Why the sound designer has to come out of the booth

"I want a culture where sound is not literally invisible," writes Rob Bridgett, senior audio director on Prototype 2, in his new feature about changing the physical and mental working spaces around sound. "I believe we are at a crossroads where old, outmoded sound studio design and architecture is failing us on an industrial scale in not allowing us to fulfill our collaborative, critical and iterative role," says Bridgett. He's frustrated by the way the enclosed sound booth environment at studios keeps the sound team from collaborating with the rest of the team freely and easily. "But, wait a second. Surely soundproofed audio studios are necessary to the work of a sound designer? This is, in one sense, absolutely true, at least of the actual asset creation, tuning and implementation work," he writes. "The problem requires different kinds of thinking -- for example, one or two transparent glazed walls or windows in iso booths with sight-line access, built in central positions within team spaces, answers the design requirement of isolating sound (in order to do the work without distracting or distraction) without isolating the occupant." His goal is to promote a "culture of sound" in the development studio. He even advocates sound designers working in typical team spaces during different phases of the project. Why? "The collaborative conversations and meetings are as crucial, if not more so, as a part of designing sound," he writes. "I think the notion of sound work needs to be broadened into production (creating and working with sound assets themselves) and ideation (or 'design' discussions). Both are equal parts of the process." His thoughts and observations about how and why to achieve this make up the rest of the article -- live now on Gamasutra.