IMMS Sound chooses the EB-G5000 projector

Dani Zacarías and Marc Horts, who form part of the team developing IMMS Sound, tell us about their experience on post-production of soundtracks for large audiovisual and cinematic projects, including J. A. Bayona's 'The Impossible', with the help of Epson's quality imagery.

Marc Horts:

IMMS Sound is soundtrack technology which represents a giant leap forward in comparison to the 5.1 and 7.1 systems. For example, with IMMS Sound we are using 23.1 channels to reproduce the sound. In terms of post-production and sound creation, our technology improves on the sound reproduction capabilities many times over compared to previous technology.

Dani Zacarias:

It's a revolution! With IMM Sound you can forget about the concept of channels, we are working with sound that can move freely around the room. Effectively, we are treating sound as an object.

Marc Horts:

As Dani said, we no longer need to think to send the signal to a specific channel. We no longer need concepts like 'left surround', 'right surround', 'front', etc. We know that the entire hemisphere of a cinema screen allows us to locate a sound in a specific moment, whether or not there is a loud speaker installed. The creators behind this technology have developed a system which avoids gaps in sound throughout the room.
 

Marc Horts:

Exactly In fact, we are free to do pretty much anything we want with the sound. We aren't just capturing sounds that go from left to right, or front to back, we are creating a completely immersive spatial environment.

Dani Zacarias:

When we were setting up the first post-production room at the Sonoblok facilities, we looked into various options. One of the deciding factors was that it was vital to work with a full screen image that covered the whole screen. We couldn't do that with other projectors, or we were forced to use digital zoom which drastically reduced the image quality. By using full screen projection, it was much easier to synchronise imagery and sound. We could pinpoint a sound to a particular part of the image. To achieve this you need to have a high quality image. After trialling a number of different brands, we settled on Epson.

Marc Horts:

When I was working on post-production for ‘Rec 3', one of the most successful horror films in recent years, we wanted to do some tests, that's when I happened to meet Dani, who was already testing projectors from a variety of brands. Epson gave us a projector just at the right moment, which inspired us to use one for the whole post-production of 'The Impossible'.

Many factors come into play, but the projector turned out to be particularly important. We wanted to bring together both the type of digital image compression and the image reproduced by the computer and the projector. Studio, computer and projector imagery have to go hand in hand to ensure optimisation of quality. This allows the production and post-production teams to see an almost finished image of their studio work. In terms of its definition and speed with which we could work, it helped us a lot.

Dani Zacarias:

It's simply a case that they offer a professional quality projector at a competitive price. In our experience, and we're used to working with 2k and 4k projectors, it can produce very high quality images in the studio. It means that, if your budget suggests you could install a 2k projector or one from Epson's EB-G5000 series, there are significant differences in quality. It definitely helps to optimise studio work.
 

Marc Horts:

The truth is imagery and sound have to go hand in hand. You could say that, to make a good soundtrack, you need good imagery. If you don't have a good quality image, you always feel that you aren't making a good soundtrack. This is all related to what we could call the 'psychoacoustic' state. It happened to us when we were working with our old projector, which had a much smaller projection and much lower definition... You're working on the post-production, but you get a sense of being lost or disorientated.

In an ideal world you want to work with an image that is as close as possible to what will be projected in the cinema screen. Or that is most akin to what the director intended to produce. You can achieve this with this type of projector (Epson's EB-G5000 series). You know you are working on a soundtrack that will match what you are going to see at the cinema.

Dani Zacarias:

In the past (with analogue cinema) directors and image producers would come in and they were aware that they had entered a sound studio and that they didn't have to focus on the image. But thanks to the digital revolution, the distinction between sound and imagery is vanishing. Directors come in now and they want to hear almost exactly the same quality in the studio as on the big screen.

A basic example would be the image behind us (a scene from 'The Impossible'). If we didn't have a full screen image, in this scene where Naomi Watts is being thrown from left to right, or when we are panning to a particular moment when objects are hitting each other... when you add the soundtrack you would be working with a narrower trajectory. You see this on the screen and you realise there's a slight asynchronous sound. The image has fooled you.
 

Marc Horts:

Exactly. You virtually have the master copy, as if you were watching it on a cinema screen.

Dani Zacarías:

It isn't just about post-production, it's also useful for dubbing, it is vital to have a quality projector to match the performance. It allows us to get perfect synchronicity between the speech and the lip movements.
 

Marc Horts:

Definitely. I think it's played a key role in the end result of our projects.

Dani Zacarías:

As freelance post-editors, it will be hard for us to go back, after becoming accustomed to working with this quality. In fact, I have frequently made use of my own Full HD Epson projector, which is a home cinema model, to work on certain projects.
 

Marc Horts:

Yes definitely. We even advertise our technology as soundtrack added using Epson imagery. You can create a soundtrack and post produce at the same time with this projector.