Apogee Studio's Audio Perfection via Dante's Innovations
Apogee Studio in Santa Monica Expands Listening Options with Dante Network
Apogee Studio, located in the heart of Santa Monica, is known for its state-of-the-art audio system. The studio, a brainchild of renowned AV legend Bob Clearmountain, has recently turned to Dante to enhance its listening options.
The studio's audio system is based around Apogee's Symphony Mk II Special Edition, a multi-channel audio interface that supports three connectivity modules. One of these modules is an optional Dante hardware module, which allows for seamless integration with Dante's digital audio networking technology.
Clearmountain, who has worked with major acts such as Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Roxy Music, The Pretenders, and Bryan Adams, wanted to tie together the studio's four rooms to allow for a live, immersive mix in the main studio. To achieve this, a router was used to create a dedicated Dante network without any additional devices.
The Dante network transmits audio from the studio to the remote rooms. Each remote room is equipped with a Mac running Dante Virtual Soundcard, a software application that transforms a PC or Mac into a Dante-enabled device. This setup allows for monitoring of the live immersive audio stream in the remote rooms, ensuring that the audience hears the same audio as those in the main studio, even through the Atmos speakers.
The setup of the Dante network was reportedly straightforward by Bob Clearmountain. Cables were run to connect the network to the necessary locations, and a router was used to create the dedicated Dante network. This setup allows Apogee Studio to expand its listening options by easily integrating various audio sources and destinations across the studio, enabling the audience to experience the full, immersive performance from any location.
The audience interest for shows at Apogee is often greater than what the studio can hold. With the Dante integration, the studio can now cater to a larger audience, offering an immersive audio experience that enhances the spatial audio experience for live mixes. This technology has been used in some of the most iconic live shows in music history, including Live Aid, The Concert for New York for 9/11, and the Foo Fighters' Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concerts.
In summary, Apogee Studio in Santa Monica has expanded its listening options by implementing Dante's digital audio networking technology. This allows them to route multiple audio channels over a standard Ethernet network, enhancing the spatial audio experience for live mixes and catering to a larger audience. The studio's audio system uses Dante Virtual Soundcard and a Dante network to propagate audio throughout all the rooms, ensuring that the audience hears the same high-quality audio, regardless of their location within the studio.
The expansion of Apogee Studio's listening options with Dante's digital audio networking technology enables the seamless integration of various data-and-cloud-computing-based audio sources and destinations throughout the studio, enhancing the immersive audio experience that follows major events.
By leveraging the features of Dante, such as the Dante Virtual Soundcard and a dedicated Dante network, Apogee Studio offers a sonic quality consistent across all rooms, making it possible for larger audiences to enjoy the same high-quality feature-rich events.
