Finland (March 21, 2023)—Finland’s Soundon, which specializes in sound recording for concerts and television with multi-camera productions and live broadcasts, recently added a second OB van to its fleet that includes a 5.1 Genelec Smart Active Monitoring system.
Given its previous Genelec install in its original truck, the idea was to replicate that layout in the new vehicle. “We wanted to make our new truck similar to the older one, so it would provide seamless control and it wouldn’t matter which one you are working with,” explains Timo Virtanen, Soundon’s sound designer and CEO. The addition of the new truck means that Soundon now has more capacity for bookings and post-production studio sessions.
“Now when the other truck is somewhere in a production location, we can still do some post in our second truck,” he continues. “There is no need to have a fancy studio room when you can do everything in a moving OB truck. Also, our audio gear has grown so much that we needed a bigger storage area.”
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Genelec 8351 three-way coaxial monitors were installed in the LCR positions, accompanied by the compact 8331s at the rear and complemented by a 7360 subwoofer—soon to be augmented by a second 7360 for even more low-end control. “Back in 2017, we found the 8351As very suitable for us, but realized for this project that we needed something different,” Virtanen recalls. “The studio room is quite narrow [2.5 m wide] which meant that handling the side reflections was very important to us, so we went with the newer 8351B models. That worked out much better for the low middle frequencies and sounded incredible.”
While both trucks are powered with similar Avid control surfaces, the new truck has a Grace M908 monitor controller, equipped to handle surround and immersive formats. Additionally, GLM software was used to configure and calibrate the monitoring system, ensuring that everything is controlled in-house from recording to post-production. “When you’ve recorded the content yourself, it’s nice to see it through all the way to the end,” Virtanen smiles.
