Harbeth Audio speakers have been chosen to mix, balance and transmit the audio for Wembley’s Fountain Studios, which masters the sound for big-name TV series such as ITV’s The X Factor.
British company Harbeth supplied a 5.1 system for Fountain, which happens to be the UK’s largest purpose-built TV studios, to help engineers in the main control room balance the 60-100 microphones used on the show. They’ll be using a brace of Harbeth’s flagship 40.1 monitors, plus a Monitor 30 for the centre channel and a pair of Monitor 20s at the rear. The Vision Gallery next door, where the director switches between cameras for the show, will also be fitted with a pair of Monitor 30s.
Robert Edwards (right) with Harbeth’s Alan Shaw (centre) and Fountain’s senior sound engineer Peter Ball
Engineers in charge of the sound quality of X Factor were on the lookout for monitor speakers that were in the ‘BBC sound tradition’ of warmth, with exceptional stereo imaging and totally fatigue-free, eventually settling on the Harbeth M40.1s and their associated centre and rear channels.
The man responsible for the X Factor sound is engineer Robert Edwards, whose influence and taste appears to have key in the selection of the Harbeth speakers: “I have had Harbeth speakers at home for over twenty years”, he said. “So why would I want anything less when I am working?”