Focusrite's RedNet HD32R de Focusrite is a critical component at Bang! Zoom Entertainment

If you’ve seen cutting-edge animated series, films and other media in recent years, there was a good chance they had their audio post-production done at Bang Zoom! Entertainment. 

The Burbank, CA post facility, which has earned two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Sound Mixing and Outstanding Sound Editing and provides audio post services for the Adult Swim series Rick And Morty, operates from 15,000 square feet of space housing seven ADR recording stages, two Foley stages, six edit bays, and four Dolby-certified mix stages with 5.1, 6.1 & 7.1 surround-sound capabilities.

Additionally, the facility has recently added a mix stage for Dolby’s Atmos immersive audio format. Critical to moving all of that sound around the facility is a Dante network, served by six Focusrite RedNet HD32R 32-channel HD Dante network bridges. These system components act as the backbone of the facility’s content/signal transport infrastructure, enabling them to handle the high channel count of a Dolby Atmos mixing session. In addition, Bang Zoom! also utilizes a RedNet X2P 2x2 Dante audio interface as a headphone monitoring and talk-back solution, as well as a RedNet PCIeR Card for the rendering engine, and a pair of RedNet 4 eight-channel mic preamps in their other studios. All of the RedNet products were purchased through Westlake Pro.

The new Atmos mix stage is designed as a one-person mix position: four HR32R units take up to 128 channels from the Avid Pro Tools | HDX system to the Dolby RMU Atmos rendering and mastering processor; two more HD32Rs serve as the interfaces for the studio’s Pro Tools recording system. August Belfiglio, Lead Audio Technical Engineer at Bang Zoom!, says two of the HR32R units were already in place at the facility before the addition of the Atmos mix studio.

The RedNet infrastructure also allows the studio to move fluidly between its traditional stereo and 5.1 workflows and Atmos. A RedNet X2P 2x2 Dante audio interface, featuring two Red Evolution mic pre's, stereo line out and a stereo headphone amplifier, also adds flexibility to the Atmos room. “It’s there if the mixer wants to mix in headphones, but it also serves a talkback for when we're on remote-mixed view-downs with clients, and if we ever need a microphone for someone to lay down some quick scratch or [vocal] sound effects. It comes in handy for a lot of things and it’s fully integrated into the entire RedNet system, so it’s always there whenever we need it.”