Trinnov Audio is a French manufacturer of preamplifiers and audio processors founded in 2003. The brand’s equipment features exclusive acoustic optimization and 3D sound technologies for the most comprehensive high-end hi-fi and home theater installations, as well as for professional studios and movie theaters. Discover how Trinnov’s audio expertise is put to use by the legendary Skywalker Sound studios.
What is Skywalker Sound?
Skywalker Sound is the post-production audio wing of Lucasfilm, specializing in sound design, mixing, and audio post-production. The Skywalker sound designers and re-recording mixers notably work on Disney properties, such as Marvel and Star Wars movies, as well as Pixar and Disney animation. The company’s main facilities are located at director George Lucas’ iconic Skywalker Ranch in Lucas Valley, California.
Skywalker Sound was created in 1975, when George Lucas and Gary Kurtz hired Ben Burtt, a young graduate of the USC School of Cinema & Film while they were looking for a “director of sound,” to create a soundtrack for the movie Star Wars.
Soon after, the company became Sprocket Systems, and moved to Skywalker Ranch in 1987. From the gathering of real-life, organic sounds to developing new techniques in sound presentation, Skywalker Sound remains one of the world’s most innovative facilities.
How does Skywalker Sound use Trinnov equipment?
Skywalker Sound is located in northern California, but the people who need to sign off on mixes (directors and creative teams), aren’t always in the same region during the entire duration of a project. As a result, live content is often sent from the Skywalker mix rooms to remote locations.
However, there are many variables involved with this process, and the conditions in which the mixes will be listened to aren’t often known ahead of time. It could be in a room with acoustic treatment, or it could be a conference room, for example. It’s not possible to add acoustics, change the room or the seating configuration.
Brian Long, the Skywalker Sound supervising engineer, states that the Trinnov Audio Altitude processor “is great because what it has is a set of professional outputs. You have balanced outputs and you can take AES3 in and out, so most of our streaming stuff comes in from a hardware codec. It goes through an HD/SDI De-embedder that will provide up to 16 channels of AES3 straight into the Trinnov, and then the Trinnov will serve as the loudspeaker management source selection.”
Typically, the Trinnov Altitude is used for mixes that must be sent to a director or a key person who has end sign-off authority or who needs to evaluate the finished product at a very high level. Trinnov equipment is ideal, as it is low profile and relatively plug and play. It can be installed quickly with the rest of the gear and be operational.
How Skywalker Sound was introduced to Trinnov
The Skywalker Sound team discovered Trinnov’s solutions just after they had finished writing the 2096-1&2 standards for calibration in large rooms with the SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers). At the same time, Trinnov was collaborating with CEDIA (Association for Smart Home Professionals) on a similar project.
On the advice of his associate at SMPTE, Brian Long decided to take a closer look at their work. “I came in and the Trinnov team was participating, so we took a unit on to experiment with it and see if it lived up to the hype. We’re very good at testing, poking holes and breaking things to see where they fall apart. And the Trinnov unit stood up to everything that was told to us that it would.”
An optimized workflow
When a mix is sent to a director or creative team, it must emulate what the Skywalker engineers can hear in their mix rooms, with the correct level balance, EQ and timbre balance.
That usually requires a trained technician to travel to the location and perform a calibration, but there isn’t always the time to do this. Long states that “the Trinnov system is the first system that I found that emulates the process that we as humans typically logically employ in calibrating a system.”
It allows audio engineers to apply appropriate limits and stop the computer from implementing automatic corrections. Moreover, Trinnov equipment is accessible to a wider range of technicians, so Skywalker doesn’t have to send somebody as highly specialized out to the location. Essentially, we can push a button with the preset parameters engaged and know that it will work.
Trinnov: a trusted solution for cinema professionals
For Skywalker Sound supervising engineer Brian Long, it is important for a director or creative to be able to come into a room, have an experience, and trust that experience. They may be listening to predubs, which is early on in the process when sound is just coming together, but they’re already formulating opinions. They’re counting on the fact that these impressions won’t deviate when they come to the studio for the final mix. Trinnov Audio’s solutions are a way to ensure this. “When they just show up and everything is as it is and there’s no comment, that’s when you’ve won.”
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