Nut Academy Creates Dolby Atmos Studio With Genelec Smart Active Monitors

For more than 15 years, Italy’s Nut Academy has been training sound technicians, sound designers and producers of electronic music based on the ethos that “the best way to teach is to put the student in the ideal conditions to learn”.
This approach has seen Nut Academy invest heavily in its facilities, ensuring they are always state-of-the-art. The latest example of this has been the construction of a Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 studio which has been enhanced with Genelec Smart Active Monitors.
The school partnered with Midiware, the Italian distributor of Genelec’s wide range of professional monitors, and acoustic consultants Studio Sound Service to design and supply a purpose-built studio that could be installed by the Nut Academy team and would meet the necessary immersive audio standards.
While it was important to meet Dolby’s standards, teaching is the primary function of the room and this also played an important role in its design. “The Dolby Atmos room can accommodate up to 10 to 15 people for Nut Academy lessons,” notes Studio Sound Service’s Partner and Acoustic Designer Giulia Bondielli. “This required a versatile interior design which is different from a traditional mixing room design with the sofa and the diffuser on the rear wall. We had to optimise the space to satisfy all client needs, and to find the right positions for every studio monitor – as two lateral televisions and a projector screen are used for lessons.”
While the design provided a variety of challenges, the selection of equipment was much simpler. Genelec monitors had been the first choice for the school ever since Midiware had demonstrated the capabilities of The Ones family to Nut Academy. Having heard the monitors, the school immediately knew they would be the right choice and Donato Masci, CEO and Technical Director of Studio Sound Service, built on this decision to specify a perfect solution for the space. The selection called on 8351 coaxial three-way monitors for the L-C-R positions, while 8340 two-way models provide the surround and overhead channels. Finally, a 7380 subwoofer handles the low frequencies.
You might also like...
Microphones: Part 10 - Mid-Side (M-S) Recording And Processing
M-S techniques provide useful sound-field positioning and a convenient way to check mono compatibility. We explain the hard science behind this often misunderstood technique.
Monitoring & Compliance In Broadcast: Monitoring Cloud Infrastructure
If we take cloud infrastructures to their extreme, that is, their physical locality is unknown to us, then monitoring them becomes a whole new ball game, especially as dispersed teams use them for production.
Phil Rhodes Image Capture NAB 2025 Show Floor Report
Our resident image capture expert Phil Rhodes offers up his own personal impressions of the technology he encountered walking the halls at the 2025 NAB Show.
Microphones: Part 9 - The Science Of Stereo Capture & Reproduction
Here we look at the science of using a matched pair of microphones positioned as a coincident pair to capture stereo sound images.
Monitoring & Compliance In Broadcast: Monitoring Cloud Networks
Networks, by their very definition are dispersed. But some are more dispersed than others, especially when we look at the challenges multi-site and remote teams face.