Blackmer Design

Blackmer Design is a full service architectural acoustic design firm with offices in Southern California (Solana Beach, CA) and the North East (Cambridge, MA). We offer a range of services from acoustic consultation to complete facility and project planning, architectural design and construction administration.

We tailor our services to the needs of the client on a per project basis. Always feel free to contact us to discuss new projects. With 35+ years of experience in architectural acoustics, Blackmer Design is world-renowned for being where “Beautiful Rooms Meet Breathtaking Sound.”

Blackmer Design services include:

Architectural and Acoustic Design

Blackmer Design offers full service architectural and acoustic design for recording, post production, broadcast and other media facilities. This is our core work. From initial design meetings, through preparation of schematic layouts and detailed construction plans, we follow through with all of our projects until the construction is complete and the rooms are tuned and performing to specification.

Attention to detail is a hallmark of our work and the depth included in our plans is often noted by contractors. We take great pride in providing not only a best-in-class acoustic and aesthetic design, but providing a stellar set of construction documents. This ensures that general contractors who may not have as much experience with technical construction, are able to execute the design properly. If you have an experienced studio builder on hand, great! If not we offer full-service recording studio construction services as well. Managing studio projects is one of our companies core competencies, having overseen countless projects, big and small.

Thanks to our 35+ years of experience in the professional audio industry, Blackmer Design has 24/7 access to a special ‘team’ of experts, the makeup of which can be tailored to the needs of each project. We have resources readily available to handle MEP engineering, architect of record services, expediting and permitting through professional cleaning after the construction. We are also closely aligned with a number of A/V and Systems Engineering experts who can work as part of the Blackmer Design team to assist in the design for studio wiring, fabrication and installation of equipment.

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Recording Studio Construction, Acoustic Construction – Administration and Coordination

Typically included as part of our full service design, Blackmer Design will provide construction coordination including site meetings with contractors and owner, on site review of quality of construction and team coordination meetings as required by the scope and progress of the project.

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Blackmer Design Onsite Review

We will review all submittals from the general contractor and his sub-contractors as well as reply to any RFI’s issues during the bidding and construction process. Blackmer Design will provide updated meeting minutes and track the status of all unresolved issues throughout the course of the construction. We will also prepare a punch list as the construction nears completion outlining any work that is incomplete or needs to be addressed. Once the project is complete we will review and sign off on final payment requests after reviewing the status of the project with the owner. At this point equipment installation is underway and room tuning can begin. Blackmer Design’s job isn’t done, until the project is complete (and even after that, we are there for you anytime you need us)!

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Acoustic Consulting (Existing Studios, Theaters, Performance Venues, Churches, Commercial Noise Control, Restaurants, Bars & Nightclubs)

Blackmer Design is available to provide acoustic consulting for existing studios, theaters, performance venues, commercial spaces, restaurants, bars & nightclubs in need of improvements. We will visit your existing facilities and do a complete review of issues relating to noise, isolation and interior room acoustics. These types of consults are typically handled on a day basis. We can also perform a complete evaluation of existing control rooms and critical listening rooms including TEF and Smaart Analysis, review reflection control issues and make recommendations for improvements to acoustic treatments, bass trapping and diffusion. We can also provide custom designed solutions for any of these treatments should this type of solution be indicated. Please feel free to contact us about scheduling and fees.

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Sound Isolation Consulting

Of course some isolation issues can be difficult to address once studio construction is complete. We recommend that before getting into any expensive technical construction that the client be well-informed and understand what is necessary to provide any sound or vibration isolation that may be required for their specific application.

Blackmer Design can provide detailing for isolation of machinery, mechanical equipment or other sources of vibration as well as provide details for wall and ceiling construction as required to provide the proper levels of attenuation for any project.

Room Analysis and Tuning

As part of completing any of our design projects we provide a complete room evaluation for all control rooms and listening environments including a detailed analysis of both time and frequency domain room response. We use the latest TEF (Time Energy Frequency) tools from Techron/Goldline and have over 20 years of experience using these tools. The TEF allows us to easily look at the Energy Time Curve for any speaker/room system and identify early reflection issues that can cause comb filtering and image smearing. It also allows for very precise and repeatable measurements using swept sine wave test signals that can facilitate very small adjustments in room crossover and eq settings or optimizing speaker and listening position locations. For real-time measurements we use single channel FFT and dual channel transfer function software such as Smaart. This allows for efficient adjustments of crossovers and equalizers while monitoring frequency and phase response.These services are also available to non-design clients for the purpose of system tuning and documentation.

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Systems Design & Integration

Blackmer Design works with an extensive list of sub-consultants and can provide systems design, fabrication and integration either as part of our overall design services, or as a separate service. We have consultants experienced with recording and broadcast facilities as well as corporate and board room applications.

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We always match the best consultant to each project to ensure a proper level of expertise and the best ‘fit’ for the projects needs and objectives. From a multi-studio central machine room based operation to a single room that requires a new patch solution, Blackmer Design can provide the right solution for each project.