Among the world’s leading film, TV and games Schools, the National Film and Television School (NFTS) provides postgraduate courses including its Sound Design MA and Composing MA, with each student having their own fully-equipped room for the duration of the course. A recent £20m development – covering two new buildings, a second cinema and a 4K digital content training studio –has included the installation of 66 PSI Audio loudspeakers. A number of teaching facilities have been fitted with PSI Audio monitoring supplied by UK distributor, emerging.

Comprising A14-M, A17M, A21-M and A125-M sub units, a total of 66 PSI Audio speakers have been installed throughout eight surround postproduction rooms, a large dubbing suite, a TV production room, a small studio and eight music composition rooms.

‘We didn’t have a firm idea of which speaker brand we would choose,’ says NFTS Senior Supervising Engineer, Jeremy Rodeschini. ‘We wanted to listen to what was out there in the market, allow the manufacturers to present their products, install them for a while, carry out some objective tests and then make our choice.

‘Our evaluation lasted three months and involved 17 monitors from five manufacturers. NFTS staff, students and external professionals were involved in three phases of critical listening tests, analysis and elimination, which finally allowed to us to realise how good the PSI Audio speakers were. They were so good in fact that we hadn’t originally planned for new monitors in the eight music composition rooms, but as more people sampled the speakers, everyone agreed that we had to add a further eight pairs of A17-M.

‘A number of important factors became apparent to us when testing the PSI Audio equipment,’ he adds. ‘The PSI Audio monitors give minimal fatigue, which is really important to us, as we want our students to spend as much time as possible experimenting and learning. They can be in the studios 24/7 if they want.

‘PSI audio offers accurate and true sound and even a small adjustment on a compressor, EQ or reverb is apparent. This will be a fantastic tool to help the students develop their critical listening skills and usage of the tools. The monitors have become part of each room – they blend in and that you can trust them.’

 ‘The students will benefit from PSI’s unique technologies of compensated phase response and adaptive output impedance culminating in precise imaging, true flat response and very fast, accurate bass reproduction, all reinforced by PSI Audio’s guarantee,’ says emerging MD, Paul Mortimer. ‘PSI Audio has a long history of partnering with universities, and we are pleased to announce that we will be hosting a series of guest lectures at the NFTS each year on the fundamentals of speaker design and room acoustics.’