[BC] Dealing with the Brain Challenged

[Alan Peterson]

> How about engineers who "didn't get it" when designing a technical 
> showplace of a studio that no one can comfortably work in?

One of the most elaborate buildouts I participated in took place in the DC area within the past five years. Both the CE of the buildout and myself spotted the same error in the floor plan when it was still in the first draft blueprint stage: the studios were going to be rectangular with parallel walls. The inevitable resonant ring and slap echo were going to be unbearable. 

We lobbied the upper office for trapezoidal rooms and passed our concerns on to our architect (who had recently designed a very striking TV space). In the end, nothing different was done. The facility really *is* a showplace, but we ended up with one heavily-glassed studio with the ambient ring of a 1970s shortwave radio studio; another room has a pronounced resonance at 125 Hz and any audio recorded in there requires notching with a Para EQ to eliminate boominess.

On the other hand, I also was on the crew that built the new White House Press Briefing Room in '06-07, which is about as good as it gets.

-ap