New World Symphony selects Merging for Miami venue

The Frank Gehry-designed New World Center in Miami Beach, Florida – home of the New World Symphony and also a world-class performance for hire – has taken delivery of a new recording system based around Merging’s Pyramid and Horus/Hapi interfaces.

The venue’s 756-seat Performance Hall and smaller Sun Trust Pavilion are fully equipped for live performance and recording and share two multi-track surround capable control rooms. HD video recording and projection is also available for those hiring the spaces.

Originally set up to record 64 tracks at 24bit/48kHz, it became apparent to the Symphony’s audio team that many major opera and concert venues have installed Pyramix and Horus/Hapi Networked Audio facilities, allowing for higher track counts at much higher sampling rates.

Director of audio services Roberto Toledo’s first encounter with Merging’s DSD recording system was through recordings he had previously heard and a demonstration by Independent Audio’s Dennis Gaines and Parsons Audio. “With regards to the hardware, sonic quality was an important part in the decision. Having heard the hardware, it was clear that choosing the Horus and Hapi for our new system would be the right direction," he said. "In addition, the ability to do higher resolution recordings – DXD and DSD to be specific – was of great importance to us. The bulk of our work is classical music, and I prefer little to no coloration when I hear a mic. I feel that Horus and Hapi will produce the transparency and clarity I am looking for.”

Moving to Merging hardware meant that Audio-over-IP was now part of the package. “Ravenna and AES67 also played a huge part in our decision to go with the Merging hardware," Toledo explained. "The ability to connect a large system, like the one we purchased, with only a few network cables is truly amazing. Future expansion is very easy, and it is something we hope to do soon.”

Changing DAWs can also be a daunting proposition, so Toledo needed a good reason to do so: “While I have not had much experience with Pyramix, I see the potential, as it appears to be a very powerful piece of software. For us, being able to record, mix, edit, and export final files, all with one program, will greatly improve our workflow. Also we cannot record at more than 192kHz with our current system.”

The Merging system comprising 3 x Horus, 2 x Hapi and Pyramix MassCore 256 Master Packs with 3 x Quintessense Turnkey PC chassis connected to Avid S6 and S3 consoles, has been delivered but not fully installed, although it is hoped that recording can start before the end of 2015 with a temporary cabling solution. The full Ravenna/AES67 installation is planned for summer 2016 with an official start date of next September.

“I am very excited to begin using this new system as I have some high expectations for it," Toledo concluded. "I have a feeling it will definitely meet and more than likely, exceed my demands and expectations.”

Picture credit: Rui Dias

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