Full Sail Stories

A new Dolby Atmos-enabled classroom recently opened on Full Sail’s campus, providing students studying music & recording new opportunities to interact with the surround sound technology and experience immersive audio playback.

The room received an extensive technical onboarding and calibration process, with Dolby visiting Full Sail earlier this year to assist in verifying speaker positions relative to mix position, tuning the mixing studio to match Dolby specifications, and ensuring a balanced immersive listening experience throughout the larger space.

“The Dolby Atmos-enabled classroom is another example of how Full Sail is leading the way in innovation for education in media and entertainment,” shares Full Sail Director of Industry Relations Scott Dansby. “This classroom is a first-of-its-kind space, created to bring the Atmos experience and training to large groups of students.”

Full Sail launched the new space with a special guest lecture hosted by Apogee Electronics for students studying recording arts, audio production, and music production, featuring critically acclaimed American recording engineer and industry legend, Bob Clearmountain. Known for his work with artists including David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, and Bruce Springsteen, the decorated engineer visited campus to discuss how he mixes in Atmos with Apogee, sharing his process and workflow with students.

Bob Clearmountain speaks to a room of students in the new Atmos classroom.

With 27 Martin Audio speakers, four Martin Audio SX Series subwoofers, three Avid S6 consoles, an Avid Sync X, and an Avid MTRXII interface, the new campus facility serves as the perfect venue for large groups of students to experience the power of immersive playback while learning an essential audio skill from industry professionals.

“Dolby Atmos has been the most significant change in mixing since the advent of 5.1 in the early 1990s, be it for motion pictures, streaming or televised content, and video games,” shared Full Sail graduate Marc Fishman when asked about the importance of Atmos. “For shows like The Last of Us, we used the format to allow planes and other environmental sounds to play overhead. In 3 Body Problem, we were able to submerge the viewers in the middle of fantastic alien-created virtual reality worlds. Atmos adds the ability to put viewers in a bubble of sound.

“It is the new standard moving forward, and having access to Atmos-equipped classrooms, labs, and technologies will be essential for students starting their mixing careers and will allow them to be well versed in this new technology as they graduate,” added Marc.

Graduate and audio engineer Brad Blackwood echoed the importance of being able to master in Atmos, saying, “By being Atmos-savvy, I’ve been afforded the opportunity to work on classic album re-releases by artists such as Prince, Fleetwood Mac, and Kiss, but more than that, I’m prepared for the future of this incredible technology. With some 2.5 billion Atmos-capable devices already in the hands of consumers, I think staying on the leading edge of the curve can only help sustain my career.”