Pitched Cyc Walls
Acoustical Treatment
Our HD studio shoot of a flamenco dance troupe for a Bose audio demonstration
Dear Plamen Gorchev,
To give you an idea of the acoustical design of motion picture studios, and, hence, what would be required to make your studio competitive, I have provided this detailed description, with pictures, of the acoustical treatment of High Output's former studios in Brighton (click on the links at left for more and larger pictures). The first basic feature that you may notice is that the cyc walls are pitched at a 5 degree angle so that they do not reflect sound straight back to the microphones. The cyc walls are also placed so that they insulate against sounds from areas adjacent to the studio. These cyc walls are "floated" on large neoprene pads so that they do not act like a drum and transfer vibrations from outside the studio into the studio. The remaining walls are filled with sand to increase their sound deadening capability. So that sounds are not transmitted through the concrete slab floor, the floor is scored around the edge and the seam is filled with neoprene. This way if a heavy object is dropped in an adjacent space the vibration through the floor is not transmitted to the studio.
In the case of your studio it would make sense to place the second cyc wall on the long outside wall to help insulate against sound from the outside. To insulate against sound from the front lobby you would fill that wall with sand or triple up on the sheet rock. That wall would also have to be extended all the way up to the ceiling. As you can see in these photos of High Output's former studios, all wall surfaces (outside of the cyc wall itself), and the ceiling, are covered with spray on foam insulation to cut down on reverberation. Entry to the studio is through sound lock chambers that employ double doors for sound insulation. Finally, the AC ducting is enclosed behind sheet rock and the ducting is oversized for high volume low flow movement of the air to eliminate air rushing noise.