Liberty Mixing Room

The Issue

Liberty University’s Center for Cinematic Arts is designed to engage students actively in the digital and media delivery revolution that is transforming all areas of contemporary culture. Course offerings provide both conceptual and practical experience as well as world-class professional training facilities and equipment. When the Center’s new Liberty Mixing Room (the only THX-certified dubbing stage in an institution worldwide) was constructed, Liberty University turned to Acoustical Solutions for a turnkey sound control treatment.

The Challenge

The Zaki Gordon Cinematic Arts Center launched in the Spring of 2012. All students who graduate from the center will have written and directed their own short film; compiled a professional reel of their work; written, polished, and formed a business plan for their own screenplay; and will have a credit on a long-format film. One of the most coveted facilities in the Cinematic Arts Center is their THX-certified mixing room, the only THX-certified dubbing stage in an institution worldwide. This mixing room required many acoustical considerations to become THX certified. Proper acoustical treatment to prevent transmission of foreign sound into the room, as well as keep the room as sound absorbent and silent as possible, had to be carefully planned and installed.

The Solution

The walls of the mixing room are an AcoustiWall Fabric Stretch System, which provides floor-to-ceiling sound absorption, preventing reverberation and deadening the space. Iso-Step^® Soundproofing Underlayment was also installed beneath the flooring of the room. The IIC or impact insulation class of the Iso-Step^® Floor Underlayment is rated high — meaning footfall noise is absorbed. Mason Industries Isolation Hangers decouple the ceiling, soundproofing against structure borne noise.

Liberty University Mixing Room using Stretch wall system for side wall acoustics and speaker covers under the screen.

The Result

According to the center’s executive director Stephan Schultze, classroom attendance caps were raised twice last year to 60 students per class, to accommodate interest in the program. Last fall, the program’s three introductory core classes — screenwriting, motion picture directing, and cinematography — welcomed 120 students each. Last semester, the program held three workshops featuring industry professionals including Kirk Cameron, whose session took place in the THX mixing room. “(Students) will have been trained using industry-standard equipment from ‘Red’ camera packages to Avid edit bays, to ProTools and THX certified surround sound mixing experience,” Schultze says, “they will not only know how to make a movie but will also know how to make a living doing it.”