On the evenings of February 25 and 26, 2020, Genelec Inc. and Telefunken co-presented events celebrating and educating on the topic of immersive audio. The events took place in the custom-built soundstage (2,500 square feet, with a 30-foot ceiling) at Telefunken’s U.S. headquarters in South Windsor, Connecticut. Night 1 was more tailored to industry pros, and night 2 was “education night,” focused on tools for students and educators. A large array of Genelec Active Monitors provided the immersive audio setup for the two evenings, which were attended by studio owners, producers and engineers, educators, students, audio enthusiasts and more.
The setup included Genelec 8361A Smart Active Monitors for the L-C-R channels, 8351A’s for side and rear channels, 8341A’s for overheads, and 7380A subwoofers for LFE. Connecting everything digitally were two Genelec 9301 Multichannel digital interfaces. Greg Tobler served as guest engineer on night 1, deconstructing some recent mixes he had done in the Dolby Atmos format. He was able to build up an immersive mix, explaining each step of the process for attendees, who were able to hear the results in real time. Genelec Inc. marketing manager Will Eggleston also presented on night 1, giving an overview of Genelec solutions and the company’s philosophy for building immersive audio monitoring systems, followed by Nate Mars from Electronic Music Collective, who performed a live set of electronic music in the immersive format, mixing in real time employing Ableton Live and a Dante network.
Night 2, education night, had such strong attendance that it was broken into two sessions to accommodate the crowd. The program ran similar to night 1, with the addition of Mark Chessler from Dolby, who discussed the role of Atmos in the industry today, as well as Genelec Inc.’s Director of Educational Services Dave Maclaughlin, who spoke about Genelec’s role in the education space.
Alan Venitosh, director of operations at Telefunken Elektroakustik, noted, “Partnering with Genelec on an immersive Atmos demonstration was a prime example of the type of event we are looking to host in our new soundstage and public use space. I think everyone who attended felt like they left the event with some great insight and knowledge on both Genelec’s monitors and equipment, as well as the professional and consumer applications of Dolby’s Atmos technology. I would also like to add that Telefunken has been utilizing Genelec monitors in our studio control rooms and laboratory space for almost 20 years, and we were delighted to have their team on our soundstage demonstrating this advanced audio technology. The icing on the cake for us was having engineer Greg Tobler demonstrate a live mix of a song recorded on Telefunken soundstage a few days earlier. What an experience to hear and see the surround sound panning technology, reverbs and effects in action – through Genelec speakers!”
Paul Stewart, Genelec Inc. senior technical sales manager, remarks, “One of the great things about trade shows and industry events is to talk shop with other brands we admire. Telefunken, also based in the Northeast, is an industry friend, and many times over the years we have floated the idea of holding a joint event that combines both of our companies’ expertise and resources, and I’m extremely proud that we made it happen with this two-day symposium on immersive audio. We hope attendees all learned something new and left with an enhanced appreciation for immersive audio and the tools that our brands offer in that realm.”
