Genelec System Setups for Movie Mix Rooms

Movies and films are mixed in rooms that resemble movie theaters and cinemas. In the US this type of room is called a "dubbing stage" or "dubbing theatre" and in the UK a "mix theater".
Other countries have different names but for this type of room that will be called here a "Movie Mix Room". A traditional room of this type is quite large, like a movie theatre, with a typical length of about 15 m.

A recent development has been a scaled down version of this type of room, which we will call a "TV dubbing stage" or "small movie mix room". Here, the listening distance from the engineer's mixing position to the front monitors is typically 4-8 m and there is an array of rear monitors at about half that distance. An example of a room designed for movie mixing is shown below:

Room drawing reproduced with kind permission of White Mark Ltd. UK.

This specification defines the minimum sized model required to pass the continuous 85 dB SPL with pink noise test for both large and small mix rooms. The monitors can also be expected to pass the 105 dB SPL peak requirement. These SPL tests are a well-known requirement for a studio wishing to obtain "standardized" room certifications.

The subwoofer is used for the LFE channel only, i.e. NO bass management and with an upper cut-off frequency of 120 Hz (although in some countries bass management is allowed, so the subwoofer specification should be up-rated to compensate for the additional SPL requirements).

Various possibilities are presented for rear channel monitors: 1 monitor per channel at the same listening distance as the front monitors and 1, 2, 3 & 4 monitors per channel at the half the listening distance of the front monitors (typical for a dubbing room). 6.1 format compatibility is now a requirement for many movie mix rooms so the monitor configuration should allow for this too. In addition, external equalization may be required to compensate for monitor placement behind a screen. This may affect the SPL requirements and consequent monitor choice.

To use this table first measure the distance from the listening position to the front monitors, then:

• Select a front monitor model that is large enough for the listening distance. The typical listening distance is about half the maximum value shown - see note below.
• From the same row as the front monitors, select the rear channel monitors that suit the room configuration (distance and number).
• From the same row as the front monitors, select a subwoofer monitor.

Note: The maximum front distance recommendations are for the minimum sized system that can be expected to fulfill the SPL portion of the Dolby* license specification at this distance. Larger systems offer higher SPL and an increased directivity control, so do not be afraid to select larger models in the range than those indicated. When up rating the system, keep the whole system in balance, so always select monitors for different channels from the same row, i.e. do not select a 1036A for the front wall and have 8030As for the rears with a 7070A subwoofer for the LFE channel!

* Dolby is a Licensed Trademark of Dolby Laboratories