media, who says 5.1 is a given in theaters. "You want to go to a good sounding theater and have a great experience. It's starting to be the same at home, especially with large sound productions like Lord of the Rings. People want that theater experience at home."

Steve Davis, director of audio at Atlanta's Crawford Communications, sees falling prices of 5.1 consumer playback equipment and heavy promotions by chain stores prompting increased purchases and spurring the demand for 5.1 mixing. "Once there's surround playback in the home, the desire for surround effects, even in local retail commercials, will grow quickly," he predicts. "The surround market doesn't need to be fleshed out with high-end projects before it penetrates the low end. People will take advantage of it across the board."

Since digital and 5.1 go hand in hand, the jump in USTV stations broad casting digitally--not to mention digital satellite TV and cable delivered to the home--spells growth for 5.1 mixing. According to the NAB, the number of stations broadcasting digitally today tops 1,000--up from just 200 in June 2001, DTV stations are in 201 markets, from San Diego to Cincinnati to Bangor, Maine, serving 99.17 percent of USTV households. And increased HD broadcasts deliver a full high-resolution picture and 5.1 sound package.

CRAWFORD HOSTS STEADY 5.1 WORK

When Atlanta's Crawford Communications (www.crawford.com) built its current facility, it constructed three of its 10 audio suites as 5.1 audio studios. "Three years ago market demand for surround was not entrenched," says Steve Davis, "but you had to stake your claim. Everything was pointing to digital, and digital video inherently supports surround sound. All the signs told us we needed to make a commitment to surround if we wanted a facility with legs."

Today, Davis reports, "We've seen our surround sound business steadily increase. Although the majority of work in all three surround studios is stereo, we usually have at least one surround job in-house at all times."

The Tom Hidley-designed Audio A is Crawford's largest surround studio. It boasts an SSL Avant console, Digidesign ProTools|HD running V.6 software on Mac G4s with 192 I/Os, Kinoshita custom monitoring and JVC D-ILA big screen HD projection. "The room emulates a Hollywood dubbing stage," Davis points auto "Mixing to a TV screen tends to skew relationships when you playback in large venues; here the sound field is in the correct proportion to the images, and it translates nicely for TV and radio spots,"

Audio B and C, ago designed by Hidley, are similar to each other in size and configuration with SSL Avants (all the Avants are net worked on a hub router to share all I/O connections for an integrated mixing environment), Pro Tools|HD, Genelec 1031 monitoring and JVC D-ILA HD projection. The three surround studios can take control of HDCAM, DVCPRO HD and D-5 HD decks "so we can control the process from beginning to end with no encoding, layback or latency problems," says Davis.

Crawford does a steady business in surround for cinema spots (The Marine Corps from JWT, Cingular from BBDO, TBS's original movies and TNT's Ripley's Believe It Or Not) and high-end corporate staging and promotion (Tribune and Turner network upfronts, Coca-Cola's Operation Greenlight, Philips Consumer Electronics' in-store point of purchase).

Crawford also does surround for DVDs of music content, often offering a turnkey solution for producers. A case in point was the star-studded Concert for World Children's Day. Crawford's Ron Heidt supervised the HD shoot and video editorial for the ABCTV special, which was simulcast in standard definition and HD/5.1, with Greg Crawford handling the post audio and surround mixes from music mixer Humberto Gatica's stereo mix. McDonald's sponsored the DVD that followed.

With additional monitor mixers and speakers, Crawford's other audio rooms can also do cost-effective surround mixing. In fact, one room is now taking the Cartoon Network catalog and new programming and mixing shows in surround for its "Adult Swim" late night block, including the current Aqua Teen Hunger Farce, which is being delivered in surround, and the classic Space Ghost Coast to Coast, which is being remixed in surround.

SURROUND SUPPORTS DVD WORK

In Studio City, design and production studio BI Media (www. blmedia.cam) has added a 5.1 surround suite, managed by Phil Karats, to support its core business: the design and production of video DVDs, as well as other projects.

"It's not a big room, but it reflects the home theater environment," says Kovats, who helped design and build it. The 5.1 room features a Pro Tools|HD system with V.6.1 software for Mac OS X and the Avid A/V OptionXL digital video system. A Blue Sky 5.1 speaker system is monitored by a TASCAM DS-M7.1 for "great frequency response that translates very, very well to home theater systems," according to Kovats. Video playback is handled by a 42-inch plasma monitor; 40,000 sound effects are stored and transferred through Gallery's mTools SFX database system.