(Courtesy of Surround Professional – July 1999)

An architectural and acoustical design firm, Russ Berger Design Group has been commissioned by NFL Films to design their new world headquarters. The new facility will be designed to meet growing production needs of NFL Films and the constantly changing worlds of audio, video, and film technology. Projected to open in the fall of 2001, the technical facility’s design addresses the production needs of NFL Films, which shoots an extraordinary amount of film footage.

In order to ensure an appropriate environment for a hybrid of HDTV and SDTV production, as well as incorporating 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound into both audio- and video-editing suites, RBDG had to consider a host of sound isolation, interior acoustics, and functional planning issues. The facility will feature four mix rooms, each equipped with a dedicated studio and machine room, one performance studio for orchestral scoring, three pre-mix rooms with voiceover booths, two sound-transfer rooms, two large MIDI rooms, and three music edit rooms. The video area of NFL Films includes eight online edit suites equipped with 5.1 surround audio. Six of the suites also employ video projection for master monitoring. All suites are equipped with 5.1 surround audio and are designed for eventual conversion to nonlinear editing.