Swiss Music School Upgrades for Atmos

Geneva, Switzerland, (July 24, 2025)—WSDG has completed work on a Dolby Atmos control room for the École des Musiques Actuelles (EMA), a contemporary music school at the Centre des Musiques Actuelles (CMA) in Geneva.

EMA, which offers training in pop, rock, jazz and other modern genres, spans about 32,300 square feet over two floors and features 45 classrooms, a 300-seat auditorium, a 200-person club, and recording and production facilities. The project, part of EMA’s 38 million Swiss Franc facility renovation, began in January 2024 and was completed in early 2025, with final system calibrations taking place in March.

WSDG served as the acoustic consultant for the Dolby Atmos control room, collaborating with Valentin Cattel from the local architectural firm Reynaud Gaillard Architects, who oversaw building integration and installation, and system integrator ACR Pro. The new 215-square-foot control room serves as the technical heart of the school’s comprehensive audio production facilities, enabling immersive audio recording, mixing, and post-production within their educational and performance complex.

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“EMA wanted to create an Atmos mixing room with a 7.2.4 speaker system,” explains Amin Nehmeh, Project Engineer at WSDG. “With Dolby Atmos becoming increasingly prevalent in the industry, the client wanted to ensure they were at the cutting edge, which meant upgrading to the newest standards.”

The loudspeaker setup features Genelec’s flagship “The Ones” 8361s as the main monitors, Genelec W371A subwoofers and smaller POE-powered surrounds. The entire system is networked, utilizing Dante protocol and controlled via an Avid S4 controller and Pro Tools.

The control room was designed to interface with EMA’s other facilities, particularly their 300-seat main auditorium, equipped with a d&b audiotechnik Soundscape system featuring 64 loudspeakers, for immersive live sound reinforcement projects and performances.

Ladislav Agabekov, technical project manager at EMA, notes, “We are mainly focused on music production. When we produce a completely object-based live recording in the auditorium, we can immediately reproduce that for the artist in the control room as an immersive experience and also create binaural content for streaming. It’s very attractive for creative purposes, especially for classical musicians, electronic musicians, and the experimental music clients we frequently host.”

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The WSDG team for the project included Amin Nehmeh, Dirk Noy (partner, general manager Europe), Leandro Kirjner (director of production), and Silvia Molho (partner, art director), with the company’s Miami office responsible for handling the design aspects, determining geometry, colors and materials.