Upgrading your audio studio: in this economy, in this industry is upgrading now brave or crazy? These pros say it's necessity

Post, August, 2002 by David John Farinella

It's a necessary evil for every audio post production facility -- upgrades. From new consoles to software upgrades, new room designs to the latest and greatest dubbing machine. Even as technology continues to evolve, thus making the post production process easier, facility owners, mixers, engineers and the like are wondering when it's okay to stop.

How much is enough?" No one has had a chance to ponder that question because it's actually the wrong one to ask Rather, the question many post houses are looking at these days is, "how much do we need?" And that, because of the technological unknowns, is practically impossible to answer Remember, if one place opts to stand pat, another studio - perhaps even a house where work is shared - is going to take the leap. That leaves the original house behind and in serious jeopardy of not being able to deliver the proverbial goods.

Then some facilities feel that upgrading is part of the business model. Take L.A. Studios as just one example. "We never give [our equipment] a chance to become obsolete," explains president Jesse P. Meli. "This place has been open over 21 years, and this has been the fourth or fifth redo. It's an expensive proposition but it's one that works. Our growth is consistent every single year."

This year has been an especially tough year for many post houses for a couple of reasons: the fallout from 9/11 and the overall slowdown in the economy. That said, those studios that have seen a lull in business are still finding ways to bring in new equipment in the hopes that things will soon improve.

CROSSPOLLINATION

L.A. Studios (www.lastudios.com) saw the need to upgrade their boards to Sony R-100s when they opened a facility in Santa Monica and started to share work with their Margarita Mix Hollywood studio. "Historically, the market here at L.A. Studios was primarily radio and animation recording," explains president Meli. "Conversely, Margarita Mix has historically been solely a mix-to-picture facility So, as business started to cross pollinate. I had a need to redo the ergonomics to make the rooms at L.A. Studios more video friendly." Though they loved the sound of their Sony analog boards, they needed to push into the digital domain completely. Meli adds, the facility had to take a hard look at the ergonomics of each room at L.A. Studios where small control rooms and large booths, which were used for group ADR, looping and recording, ruled. "So, to make these rooms more video friendly, I needed to scale down wherever I could," he says. "Clearly, scaling down a huge board would help."

The process of upgrading these boards started some time ago, yet most of the wait was identifying the appropriate console for the higher demand for mix-to-picture work To date, three of the rooms have been upgraded with three to go. In addition to adding the new boards, L.A. Studios has been completely redesigning the rooms, putting video monitors at appropriate heights, changing the room's profile by moving walls and making them feel more like living rooms than control rooms. They are also up grading their Pro Tools systems.

The facility saw a benefit to the new rooms almost immediately. "It's now much easier to send Margarita Mix Hollywood business over here, because we do have rooms now that are more comfortable for video clients or mix-to-picture clients," reports Meli. "Our clients have loved what we've done, because we've created these sonic living rooms. It's hard to quantify if business increases as a result of happy clients, but it's safe to say that perception is a huge factor, especially in California, and if the perception is that our clients are happy, that translates to doing well."

Meli then adds, "A big percentage of our business is ISDN business, so in essence a lot of our clients will not even benefit visually from what we've done with the rooms. Sure, you could say the recordings are now 100 percent digital, but they're not really going to see that. Our talent will and it's just as important for our talent to be as comfortable as our clients."

M1 CASA ES SU CASA

CEO Robert Margouleff and president Brant Biles of Mi Casa Multimedia have a tough challenge on their hands each time they decide to upgrade their studio facilities - they are based out of Bela Lugosi's former home in Hollywood. "It's a 1928 Spanish revival home and the detail of the house was very well preserved when we got it," explains Margouleff, who now lives there. "We sought to preserve the quality and the humanity of the home." So, when the Mi Casa team looked to add a quality control room - called The Study - to check their DVD mastering work, they turned to noted studio designer (and 30-year Margouleff friend) John Storyk of Walters Storyk Designs for assistance. Not only did Storyk give Mi Casa (www.micasamm.com) a good overview of what needed to be done to make the room work, he also looked for issues to solve because the room is small. "He designed a unit to go into the corner with the speakers and TV in it," Margouleff reports. "He designed it as a built-in, I put it on wheels so we can move it out from the wall to maintain the back of it. Together we problem solved a lot of issues in here."