Recent work includes Fox’s American Idol, a live concert DVD for the Rolling Stones and a few independent
feature films.
Studio owner/mixer Brian Riordan first started using a
32-fader ICON D-Control worksurface in January 2006 at the facility’s previous
location. He was so pleased with the system’s ability to quickly turnaround
projects that he decided to install ICONs on all of the dub stages at a new
facility.
Working with architect and studio designer Peter Grueneisen
of Nonzero\architecture, they spent much of 2006 creating a new and larger 5.1
HD audio facility. The new “super-boutique,” as he refers to it, features five
ICON–equipped 5.1 audio dub stages along with an ADR/Foley stage, three audio
editorial suites, five HD offline/online bays, and two visual effects suites,
and a central machine room.
Mix 1 room features a 32-fader D-Control worksurface with
the D-Control surround panner option. Mix rooms 2 through 5 are equipped with
24-fader D-Command systems. “The D-Commands,” says Riordan, “give us an easy
way to access the advantages of an ICON in a compact, even more cost-effective
package. They’ve been really perfect for the TV mixing we do.”
Each ICON system at Levels Audio features an integrated
Digidesign Pro Tools|HD Accel system as its mix engine, the new Version 7.2
software, 24 channels of input and output via a 192 I/O interface, and a Sync
I/O interface for syncing. Each Mix room is also equipped with an Avid Mojo
video interface and Avid MediaStation|PT software for easy video integration
with audio. The studio also has Avid Mojo interfaces in the machine room for
engineers to digitize video and pass it across the network.
To share files with clients, Levels Audio uses the
Digidesign DigiDelivery file exchange system.