The central London headquarters of audio creative agency and postproduction house Forever Audio is now home to Studio 8, the company’s newest audio suite and second Dolby Atmos Suite. A six-month undertaking, the new build is now complete and serves as Forever Audio’s largest voice recording studio second Dolby Atmos enabled room and is designed to offer multifunctional capabilities, to serve a wide variety of specialties using the latest technology.
Forever Audio works across advertising, radio, streaming platforms, long-form audio content, film & TV postproduction and localisation for whom Studio 8 was no small undertaking. Building the room required the removal of three smaller suites in order to meet the Dolby Atmos Home Entertainment requirements. The project required the support of Scrub, the specialist division of HHB Communications established specifically to supply and support the TV and film audio postproduction sector.
‘We wanted a room that would make the best use of a central London facility for years to come, to provide clients with the perfect in-person experience,’ says Forever Audio co-founder and CEO, Seb Juviler.
‘Despite all the changing technology and remote working capabilities, there’s still some work that just has to be done in person, and it is important that actors and directors coming in can give their best performance and hear their work in the best possible environment. We also wanted our team to be able to work on the most cutting edge technology available.’
The technology chosen to support the room was done so with all of this in mind. The room is 7.1.4 equipped with Genelec 8340 Smart Active Monitors (SAM), 1237A monitors, along with two 7380A (SAM) subwoofers.
‘The SAM and GLM technology made installation and calibration seamless but most importantly, it sounds fantastic,’ says Head of Engineering, Rob Baker. ‘Our sound engineers have been really impressed by the clarity and balance at all listening levels, and the spatial detailing on Atmos playback has got our long-form Atmos team very excited.’
Forever Audio decided on a 24-fader Avid S4 console. For Studio 8 particularly, the layout feature of this console, which offers the ability to customise which tracks and aux control parameters users have close to hand is invaluable when working quickly during busy ADR sessions. Additionally, the Avid S4 is an indeal size for the room, and is housed in a custom movable workstation. This allows as much performance space as possible for voice recording.
The decision to make Studio 8 immersive capable was a simple one for the Forever Audio team. ‘Dolby Atmos, binaural and 3D audio are being adopted across so many different formats beyond traditional cinema– in-home, headphones, in-car, streaming platforms,’ Baker says. ‘The creative possibilities for clients are rapidly expanding so it’s critical we remain at the forefront of the developments for years to come.’ ‘Working with Forever Audio provided Scrub and our team an interesting challenge. The room serves a diverse group of needs, and we wanted to make sure each was met. From the iteration phase to seeing everything installed it is great to see their vision realised,’ says Head of Scrub Sales, Greg Wheeler.
‘Forever Audio has 20 years of experience of creating sound across all different formats and therefore the room has been designed with that in mind,’ Juviler adds. ‘A big project like this takes time and everyone at Scrub was very patient and knowledgeable. In the final stages it was great to see them line-up, test, and calibrate the room. The suite was outfitted with great care and sounds amazing because of it. We are excited as our 2025 projects roll in for our clients to use this new, amazing space.’
More: www.hhb.co.uk
