Simple treatment for a LARGE studio

[bennychico11]

Hey guys-

We have a large production studio complete with green screen and cyc. The studio is approx. 50'x50' with a 15' ceiling. So it's rather large and the decay time in their sucks since it's so open. I'd like to kill as much of the reflections as I can because I just cringe every time I get something recorded in there.

Unfortunately I can't build anything permanent because they're always moving stuff around and none of what I can do can be in the way or become part of anything being filmed. However, I walked in there the other day and noticed several ropes with clips hanging from the ceiling above the cyc that are used from time to time for hanging lights. My thoughts were to utilize them and hang 703 panels from them. Below is a picture of what I was thinking (and yes, obviously I do graphic design work if anyone would like to hire me )

(the green is the green screen, the light blue is the cyc and the orange is where I was thinking of hanging the panels)
You'll see there is a total of 19 clips attached to rope hanging 2' from the ceiling. Each clip is approx. 3'-3.5' apart. I was thinking about using some 2" boards, framing off 703 wrapped in black fabric, attaching some rings to the boards and hanging them horizontally. Probably ending up with a total of 9 panels.

Do you think this would be effective? Or at least kill SOME of the echo in the room? We're not talking about a room used to record any music, mostly just people speaking on camera into a shotgun mic

Any thoughts on this? Right now the production crew "sometimes" uses 8' tall baffles with egg crate foam glued to a plywood backing to try and cut off the room a bit. The results are dismal to say the least and I've been wanting to change that for quite awhile (not to mention I've been advocating getting rid of them purely for flammability concerns when near those high wattage lights).

Thanks all.

 

[mshilarious]

I would build a bunch* of 2x4x4" panels and hang them vertically.




* you can actually calculate how much a bunch is, if you measure the room's RT60. From that you can derive the Sabins of absorption you need, and then it's a matter of looking up Sabins/panel, which I forget but somebody around here will know.

 

[bennychico11]

unfortunately I don't know if I can hang them 4' vertical. With the 2' ropes hanging from the ceiling that would bring them 6' down. So we'd only 9' of head room which I know isn't enough for clearance of any lights they might put up.

hmmmmmm, I could probably do 4" panels though.

 

[Obi-Wan zenabI]

* you can actually calculate how much a bunch is, if you measure the room's RT60. From that you can derive the Sabins of absorption you need, and then it's a matter of looking up Sabins/panel, which I forget but somebody around here will know.

I so wish that I knew how to do that...

 

[mshilarious]

I so wish that I knew how to do that...

It's not that hard, there are online calculators out there on the interwebs . . .

Anyway, this is more of a large room issue. The RT60 of a small room will be low, but the room will still sound like poo without killing early reflections and absorbing bass frequencies.

bennychico, you can hang them vertically from the 4' side (only 2' down) too. Also, I typed 4" before, but this is an application where 2" probably works fine.

 

[bennychico11]

It's not that hard, there are online calculators out there on the interwebs . . .

Anyway, this is more of a large room issue. The RT60 of a small room will be low, but the room will still sound like poo without killing early reflections and absorbing bass frequencies.

bennychico, you can hang them vertically from the 4' side (only 2' down) too. Also, I typed 4" before, but this is an application where 2" probably works fine.

oh, okay...you mean 4' horizontal, 2' tall. Yeah, that's what I originally had in mind too. Mainly because there's 3' in between each hanging clip. So it will be sort of a hanging cloud, on it's side.

I tried one of those online RT60 calculators. I got about 3.25 - 5.5 sec. for each of the frequencies. I'm not sure if that's right though. It's not just a big empty room, there is stuff there absorbing some frequencies already...plus lots of strange materials that will be reflecting things differently (like that cyc)

You don't think 4" will give me anything that 2" doesn't already?

 

[Rod Gervais]

Could you provide a picture of this studio?

Rod

 

[mshilarious]

I tried one of those online RT60 calculators. I got about 3.25 - 5.5 sec. for each of the frequencies. I'm not sure if that's right though. It's not just a big empty room, there is stuff there absorbing some frequencies already...plus lots of strange materials that will be reflecting things differently (like that cyc)

Yeah, 5.5 sec sounds long to me, but 3 sec could be possible. You can start with a minimal amount of panels and add more later if you have to.

You don't think 4" will give me anything that 2" doesn't already?

Lower frequency absorption, but I don't know if that's important here. Surface area is generally more desirable for mid-high absorption, and 2" gives you twice as much for the buck. Rod will know better.

Just for fun, here's a 2" panel I just hung a couple of days ago (not vertically . . . but not horizontally either!)

 

[bennychico11]

okay, here's some pics. The first two are of the clips in the ceiling that I'm talking about. Sorry for the bad images. The studio doesn't photograph well with my digital camera. Of course, my camera is probably 5 years old. I had to brighten up the levels in Photoshop to help a bit.

 

[bpape]

That 3ish seconds is what it IS, not what it should be. Take a look at www.bobgolds.com and look at the room calculator. Input your dimensions and hit calculate. In the lower right, it will give you some target decay ranges for RT60 for different types of rooms.

Hanging the baffles up there is a good idea. I'd also straddle a few wall/ceiling corners and make a dozen or more gobos to move around to help knock things down but can be moved to where they're off-camera.

Bryan

 

[bennychico11]

yeah, I figured that was the calculator telling me what my room is.

okay, so I think I'll start with the hanging panels idea first. Now I just need to decide between getting 703 or Roxul.

As far as the gobos, like I said we already have the ones with egg crate style foam on them which I can just easily remove and replace with something much more absorbent...but would it make if a difference if I totally made brand new ones with an open back to them? Right now they are just glued to a piece of plywood but I'm sure that's just another big reflection point for everything.

 

[Rod Gervais]

That 3ish seconds is what it IS, not what it should be. Take a look at www.bobgolds.com and look at the room calculator. Input your dimensions and hit calculate. In the lower right, it will give you some target decay ranges for RT60 for different types of rooms.

Hanging the baffles up there is a good idea. I'd also straddle a few wall/ceiling corners and make a dozen or more gobos to move around to help knock things down but can be moved to where they're off-camera.

Bryan

Bryan,

I might be mistaken - but I believe that calculator is a small room calc - and this room (37,500 c.f.) doesn't qualify.............

Sincerely,

Rod

 

[bpape]

Hi Rod.

That calculator still does the RT-60 calcs right - just a matter of how you interpret them and what you realize you need. You're probably right now that I think about it not to use those recommendations in the lower right as those are for smaller spaces.

Bryan

 

[Obi-Wan zenabI]

bennychico- there is a children's museum on the upper west side (of Manhattan) that has a sound treatment similar to what you're thinking-- they have fabric wrapped 703 hanging straight down from the grid above, all over the space. It looked to me like they cut the panels lengthwise to make 1' by 4' by 2".

The space was not dead by any means, but it kept down the clangy reverberance that can build up in gyms and museums and restaurants and such.

If you wanted to really make a dead sounding space, I would think that horizontally hung would get more done for you. Perhaps a combination?

 

[Rod Gervais]

I would cover all of the the walls - floor to ceiling - with fiberglass blankets (black matt finish) and then cover the first 10 to 12 ' of that with a wire fabric to protect the glass from damage.....

We completed studio 15 in Sonalysts like this - and NO ONE has complained about room sounds.........

Steven Spielberg loved the room -

Joe Cocker - Aerosmith, Trans-Siberian Orchestra all use this facility for warm up before world tours.........