KreativInstitut.Ostwestfalen-Lippe, located on the Kreativ Campus Detmold in Germany, is a research center shared by Paderborn University, Detmold University of Music and OWL University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Its new Spatial Audio and Arts Lab, known as S.A.A.L., has been created as a mixing, production and presentation room for students and researchers working across digital media production, composition and sound design, digital humanities and music informatics, and artificial intelligence.
S.A.A.L. is a high-resolution monitoring room with a musical focus, supporting full-spherical Ambisonics reproduction between fifth and sixth order. The system comprises 43 Genelec 8030C two-way monitors arranged as a 360-degree spherical array, supplemented by four 7050C subwoofers, while also remaining compatible with channel-based formats and consumer formats such as Dolby Atmos. Consultant Jörn Nettingsmeier worked on the truss structure, acoustic curtains and electroacoustics, while Sascha Etezazi and the KIO team defined the monitor positions and setup.
The room is intended for plug-and-play use with common DAWs and playback systems, matching the varied projects handled at KIO. Students can prepare mixes remotely, bring a workstation into S.A.A.L., connect to the playback system and work across multiple formats, then evaluate spatial mixes elsewhere on campus, including on a 3D headset with headphones. Because the room acoustics were already performing well, the team used the rear-panel room-correction DIP switches on the 8030C monitors for system tuning, with external calibration available if required.