Acoustic treatment of a professional Dolby Atmos room

Good acoustic treatment is one that adjusts the levels of reverb time, frequency response and intelligibility within the human ear’s acoustic comfort zone. But every type of studio has its acoustics and, depending on its use, will require different types of solutions such as acoustic panels, diffusers, bass traps, acoustic membranes, resonators, etc.

The acoustics of Dolby Atmos

For these types of rooms it’s very helpful to know their acoustic isolation and the materials that were used for that. Knowing the type of Silentblock or acoustic damper, acoustic doors, absorbent panels and other materials that are part of the soundproofing (if there is such) helps us prevent possible problems that, once the acoustic treatment is executed, will be covered by many layers and will be much more difficult (and expensive) to fix.

It is important to know the number and type of speakers that will bring the sound to life, their placement, their integration, their features and their limitations. Also the acoustic limitations of the room itself depending on its dimensions.

A proper Dolby Atmos room must be free of acoustic reflections and excess reverb. This might be the goal, and it looks easy. But in a Dolby Atmos mixing room other important factors such as visualization, lighting, ventilation, integration and design intervene. All this must be extensively studied to achieve (among other things) the desired acoustic comfort that we talked about above.

The Atresmedia Dolby Atmos mixing room.

This project was executed in the year 2022, and without a doubt it is one of the acoustic projects that makes us feel most proud, due to the degree of difficulty and participation involved. We began by advising the infrastructure department of Atresmedia on everything related to acoustic insulation to later carry the weight of acoustic treatment and its integration with the different elements that made up the room (projection, seats, lighting, climate, etc.) together with the engineers from Atresmedia’s operations and engineering departments.

The main objective was to achieve the best possible acoustics in the mixing position, but without neglecting the multichannel sound experience in each of the seats.

The acoustic panels used.

The acoustic fabric, visible on each of the walls, hides an appropriate mix of acoustic panels based on mineral fibers (using melamine resin acoustic foam as the last layer), acoustic membranes and air chambers designed to obtain the best possible performance of each of the loudspeakers that make up the multichannel system and, at the same time, control the reverberation time throughout the frequency spectrum. But we did it by applying a high dose of design and integration with the rest of the elements. The acoustic ceiling is made up of top-quality sound-absorbing panels that blend perfectly with the look of the entire room.

As our engineer Giulio Curà said after the demo that the entire Mas Acoustics Pro team attended once the project was finished, “Photos cannot express the emotion caused by the sound in this room”.

If you need good acoustic treatment for your new Dolby Atmos room, leave the project in our hands. We are here to help you.