Minimum Size Room for Listening

[Nathan W.]

What's the smallest room you can possibly mix in for episodic television?
I began to ask myself this question after being asked about what the minimum size room for of a new studio build.

It's tough because when you're dealing with skeptics and soaring rents in major cities (and across the u.s.) you're put on the defensive. Why NOT a small space? Lease, rents, and (if you're lucky enough to be able to afford to buy) squeezes margins in a very big way.

This is where it's really nice to have governing bodies and sources outside of yourself to confirm what most of us already know: room volume matters and can impact the dynamics of your mixes tremendously.

NAB says in their manual that smaller rooms lead to less dynamic mixes, larger spaces tend to more dynamic. Also, NAB says that high quality mixes have been produced for episodic television at approximately 1500 cubic feet, which seems to be about the limit. But why about 1500 cubic feet? Enter - the golden ratio.

I'm not going to go into details but just know it provides the ideal acoustical space based upon your ceiling height. Here's the calculator:

http://www.mh-audio.nl/RoomDim.asp#calculations

Design #1 is basically the smallest ideal room acoustically based upon your ceiling height. Notice the difference from 8 foot ceiling height and 10 foot for the smallest ideal room:

10 foot: H:10 W: 11.4 L: 13.9 = 1584.6 cubic feet. NAB recommends an SPL listening pink noise at 79dB, I don't know the exact number but pink in a 1500 cubic foot room is going to be at least 78dB so 1586 you're pushing 78/79dB pink noise. It's the smallest best room size for t.v. mixing acoustically and for hitting that pink noise target.

8 foot: H8 W:9.12 L:.11.12 - Notice that the smallest "best" room acoustically means you have to monitor pink at a lower level, 76 or lower which means your mixes will be less dynamic, way less. That's only 817.15 cubic feet vs. the at least 1500 cubic feet you need to achieve 79dB (again, I don't know the exact cubic feet for 79dB someone with maths skills please calculate.)

To make sure you hit over 79dB using pink noise you need a room that is:

H:8 W:12.8 L.18.64. = 238.592 square feet.
H:10 W: 11.4 L: 13.9 = 158.46 square feet.

With an 8 feet ceiling you need 80 square feet MORE than a 10 foot ceiling to get ideal acoustics for episodic television / smallest room possible that meets not only NAB's spec but the golden ratio spec. That's 50.5% MORE square footage space needed for an 8 foot ceiling vs. a 10 foot ceiling to get your ideal room size and hit that pink noise number.

Ceiling height can dramatically impact the square footage you need to get to about 1500 cubic feet, and can dramatically decrease your studio build costs.

Make sure you get that 10 foot ceiling if you're mixing for episodic television and want a small space!

[MIKEROPHONICS]

Episodic TV? Do you mean drama?
I may be flying against the face of many, but I firmly believe (after 30 years in TV) that too much TV is mixed in too large rooms and it is only the skill of the people who do it, that make it work, despite the inappropriate room.
Large rooms and projection is not how the masses consume their TV media, but how directors get an ego kick out of watching their show in a theatrical type environment, and that is how facilities make a living selling their services. Which is fine and I have nothing against that. Most of us watch TV on a sofa in modest sized rooms on 50 or so inch screens, often with relatively modest audio playback equipment. I am a rarity in that I have BBC speakers and Naim pre/power amps driving them, but I am sad! Does the music world only listen on large soffit mount speakers? No, it spends most of its life listening on NS10s or Horrortones.
In my experience the mixes I did for TV in a big room on a big DFC translated less well as they were overtly dynamic than the smaller rooms. Big rooms work for cinema, smaller rooms for TV.

[dr sound]

Your room size is dictated by a few things:
What you can afford
The market you are trying to attract
The amount of clients who will be attending/ approving your mix

One needs to balance the ideal room position to mix in
while allowing the right size of backfield to comment on what they are hearing.
If you are doing "Episodic Mixing" you will always be based on the amount you charge vs. the amount your competition charges and what do they offer the clients that you don't. Size MAY matter to those who make a choice even though it may not factor into the end result of the sound of the mix that is delivered.
That is the reality of the marketplace we all work in.

If you have worked with the clients before it may be easier for you to convince them that the size doesn't matter as they already trust you and your opinions.

[Brandonx1]

In a room that's 10 x 11 x 12 or whatever you said, you aren't going to be able to reproduce low or mid bass accurately. A 80hz wave is 18 feet ish long. To trap that wave you need 1/4 the wave length. So 4 feet of trapping. In a 11 x 12 room, you would have no room to move around. The minimum room size should be 5500 cubic feet if you want to know what the level of 80hz and below is.