Glasgow School Of Art Fits New City-Centre Studios

The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) has equipped its new city-centre campus with Genelec monitoring systems to support its renowned Sound for the Moving Image discipline. The School of Information and Technology (SIT) – known for graduates skilled in film and TV sound, immersive audio, game audio and experimental practice – has relocated from Pacific Quay to a site closer to the main campus, rebuilding its core studios in the process.

With local reseller and integrator Mediaspec providing design and installation support, the move recreated three principal rooms – a Dolby Atmos studio, a 5.1 surround suite and the spatial audio Soundlab – in the new facility. The project aimed to deliver a flexible, future‑facing teaching and production environment that supports industry-standard Dolby Atmos workflows, traditional 5.1 mixing and third‑order Ambisonics, alongside voiceover and Foley recording.

To enable seamless operation across formats, all studios were interconnected via a Dante network – a significant technical upgrade from the previous campus. Mediaspec commissioned and integrated a 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos room and a 16‑speaker Ambisonics Soundlab, with the GSA's internal IT team providing the network infrastructure.

In the Atmos room, 11 Genelec 8030 nearfield monitors were transferred from Pacific Quay and paired with a 7060 subwoofer. The Ambisonics Soundlab was fitted with 16 Genelec 8010 nearfields supported by a 7050 sub. The compact 5.1 suite continues to use GSA’s existing Genelec 1029 nearfields, and both the voiceover booth and Foley studio are accessible on the Dante network.

"Since Ambisonic sound does not have a low frequency enhancement channel as part of its defined characteristics, we found that initial playback testing with the 8010 monitor array in the Soundlab revealed very good immersion and localisation characteristics, but the low end required reinforcement. Therefore, Mediaspec suggested that we deploy a 7050 subwoofer in the room – which we fed with summed 100 Hz LPF audio – and this did indeed remedy the issue, following some experimentation with positioning."

Implementation of the Dante network required careful tuning to achieve full stability. "By fine-tuning the network, establishing correct clocking and routing configurations, and carrying out comprehensive system-wide testing and validation, we were able to achieve a stable and reliable infrastructure," explained Breslin.

Reaction from students and staff has been strongly positive. "All the studios sound incredibly clear," commented Simon Weins, Sound Technician & Lecturer at the GSA. "The 8030s in the Atmos studio allow for a very detailed image of a mix, which is crucial for our students when making final decisions in their projects. Together with the rest of our system, this allows our students to work at the highest professional level. The stereo imaging is precise, and the low frequency detail is exceptional."

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