SBIFF inaugurates its McHurley Film Center complex with acoustic design and Meyer Sound technology

He Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) opens the doors of the McHurley Film Center: a five-screen cinema complex fully equipped with Meyer Sound, with Astrya cinema speakers as a key piece in its three spaces Dolby Atmos.

He McHurley Film Center will be the permanent headquarters of the SBIFF, con projections, events and training throughout the year. The building, a former Metropolitan Theaters multiplex, was completely emptied and rebuilt over nine months at a cost of approximately 20 million dollars, with projection Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos in three of its five rooms and Meyer Sound in all of them.

The systems were designed and installed by Southern California Cinetech, whose director, Michael Golin, has worked with the SBIFF since his initial project in the Riviera cinema. The assignment, remember, it was direct: “They wanted the best”. to get it, The first step was to optimize the acoustics of the venue.

The team performed studies and applied treatments to eliminate the crosstalk between rooms. But, when emptying the old multiplex, The main limitation of the location was revealed. Built under a parking, the rooms had a very little free space at the top. The decision was made to install a soundproofing cover across the entire ceiling to control sound transmission from the parking deck., but these conditions made the choice of speakers critical.

After evaluating different options, Golin chose the Meyer Sound Ultra‑X23XP: “We have almost no wiggle room from the top of the projected image to the ceiling.”. The Ultra‑X20 series is the only one of its size and power that works in an Atmos installation. If a speaker were bigger, would interfere with the image. All Ultra-X20 speakers offer wide horizontal coverage of 110 degrees and measure 189 mm high when placed horizontally”.

Las three Atmos rooms They have screen channel speakers Astrya-140, with air arrangements Ultra-X23XP and side surround speakers HMS-10; the two rooms 7.1 They have screen speakers Acheron Studio and surround speakers HMS-5. Besides, several groups of high-power cinema subwoofers X-800C they serve the five screens, while compact and narrow subwoofers USW-210P are responsible for bass management in Atmos rooms.

The SBIFF has built an infrastructure that lives up to its ambitions, and a sound system designed to present each film as its creators intended. Sean Pratt, festival director, values ​​the role of Meyer in its new infrastructure: “A cutting-edge projection, quality sound and careful programming are the three things that, in our opinion, they keep cinemas alive. “That's what led us to decide on Meyer Sound.”.