First room for Dolby Atmos with Reflexion Arts monitors

NTV Kino launches the first cinema mixing room, designed and built from the ground up for Dolby Atmos with Reflexion Arts monitors

NTV Kino, in Moscow, has just achieved something hitherto unthinkable: certification Dolby Premier in just over 24 hours.

For this to be possible, it was necessary to combine the efforts of a human team of great quality and professionalism.

A little over a year ago, Philip Newell had been contacted by directors of the Russian film and television company Gazprom Media to carry out an enormous project, which included a mixing room for films, an image and color quality control room with a complete 7.1 surround system, a foley and music studio with a 7.1 surround system and 3 dialogue recording and editing rooms. Their task would be to design the best study complex in the Russian capital.

The project began with the demolition of the old facilities, wall to wall with Mosfilm, the state film company. Well into 2012, in February, the construction work would begin with Julius Newell directing it, with the support of Eliana Valdigem and a local team of professionals.

In less than ten months the work was completed, becoming the first room specially designed for the new three-dimensional Dolby Atmos surround system and equipped with a high-speed monitor system. Reflexion Arts composed of four RA BX1 sub-woofers, five RA234 monitors built into the wall behind the screen and 34 SU108 monitors for surround. All room amplification is carried out with Reflexion Arts Studio I or Studio II stages, manufactured by Neva Audio and Neva Audio NA3200 stages for the sub-woofers. The projector prepared for digital cinema is the top of the range from the Belgian Barco.

Once the project was completed, it took Dolby a little more than 24 hours, after listening to and analyzing the study, to grant it the Dolby Premier certification.

Sergey Bolshakov, the chief engineer of the new studios, has assured that "it is the best monitor system we have ever heard. And that has just been confirmed by the fact that Dolby has granted us Premier certification in less than two days."

The installation

Meanwhile, in the image control room, an identical system has been installed with three RA234 front monitors, two RABX1 sub-woofers and 12 SU108. As in the Atmos room, a Barco projector provides the possibility of making film mixes that do not require more than 7.1. The Foley studio and due to the existence of a window that allows visual contact with the recording room, where an authentic swimming pool is located, has been equipped with two RA239 but, for the central channel, Reflexion Arts has created the new RA244, a monitor in elongated format, which includes the axis-symmetrical AX2 trumpet, in the acoustic center, between two 12" JBL. The equipment in this room is completed with only 6 SU108 for surround.

The SU108 has been designed entirely by Julius Newell, from the box to the passive divider, taking into account that all the boxes existing to date on the market do not present directivity characteristics or output capacity suitable for Dolby Atmos requirements. Today, Lisbon, Barcelona and, now, Dubai have mixing rooms with these same boxes.

But the big news is the new RA240M, which replaces the second edition of Philip Newell's classic design, RA240, although in this case from three channels (RA240 and RA240B) it becomes two active channels. Compatibility with larger systems is absolute and, interestingly, the use of the Manger gives you an extension in the high frequencies, of which compression drivers are incapable, including the TAD TD2002. These 3 rooms are intended for editing and recording dialogue.