Owner & Designer: Christopher Maughan, Owner — Sonix AV Solutions
Acoustic Design: John Brandt, Acoustician
Build & Woodwork: Dillon Abbot, Just Click It
Classification: Dolby Atmos Certified Music Studio — Barbados

The Vision

To build the best-sounding studio space that could be achieved within the available budget — a world-class monitoring and mixing environment that producers, engineers, and their clients could trust completely. Not a compromise, not a work-in-progress. A finished, professional facility that could hold its own against any studio internationally.

The Origin: A Personal Investment in a Dream

Immersive Sound Lab did not begin as a commercial opportunity. It began as a personal commitment — Christopher Maughan, owner of Sonix AV Solutions, invested everything he could into building the studio he had always wanted. Every decision was made with one question in mind: what does it take to make this sound world-class?

The space is a rental studio attached to a private residence — intimate in size, uncompromising in standard. Producers and engineers bring their clients there to record, mix, and complete projects, knowing the room will tell them the truth about their work. That trust — earned over time by international clients who have used the facility and confirmed its quality — is the studio’s most valuable asset.

Immersive Sound Lab is the first and only Dolby Atmos certified music studio in Barbados.

The Challenge: World-Class Sound in an Imperfect Room

Building a professional studio inside an existing space comes with constraints that a purpose-built facility avoids entirely. The room dimensions were approximately 14.5 feet by 14 feet — a near-square room, which is one of the most acoustically problematic shapes a studio can have. Parallel walls of similar length create standing waves and bass build-up that make accurate monitoring impossible.

For a studio to meet the Bonello criterion — an internationally recognised standard for the distribution of room modes in a professional listening environment — one dimension needed to change. The solution was to construct a brick wall on one side of the room, bringing that dimension down to approximately 12.5 feet. A structural intervention, made deliberately, to solve an acoustic problem before a single speaker was placed.

Further challenges included:

• Acoustic Treatment in a Non-Purpose-Built Space: Without the luxury of designing the room from scratch, every treatment decision had to work within the physical constraints of the existing structure — while achieving results that met Dolby Atmos certification standards.
• Low-Frequency Control: Bass management is the hardest problem in studio acoustics. At these room dimensions, controlling low-frequency energy without destroying the room’s live feel required a carefully designed bass diffusion solution at the rear wall.
• Budget Without Compromise: Every available resource was directed toward acoustics and monitoring — the two elements that determine whether a studio can be trusted. No shortcuts, no placeholder gear to be upgraded later. The system installed is the system the room was designed around.

Acoustic Design — John Brandt & Just Click It

The acoustic design was led by John Brandt, an experienced acoustician whose plans formed the foundation for every construction decision in the room. The build and all woodwork was executed by Dillon Abbot of Just Click It — a collaboration that brought the acoustic drawings to life with precision.

Key acoustic elements of the room include:

• Brick wall construction on one side, reducing the near-square room dimensions to satisfy the Bonello criterion and establish a proper modal distribution
• Wood panelling, fibreglass insulation, and fabric treatment throughout the room — balancing absorption and diffusion to create a controlled, accurate listening environment
• Floor-to-ceiling rear wall diffuser — a large-format diffusion panel that breaks up reflections across the full height of the rear wall
• Bass trap construction behind the diffuser — six layers of fireproof drywall with torch-on membrane sandwiched between them, backed by acoustic insulation, forming a highly effective low-frequency absorber at the most critical position in the room

Monitoring System — PMC, SVS & Hypex

The monitoring system was specified without compromise. Every component was chosen because it was the right tool for the application — not because it was the most affordable option in the category.

• PMC IB1S main monitors — professional studio reference speakers trusted in world-class facilities globally, known for their accuracy and extended low-frequency response
• PMC Ci30 speakers — forming part of the immersive Atmos speaker array throughout the room
• SVS subwoofers — extending low-frequency reproduction for accurate bass monitoring in the Atmos environment
• Hypex amplification by Buckeye Amps — custom-built amplifiers delivering 500 watts per channel to the IB1S monitors and 250 watts per channel to the Ci30s. Hypex modules are regarded as among the most accurate and efficient amplification platforms available, and Buckeye Amps builds them to a standard that matches the quality of the speakers they’re driving

Audio System — Focusrite, RME & RTI Control

The signal chain was designed for maximum accuracy at every stage:

• Focusrite 16Line — the primary audio interface, handling source management and monitoring levels via the R1 hardware controller. A professional, clean, and highly capable interface for a demanding monitoring environment
• RME ADI-2 Pro FS Be — a dedicated high-end converter on the optical output path feeding the PMC IB1S monitors. The RME was specified specifically to ensure the conversion quality feeding the main monitors is as accurate as the monitors themselves — a detail that matters at this level of listening
• Lewitt microphones — selected for their accuracy and extended frequency response, providing vocalists and recording engineers with a reliable capture tool that works for both tracking and reference listening
• Outboard gear — available for vocal sessions and tracking work, giving the studio the character and processing options that producers and vocalists expect from a professional recording environment
• RTI control system — managing the studio environment including lighting and system control, keeping the workflow clean and the operator focused on the music
• Lutron lighting control — creating the right environment for focused, extended listening sessions

Dolby Atmos Certification — What It Means

Dolby Atmos Music certification is not a marketing label — it is a rigorous technical standard that Dolby applies to studios before authorising them to commercially mix and deliver Atmos content. The certification process involves measurement, verification, and confirmation that the room’s acoustic performance, monitoring alignment, and signal chain meet Dolby’s exacting specifications.

Immersive Sound Lab is the first and only studio in Barbados to hold this certification. That means producers and engineers working on Atmos projects — for streaming platforms including Apple Music and Amazon Music HD, which now deliver Atmos as a primary format — have a certified facility on the island where that work can be completed to the standard the format requires.

Reflections: What Building This Studio Taught Us

Immersive Sound Lab was designed and built by the same person who designs and installs AV systems for clients every day. That experience — of being the client, the designer, and the end user simultaneously — has shaped how Sonix approaches every project.

1. Acoustics Come Before Equipment
The brick wall, the diffuser, the bass trapping — these came first. The monitoring system was specified around the room, not the other way around. This is the right order of operations for any serious audio environment, and it’s the approach we bring to every professional AV space we design.

2. Collaboration Produces Better Results
The studio exists because three people — an acoustician, a builder, and an AV designer — each brought their expertise to a shared vision and trusted each other to execute it. John Brandt’s acoustic design, Dillon Abbot’s woodwork, and the AV system design produced something none of them could have built alone.

3. Constraints Are Not Excuses
A near-square room is a serious acoustic problem. The solution — build a wall — was simple in principle and required commitment in practice. Treating constraints as problems to be solved, rather than limitations to be accepted, is the mindset that produces exceptional results.

4. The Room Earns Its Reputation Over Time
International clients have used Immersive Sound Lab and confirmed that it meets world-class standards. That validation wasn’t assumed — it was earned, session by session, by a room that tells the truth about what it’s playing back. Building something trustworthy is a long-term commitment, not a one-time decision.

5. Personal Investment Produces Personal Standards
When you pour your own money into something, your tolerance for compromise drops to zero. Every decision made in building this studio reflects that standard — and that same standard carries into every client project Sonix takes on.

Results: A World-Class Facility, Built in Barbados

• Barbados’ first and only Dolby Atmos certified music studio — verified by Dolby to meet international standards for immersive audio production.
• A room that satisfies the Bonello criterion for modal distribution, achieved through deliberate acoustic construction within the constraints of an existing space.
• A monitoring system built around PMC reference speakers, SVS subwoofers, and Hypex amplification — delivering the accuracy that producers and engineers need to trust their work.
• A signal chain from Focusrite interface to RME conversion that maintains integrity at every stage, with no compromises in the path from source to monitor.
• A rental facility trusted by international clients — confirmed to perform at a world-class level by the engineers and producers who use it.
• A studio that is consistently booked, consistently praised for its aesthetics and its sound, and consistently delivering results for its clients.