The Abbey Road connection The Installation of the Studios at EMI Abbey Road
		The building and installation of any audio system has several facets. But, whether it be a high end domestic replay sysytem or a multi-room recording facility such as the ones at Abbey Road, the first consideration is the primary purpose of the studio, and to make sure all the facilities and features that a client might require or will find desirable (and this may include emerging technologies) are provided. Specifications for acoustic and technical performance are defined as part of this stage.
	The designer then creates the plan for the space with suitable acoustic treatment and a lay out for smooth workflow. The plan must allow for the volume of all the acoustic and sound insulation materials and accommodate the technical equipment, furniture, air conditioning etc to make a functional and yet comfortable, creative environment. This is where the cable planning starts. Getting the cabling right for the application and environment is the foundation of low noise floors and high performance in a system, be it in a home or professional installation. It is impossible to get the best from any equipment if the cabling has not been optimised - not just as individual cables, but as a complete system network for the technology and its environment.
	Next, a wiring schedule is created that ensures the whole cable network and earth system are optimised for low noise. This schedule dictates how each wire is terminated according to its function and location, and says which wires, such as some drain wires, are connected only at one end in order to avoid 'hum loops'. It also includes the wiring configuration for the complex multi-contact connectors. Any deviation from this schedule can create background noise, disturbance or failure, and in a studio there can be tens of thousands of connections to manage, so trying to fix cabling problems later to eradicate noise or other problems can be very time consuming and expensive!		Preparations of a mulitpin connector
	Each and every connection in the studio requires an appropriate type of cable to be selected according to its function, transmission distance, the type of signal, the electrical and mechanical interaction between cable and signal, and any environmental conditions. This cable length is set for its optimal route within the studios cable ducts. The cable is then terminated according to the correct cable protocol.
	Because of the large number of cables required, and because installation time needs to be minimised, such a project is best managed by having all the cables prepared off-site. For Abbey Road, the first part was to create the master spreadsheet that contained the information and specification for each every cable. This included it length, the type, the connector type and the connection pin information and the position in the studios that it connected (the nodes). Once this sheet was verified against the plan documents, the cables were fabricated by hand in a specialist factor, and each cable given a unique identifier.
	The cables were then stored in groups according to the location and nodes in the studio they would be serving. Each group was stacked in sequence of the way they would be laid in the cable routes and trays. Cable planning and construction started several months before the installation. This ensured that everything would be ready in a timely fashion.
	The start of the sitework was to clear the building back to the brick walls. Construction started with assembly of acoustically isolating floor and walls. The floating floor and shell of the studio rooms were constructed using timber frames and boarding. The entire room structure was isolated from the building using special mounts that support the studio floor. The walls and ceiling structures are all mounted on this floor to ensure absolute vibration isolation. Great care is needed during construction to ensure that the isolation gap between the studio shell and the buildings brick walls is not inadvertently bridged;- even a screw or a rigid cable between the building walls and the floated shell will transmit sound and break the isolation.		Studio before wall coverings are fitted showing acoustic treatment and preparation for patchbay rack
	The compression qualities of individual each mount is calculated and selected by computer from the loading mass and other resonance data at each point on the floor, and for the room as a whole. Precautions also need to be taken to ensure that the whole floated room structure does not resonate with the building itself as this can actually amplify certain sound transmission at some frequencies! Internal structures were then built within this floating shell that formed the internal wall shapes of the studio rooms. The void between the internal walls and the shell is designed as an acoustic space and is where most of the acoustic treatment for the room is accommodated. The cable trays, air conditioning ducts and other services are also contained within this space. The floating floor is built up to have the correct mass, resilience and weight distribution for the floor mountings to work as designed. The layered floor also accommodates cable trunking to service equipment in the centre of the room.
		The cables are now delivered to the site and run into the studio according to the master spreadsheet plan. Any cables that could not be terminated in the workshop are completed. Patchbays and equipment bays are now assembled. Cables that are servicing equipment around the rooms are terminated using connector that are mounted on custom made wall panels, each marked up specially for its application. Cables are individually checked as they are placed, and these finally checked for performance on the completion of this stage.
	After fully testing all the circuits in the studio to their highest specification, the internal walls are completed with an acoustic cloth finish, the floor surfaces polished and carpets laid. The mixing console, speakers, amplifiers and all equipment is now mounted in custom made racks. Each part of system is now tested with audio. Once the testing is finished, the room acoustic treatments, speaker positions and other variables are adjusted for reference performance. All that is left now is to hand the project over to the artist and producers, and record some great music!		Finally connecting the 'Studio Connections' Reference Speaker cable in the penthouse
	Over the years that we have been building the studios at we not only selected cable for optimum performance, we also developed our own for the applications in order to match the threshold of the equipments' capabilities and design to achcieve audiophile reproduction.
	This work and the resulitng cable technology that we developed are the foundation of our Studio Connections cables, developed to deliver audio reproduction with the utmost consideration.