the first thing that striked me was the total absence of acoustic treatment in their control room
Look closely at the rear wall. Two things jump out at me:
First, there are heavy/thick drapes *between* the windows that probably act like fairly good high frequency diffusers. Alternating them with the two highly reflective windows - neither of which looks to have a first reflection path back to the engineer's position - probably makes for a HF response pretty well balanced between lively and dead.
Second, the placement of the couch along the back wall and the chair in the corner (is there also one in the far corner? I'm not sure) do have some bass trapping characteristics built into both their construction and location.
Also, this may just be coincidence, but note the cabinet/closet door open on the wall to the right of the console. I may be reading too much into that, it might just so happen to be open and nothing more. But it also just so happens that having it open at an angle like that would also appear to deflect first reflections from the monitors against that wall - the nearest possible offending surface - away from the listening position and back to the rear wall instead.
Acoustic treatment does not have to be in the form of noticeable and expensive Auralex and RealTraps, as good as those may be. The proper placement and use of things like heavy drapery, bookcases, furniture and the like can be strategically placed and used to help even out a room's response. It may not be as A-list as a high-tech design using high-tech materials and objects, and it may not work as good, but it can often work well enough to give the engineer good and easy translation.
G.
