Korey Pereira, MPSE, is the owner and creative director of Soularity Sound, a post-production company based in Austin, Texas. Like many of us, his home studio has seen a lot more action as a result of the pandemic related lockdown. This has given him the push to update his home studio from 5.1 to a 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos setup. This article is his story on how he went about this, what equipment he chose and why and ending up with sharing what he would have done differently if he were to start the process knowing what he knows now. Over to you Korey…

As a mixer, I get excited by new technology, especially if it expands my creative toolset as an artist. The last major upgrade to my home studio came in 2013 when I upgraded from stereo to 5.1. At the time, having the ability to move sounds into the surrounds was a big step creatively. As a designer and a mixer, I was better able to immerse my audience into the space a film creates. Nowadays, every film I mix is either in 5.1 or 7.1, even if I know it will only ever play in stereo. Recently I completed my next major upgrade to Dolby Atmos. As a content creator, it is important to keep up with the latest trends. With streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video delivering more of their original content in Atmos and the latest iPhones and the Sonos soundbar supporting it natively, it is fair to say Atmos is here to stay.

For those unfamiliar with mixing in Atmos, there are two basic flavours: Theatrical and Home Theatre. Theatrical is meant for mixes that as the name suggests will end up playing in your local Dolby Cinema. Mixing for this format requires a BIG room, an array of up to 22 speakers and having Dolby come out to your studio to install a Theatrical RMU and calibrate your space to their specifications. Home Theatre is designed for disk, digital and streaming platforms and with the latest release, allows you to run both your DAW and the Dolby Rendering and Mastering Unit or RMU software on the same computer!

I am mixing in a relatively small space (50 cubic meters), so I would be designing my room for HT. To save money I was going to design the space and do the install myself. While it ended up taking MUCH longer than expected, delaying the start of the project shaped the system I would build for the better.

Why Atmos?

This journey began back in March 2018 when my wife and I planned a trip to Las Vegas. The show I wanted to see was Ready Player One at the Brenden Palms 14 JB-X Theatre. I was not disappointed. For me, seeing that film in glorious Dolby Atmos was THE show that weekend. This experience delivered and had me wanting to start mixing in Atmos. 

In October 2018 I attended the Mix Sound for Film and Television event at the Sony post-production facility in Culver City. While there, I had a chance to talk to the folks from Dolby and Avid along with some of the best professionals of our day. It was fair to say that Atmos was front-and-centre of those discussions and had me sold on upgrading my setup at home.

Once I made this decision, I started by designing the speaker layout and choosing the equipment I would need. As recommended by Dolby (and Netflix), I decided to go with a 7.1.4 configuration. The Dolby Atmos Production Suite was available for the low price of $299. It used send and return plugins to communicate with the local renderer, which meant delay compensation in Pro Tools did not work. While this was still a decent option for pre-mixing, in order to create masters I would really need a dedicated RMU which meant a LOT of additional gear to make it work. Luckily by the time I was ready to start mixing in Atmos, the Dolby Audio Bridge between Pro Tools and the local renderer was updated to support 130 channels as well as auto delay compensation.

Specing Out A System:

Our previous setup consisted of 5x JBL LSR4326P and 1x LSR4312SP. With all of the other bigger rooms in town I work with use JBL Cinema-Series speakers, I wanted to make sure whatever I went with would translate to those rooms. I looked at several models and ended up settling on the JBL 7-Series. The biggest draw for me was the ability to mix and match between passive and powered and large and small speakers.

Here are the speakers I decided on:

• 3 x JBL LSR708P (Left, Center and Right)

• 8 x JBL LSR705i (4 surrounds / 4 overheads)

• 1 x Crown 8|300N (to power the surround and overhead speakers)

• 1 x JBL Intonato 24 (for monitor control and room tuning)

• 1 x JBL Intonato Desktop Controller

Initially, I planned on keeping my JBL LSS 4312SP for my sub, but running the math for my space, I needed something bigger. I looked at several options but settled on the JBL ASB6115 powered by a Crown CDi 2000.

I had previously been using a MOTU Traveler as my audio interface. To support Atmos I needed at least 12 channels out of Pro Tools into the Intonato. To avoid an additional AD conversion, I wanted to go into the Intonato via AES. While I briefly considered going with a Dante solution, I ended up getting an Avid HD Native PCIe + used Digidesign 192 Digital. With both the Intonato and the DCi 8|300N supporting BLU link, the 8 channels of surrounds and overheads were connected via a single CAT cable. The (3) 708P and the CDi 2000 for the sub were connected via analogue outs on the Intonato.

I also wanted a way to listen to consumer content on the system, so picked up an Integra DHC 80.6 receiver which offered 11.2 outs on XLR which I ran into analogue 1-12 on the Intonato 24. This allowed me to easily switch between Pro Tools and the Integra. I also picked up an Apple TV and a 4K Blu-Ray player. What person in their right mind would go through the trouble of installing Atmos at home and NOT have a way to watch movies on it?

I had my list of gear locked in and placed the order along with an array of cables and speaker mounts. A few weeks later, 11 speakers showed up on a shipping pallet from JBL.

Unfortunately the Intonato 24 at the time was on backorder, so started by upgrading our LCR to the 708Ps. I continued using my 4326 for my surrounds and 4012SP for my sub.

The 708Ps sounded amazing. I was quite busy at the time with editorial work for several other studios so really got to put them through the paces. My work translated well and was able to work 10+ hour days without ear fatigue. It took awhile, but the Intonato 24 eventually became available. At this time I also installed the HD Native, 192 Digital and DCi 8|300N.

Then life happened. Business was good and was having a hard time finding enough downtime to run cables and install the surrounds and overheads. As a “temporary” solution, I installed a pair of the 705i speakers in the same location as my previous 5.1 surrounds. This remained my setup for over a year. Enter COVID-19.

While VERY fortunate to still have a steady trickle of work coming in, with nowhere to go and all travel plans cancelled for the foreseeable future, now was finally the time to finish our install.

Surround And Overhead Speaker Installation

Our last house was a one-story with ample attic access, which made pulling cables easy. Our current house had a great studio space just inside the front door, but being a two-story with my space on the first floor, made things infinitely more difficult. Yes, I could have cut a number of holes in the ceiling to make the process easier or settled for surface mounting the cables, I (and at my wife’s insistence) wanted it to look clean.

Step one was cutting a hole in the ceiling above the wall all the cables would travel down to reach the equipment rack. On the first inspection, there was good news. There was around 18 inches between the first and second floor of plenum space. 

I had initially thought I would be able to easily drill from the walls into the plenum space and feed all the cables to the front of the room. This quickly proved to be an impossible feat without cutting a number of holes along the pathway from each speaker to the front of the room. I was not up for patching drywall, so made the decision to fish the cables for the surrounds from their locations on the wall to the top of the wall, then surface mounting the speaker cables with cable tacks to hold them in place. To hide this ugly bunch of cables, I ordered peel-and-stick crown moulding to cover up the cabling when I was done.

A day later I had four surround speakers installed and my room was now running at 7.1!

While three of the four surrounds went up without a hitch, one location has some unexpected obstructions in the wall, so I ended up poking a “few” extra holes to get the cable pulled.

Another project came in and the overheads again were put on hold. A few weeks later I had another window of downtime, so I mapped out all of the overhead speaker locations and poked my first hole into the ceiling. I shoved my fishpole into the plenum space and came out as expected 4 feet away right above the wall running down to the amp.

Unfortunately, it was all uphill from there. While there was plenty of space to fish the remaining three cables, there were also a number of unexpected obstructions. After a good half day of unsuccessfully fishing the remaining cables, I made the decision to fish to the nearest wall and run the cables next to the cables for the surrounds. Luckily, the crown moulding left enough room for the additional cables. The only downside: I had calculated how much cable I needed and rounded up, but with the additional routing for the overheads, I ended up with JUST enough for three of the four overhead speakers, so needed to place an order for additional speaker cable and cable tacks and wait another couple of days to finish the install. All-in-all I would call the install a success. With the crown molding installed it looks great and I walked away without any broken bones or missing appendages.

Calibration With The JBL Intonato 24

I have tuned rooms in the past. My 5.1 setup used a BSS 9088ii + 9010 desktop controller, which worked, but setting it up or making changes required keeping an old windows machine and serial adapter. The Intonato 24 made setup a breeze. Firstly, connecting it via CAT to my ethernet switch made the control app available from any computer on the network or even the iPad on my Avid Dock or seated on the sofa.

I spent maybe an hour setting up all the routing and naming everything, then ran the auto calibration with the included mic.

The Intonato adjusts delays and volume for all speakers as well as analyzes frequencies up to 800Hz and and makes adjustments to flatten the response for 800Hz and below.

After this is completed, I took the additional step to use an RTA (I use Audio Tools from Studio Six Digital on my iPad with the JBL Intonato mic connected via a Focusrite iTrack One Pre) to apply additional adjustments to make sure the speakers were as close to flat as possible. The next time I have some downtime, I plan to borrow an Earthworks M30 from Soundcrafter and re-tune the room.

What Would I Have Done Differently?

If I had started this process today, I would seriously consider going with the Avid MTRX Studio instead of the Digidesign 192 Digital + Intonato 24 combo. I really like that the MTRX Studio only takes up 1RU, has built-in support for Dante and is controllable from the Avid Dock / iPad. I would REALLY like that. However, I have come to really love the Intonato Desktop Controller.

At the same time, If I had powered ahead and finished the install when I first started down this path, I likely would have had to drop an additional $20k+ between an HDX2, 4x Focusrite Rednet 5, Computer for an RMU, Dolby Atmos Mastering Suite, Focusrite Rednet PCIe card for the RMU and an audio interface to get audio from the RMU to the Intonato 24. While this arguably is a more robust solution, I am happy to have the extra cash in the bank.

I have a workable solution to both edit and mix in Atmos at home. For low, to medium budget projects, I can create masters at home. If the budget allows, I will finish my mixes in the recently finished Home Theatre room at Soundcrafter. If I find myself needing to do an Atmos theatrical mix, I will plan to either finish at Dallas Audio Post or The Dub Stage in LA.

Final Thoughts

As with every upgrade, mine was not without its challenges. The day I went to install the Intonato 24, I discovered that while both the Avid interface and JBL Intonato use “standard TASCAM DB25 pinouts,” you cannot use a standard DB25 cable, so had to return the cables and order and wait for the correct crossover cable to arrive. I learned that I am not great at fishing cables. 

I never would have thought it would take me over a year to finally finish my install, but one benefit of doing the work myself was being able to do it around my busy work schedule without having to coordinate with contractors or deal with longer downtime if additional drywall patching / re-texturing / painting needed to occur. Plus, I saved some money in the process.

I am currently mixing my first feature in Atmos at home and have several other projects lined up that I intend to also mix natively in Atmos in the coming months. Moving forward, anything I am supervising and mixing I will try to work natively in Atmos. With more spec sheets calling for an Atmos mix, it is much easier to do it up front than to scramble when a production decides late in the game a show or film needs to be in Atmos. Even for projects that won’t deliver in Atmos, the 7.1, 5.1 and stereo re-renders sound better being natively mixed in Atmos first.

Especially in these crazy times, we are living through, I couldn’t be happier that I took the plunge and made the decision to upgrade my home studio to Atmos. While I love mixing, a majority of my work is doing editing and design for other studios or independent mixers. With the call for most people to work remotely for the foreseeable future, being able to work natively in Atmos at home makes me an asset as a freelancer.

Only time will tell if Atmos becomes the de-facto audio format of the future, but if I were a betting man, I would start buying stock in Dolby.