NEWARK, NJ — Walters-Storyk Design Group recently helped Audible Recording Studios, here, enlarge and totally reconfigure their in-house facilities. The 21-year-old company is one of the world’s largest producers and distributors of downloadable audiobooks and other spoken-word entertainment.
“We first worked with Audible in 2007, when we were retained to design their original studios for reader recording sessions,” recalls WSDG partner/project manager, Romina Larregina. “We were very pleased to have been awarded this new project in late 2015, when their growing workload required a substantial facility expansion. The Audible team captured a 2,400-square-foot corner section of the 13th floor of their One Washington Park Headquarters Building in Newark. WSDG was tasked with designing a multicast studio and control room, two dedicated iso booth/CRs, a comfortable green room, a mechanical room, and related support space. Collaborating with the Spector Group architectural firm, we designed a program to optimize the space.”
According to WSDG systems designer Judy Elliot-Brown, every systems integration project that WSDG works on is custom. “There are no ‘cookie-cutter’ assignments,” she notes. The Audible studio plan required the control room systems be identical in equipment, rack layouts and patch bay assignments, so that sessions could move seamlessly between rooms.
“Each studio is fully isolated, with decoupled floors and room-within-room construction,” Larregina emphasizes. “Audible is developing increasingly sophisticated productions, which may incorporate original music and sound design. They needed their studios to be capable of recording far more ambitious programs.”
WSDG founding partner, John Storyk adds, “We are personally involved in all of our projects, and take great satisfaction in our contribution to their cultural and artistic mandates. Many of us are also great fans of recorded books, and that connection brought a special meaning to our Audible assignment. We hope their new studios bring them continued success.”