In the Field: Installations
“We’re getting the sound we want, and this lets it come through without getting in the way," Weir continued. "The converters alone are worth the cost of the box. And with the Mesa EQ I can create one filter where I’d have to use three or four filters on any other processor to get the same result. This unit is so much more powerful and flexible than other processors, and you end up doing far less to the signal.” Weir concluded, “The club owner, Sergei Skliarenko, tells us that the community regards it as one of the top three club systems in the city, which makes it one of the best systems in the country.”
“I love the ease with which I can apply whatever speaker tuning I wish to any one of my mixes,” said John Burke, Monitor Engineer, Filene Center. “The Mesa EQ filter is a fantastic tool, but it is the pen tablet and software that really helps me the most. The interaction between the drawing of a filter and the change in audio is fantastic. I have used many of the popular DSP-based speaker controllers and their associated software, and this is a whole different level of interface.” Greg Lukens of Washington Professional Systems supplied the seven new Dolby Lake Processors, which are being used to process onstage Meyer Sound® and EV monitors as well as a multizoned L-Acoustics house system that is under sophisticated wireless network control. The Filene Center is a 7,000-seat performing arts amphitheater located in the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, which serves the Washington metropolitan area and hosts approximately 90 music concerts during the summer months, which this year includes artists from the Average White Band to the Zombies.
June 7, 2007—Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: DLB) today announced that Skywalker Sound has installed Dolby Lake Processors to optimize the nine-channel loudspeaker system in its Stag Theater. Located in the Technical Building at Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, California, the 300-seat Stag Theater supports any film playback format and provides a state-of-the-art showcase for filmmakers working at the unique, full-service postproduction sound facility. Already equipped with a Dolby Digital decoder, the Stag Theater has implemented Dolby Lake Processor technology in order to optimize the performance of the installed cinema loudspeaker system. With several of Skywalker Sound’s mix stages upgrading to 96 kHz operation, the Dolby Lake Processor was initially selected for the performance of its converters. “The main thing that intrigued Skywalker Sound and sold us on the Dolby Lake Processor was the overall quality of the sound without doing any processing,” said Jim Austin, Skywalker Sound Engineering Services. “It’s a really good sounding system and the quality of sound is unparalleled.” Cutting Edge Audio Group of San Francisco supplied the five Dolby Lake Processor units, which were installed in the Stag Theater in March. Three of the Dolby Lake Processors have been installed to control five behind-the-screen channels, plus separate center top and low-frequency effects channels, with two additional Dolby Lake Processors controlling the right and left rear surround speaker arrays. The Stag Theater features a custom TAD speaker system that was developed at Skywalker Sound with Meyer subwoofers. “The Dolby Lake Processor is rapidly becoming a recognized tool for quality tour sound, and is also used in many other live sound installations such as theatres, performing art centers, and houses of worship,” said Ervin Grinberg, Marketing and Sales Manager, Live Sound, Dolby Laboratories. “Dolby is very excited to see new markets emerge with music recording studios and now film audio postproduction facilities like the world-renowned Skywalker Sound, which is one of the premiere sound mixing facilities in the industry.” The Dolby Lake Processor is also the first all-in-one monitor speaker optimization solution to be implemented at Skywalker Sound. Audio quality may be compromised on a typical film mix stage due to budget constraints and the large number of converters, digital signal processing (DSP), and interconnecting cabling required in the monitor path. The Dolby Lake Processor is an elegant solution that combines multiple channels of very high-quality converters and DSP in a single rack unit.
The Dolby Lake Processors provide equalization, delay, and other digital processing of the zoned speaker system, which is installed in six high-frequency/midrange arrays with separate low-frequency hangs supplemented by down fill speakers suspended below the scoreboard. Tampa-based AVI provided system integration. The St. Pete Times Forum, which originally opened in 1996, hosts home games for the National Hockey League's Tampa Bay Lightning, winners of the 2004 Stanley Cup, as well as the Tampa Bay Storm, five-time winners of the American Football League’s Arena Bowl. The multipurpose arena is also a regular venue for concerts by major music artists, NBA exhibition games, NCAA sporting events, and other sports and entertainment events. |
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August 2007—Sullivan Room, New York’s premier underground dance-music club, recently celebrated its fifth anniversary with a complete makeover, including a new high-end custom sound system from North Carolina’s Core Audio, Inc. that is managed by a Dolby® Lake® Processor. “This is the best piece of audio equipment I’ve used in the last ten years,” said Bill Weir, System Design Engineer, Core Audio.
July 2007—The Wolf Trap Foundation's Filene Center in Vienna, Virginia, has enhanced its digital audio control capabilities for the 2007 summer season with the installation of three Dolby Lake Processors to manage main front-of-house left and right, lawn, and center cluster speakers. In addition, four Dolby Lake Processors have been installed to optimize all 16 monitor feeds, including the mixer’s cue. 
April 2007—The St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida, has upgraded its sound reinforcement system, including the installation of two wirelessly controlled Dolby Lake Processors to manage the venue’s new flown multizoned L-Acoustics speaker setup. Recently taking to the ice to check out the new audio system were (left to right): Charlie Lawson, Audio Director, Audio Visual Innovations (AVI); Michael Cooley, Sound Engineer, St. Pete Times Forum; Dan Palmer, National Sales Manager, 
March 2007—Greg Lukens and Washington Professional Systems have installed a Dolby Lake Processor as part of a major overhaul of the installed sound reinforcement system at the Fourth Presbyterian Church, which was established 170 years ago in Bethesda, MD. The installation makes use of the Dolby Lake Processor's onboard DSP, digital matrix, automatic input switching and high-quality converters to particular effect, according to Lukens. Left to right: Fred Vogler, independent consultant/sound designer, and Kevin Wapner, Head of Audio/Video, Walt Disney Concert Hall. |
March 2007—At the world-famous Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, independent consultant/sound designer Fred Vogler and Head of Audio/Video Kevin Wapner recently upgraded the venue with a Dolby Lake Processor and Lake Contour digital loudspeaker processing network. The new wirelessly controlled setup, which provides powerful signal processing tools for the optimization of live performance and studio loudspeakers, is being used to control the venue's flown JBL VerTec® and custom stage-level ATC sound reinforcement systems. Designed by internationally renowned architect Frank Gehry, the Walt Disney Concert Hall is a $272 million live entertainment complex in the heart of downtown Los Angeles that became an instant cultural landmark upon opening in late 2003. The hall is the winter home of the L.A. Philharmonic, and hosts a broad range of musical events.
Yahoo! "Live Sets" Picks Dolby Lake Processor
January 2007—Dolby Laboratories’ Live Sound Applications Engineer Miguel Hadelich (left) recently completed the setup of four wirelessly controlled Dolby Lake Processors installed to manage the L-Acoustics P.A. speaker and Clair Brothers Audio monitor systems at Yahoo! Music’s Nissan-sponsored “Live Sets” venue. Ian Dittbrenner (center), Audio Director, Senior Original Content Producer and Production Systems Analyst, Yahoo! Music, designed the Digidesign® VENUE-based performance sound and audio recording systems with the aid of Delta H Design, headed by Hanson Hsu (right), who also acoustically designed the performance space set.
The “Live Sets” soundstage, located at the 20th Century Fox lot in Los Angeles, made its debut in late 2006 with a performance by Christina Aguilera and has since hosted artists such as Tony Bennett, Incubus, Beck, and John Legend. The live music performances, interspersed with audience Q&A segments, are filmed in HD and are made available for streaming over the Internet via Yahoo! Music (music.yahoo.com).
Eugene’s First Baptist Church Becomes World’s First House of Worship with Dolby Lake Processor
November 7, 2006—Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: DLB) today announced that the recently constructed First Baptist Church in Eugene, Oregon, has become the first house of worship in the world to adopt the new Dolby Lake Processor. Attracted by the extended power and features of the digital loudspeaker processor, the First Baptist Church integrated two Dolby Lake Processors into its state-of-the-art audio system. Some of the features introduced in the new Dolby Lake Processor include the unique portal front-panel interface, advanced converter design, Iso-Float™ ground isolation, LimiterMax™ true-RMS limiting, and flexible hardware configuration options.
Kyle Anderson, CEO, Anderson Group International (AGI) and lead audio designer on the project, reports that construction delays at First Baptist Church turned out to be very fortuitous. “We were lucky construction was postponed because the new Dolby Lake Processor that came out earlier this year met all of our needs, and we were able to get more processing for the same amount of money.”
The two Dolby Lake Processors are being used to optimize and control a main speaker system comprising 18 L-Acoustics dV-DOSC boxes plus subs and front fills at the 1,400-seat church. “Everyone at the church is extremely happy, including the technology staff who are very pleased with the versatility of the Dolby Lake Processor and its sound quality,” said Anderson.
“We’re also using the Dolby Lake Processor to process a specially designed, four-zone stage fill system that is comprised of three L-Acoustics 115XT HiQ and two 112XT speakers,” Anderson explained. “The church’s operators can walk around with the wireless tablet and make changes to optimize the stage space. They can move their side fills around then sculpt the sound, in real time, from any position.”
According to Anderson, the unique parametric asymmetrical filter shapes offered by the processor’s innovative Mesa Filter set a new benchmark. “This tool—the type of EQ that it is, the way that the Mesa Filter works and allows you to actually sculpt the EQ—has set the bar for everybody else. Also, the integration with SIA’s SmaartLive™ RTA software is simply amazing!”
Steve Diamond, AGI senior staff member, designed the variable acoustics of the 2,500 square foot thrust stage to accommodate a choir and band, a large orchestra, or a contemporary worship team. Church sound staff may alter any parameter in the Dolby Lake Processor system from front of house or from anywhere in the sanctuary using a wireless tablet, and they may additionally program presets to optimize the speaker system for the wide range of services. For example, when the choir shell at the very rear of the stage is in use, one preset can apply front fill speaker delay compensation to eliminate the mismatching of acoustic wavefronts. Another preset can increase low-frequency information and drive the subwoofers harder during contemporary worship services.
First Baptist Church was dedicated in time to host the Oregon Bach Festival’s interpretation of the seminal sacred work, Mass in B Minor, conducted by Helmuth Rilling. The performance was part of an annual two-week celebration of the works of German composer Johann Sebastian Bach.
