Royal Holloway University of London boasts one of the highest rated music departments in the UK; placed 2nd in the Good University Guide 2024. They approached Yellow Technology in 2023 to consult on systems design, audio & video wiring, equipment specification, installation & configuration of their new Engineer’s Cottage Recording Studio complex.

RECORDING and TEACHING FLEXIBILITY

With a wide breadth of use cases across the department’s various higher education courses, the client required a high degree of flexibility for the configuration of the 4 technical spaces in the facility: Live Room 1, Live Room 2, Control Room & Relay Room. In particular, the ability to:

  • Record performances in Live Room 1 and Live Room 2 simultaneously from the Control Room, with audio and visual communication between all the 3 rooms;

  • Relay any audio in real-time from the Control Room to a large class in the Relay Room;

  • Show the class in the Relay Room the Control Room computer screens, settings on the mixing desk and outboard equipment, and activity from the two live rooms;

  • Allow straightforward video and audio communication between the Control Room and Relay Room;

  • Record either Live Room 1 or Live Room 2 from the Relay Room;

  • Facilitate straightforward connection of student computers and hardware in the Relay Room;

  • Have near-identical monitoring in Control Room & Relay Room so a class can hear exactly what the Control Room is hearing.

AUDIO and VIDEO ROUTEING ELEGANCE

Through a series of consultation workshops Yellow Technology developed a custom audio and video routeing system to meet the client’s exacting demands:

  • Comprehensive microphone patching to allow recording of either Live Room from either the Control Room or Relay Room;

  • Straightforward “press-to-talk” style audio communication between Control Room and Relay Room;

  • Custom jackfield routeing to allow any Control Room signal to be monitored in the Relay Room in real time;

  • Customised headphone, cue and red light control systems to allow flexible Live Room foldback control from either Control Room or Relay Room;

  • Discrete, high-definition, low latency videos cameras installed in all rooms, configured so that any camera could be easily viewed from any location;

  • Comprehensive, yet easy-to-operate video distribution systems, allowing Control Room display feeds to be sent to the Relay Room along with all video camera feeds;

  • High definition close-up camera suspended above custom workstation furniture in Control Room to allow the SSL Origin mixing desk movements to be carefully monitored in the Relay Room;

  • Identical PMC monitors, carefully configured for their space with the Trinnov Nova loudspeaker optimisation system to ensure seamless mix translation between Control Room and Relay Room;

  • Custom workstation furniture to allow straightforward connection of third party computers and hardware.