Post-production house Goldcrest Post Production has chosen an Avid Pro Tools | S6 modular control surface for its newly-opened Dean Street Theatre 1, a purpose-built Dolby Atmos mixing theatre based in central London.
Goldcrest’s Soho facilities are now home to three Pro Tools | S6 control surfaces that were supplied by Scrub, a division of HHB Communications.
The Dean Street Theatre 1 control surface is a 32-fader M40 configuration, integrated with an AMS Neve DFC3D digital mixing console. Custom furniture enables the number of Pro Tools | S6 or DFC3D modules to be increased or reduced depending on the mixer’s needs. For example, the mixer could have more Pro Tools | S6 faders than DFC3D faders, vice versa or a balance thereof. Goldcrest Post Production’s Simon Ray, Head of Engineering, and Rob Weatherall, Studio Manager, were instrumental in the implementation of the hybrid mixing desk.
Goldcrest slowly moved to Pro Tools | S6 from a small number of ‘in the box’ Avid ICON D-Control mixing suites. “Goldcrest are very a forward-looking post-production house,” said HHB CTO John Johnson. “People mix ‘in the box’ now more than ever and with Pro Tools | S6 Goldcrest have tactile control of automation and plug-ins, as well as a huge amount of visual feedback, which really speeds up the mixing process.”
Each of five Avid Pro Tools rigs has a DAD DX32 audio interface attached, which has both Dante and MADI out. The MADI can be routed to the DFC for conventional mixing or to a sixth rig with a DAD AX32 converter system for ‘in the box’ mixing. A custom BSS monitoring solution can be accessed from either the AX32 or DFC.
“We can also instantly switch between the increasingly varied mixing formats that are now required: 5.1, 7.1, Dolby Atmos and most recently DTS:X,” said Ray. “The DAD interfaces give us so many options as to how we route the audio around the theatre and we are only just beginning to realise the potential of DANTE. The modular nature of the S6 means we can configure a setup to a mixers specific requirements.”
Goldcrest has just completed eight weeks of final mixing on a big Hollywood feature, its second job in the room, with a number of similar projects lined up for the next year. Dean Street Theatre 1 takes advantage of a seven-metre-wide screen, a 15-metre throw and a six-metre ceiling height throughout. The opening of Dean Street Theatre 1 brings the number of Dolby-licensed mixing theatres to three within Goldcrest London.
