
When audio professionals invest in PMC monitors they become part of the PMC family, and as such PMC will always try to help if one of its family members' decides to rebuild their facility or relocate elsewhere.
In the case of Fluid Mastering, the internationally acclaimed mastering house set up by engineers Tim Debney and Nick Watson, PMC was happy to assist when Fluid announced it was moving out of its premises in Hammersmith and setting up two new studios in totally different parts of the UK.
As both Tim and Nick loved the PMC BB5-XBD Active monitors in Fluid's main studio, they faced a Judgement of Solomon who was going to take possession of these speakers, which had been a vital part of Fluid's set up since its inception in 2006?
We obviously couldn't take one half each, Tim laughs, so the only solution was to get a second pair. PMC staff were very accommodating and managed to source an identical system for us, so we didn't have to draw lots. The existing pair are now in my new studio in Surrey and Nick will soon install the second set in his studio in Bristol, once building work is completed. PMC also came to my studio and helped align them so that they are performing at their best.
Moving Fluid to two locations instead of one was a big decision for Tim and Nick, who first met while at Townhouse Studios in London. When they first set up the business, London was the obvious base, but more than a decade on both men were living outside of the capital Tim in Surrey and Nick in Bristol so the way the pair were working was very different.
It changed from being at the studios together for pretty much all of the week, to doing rotational shift work, Tim says. Nick had a lengthy commute, so it made more sense for him to stay in London for two or three days at a time and do all his work in one hit. My commute was only an hour from Hammersmith, so it was much easier for me to work around Nick's days. Eventually we realized there was no point in all the commuting time and overheads involved in London premises when we didn't have the benefit of working with each other anymore. We'd also got to the point where sharing one main studio didn't give us enough capacity as we were both so busy trying to fit all our work into roughly three long days each a week.
Although drastic, the solution was obvious both engineers wanted to stay partners in the business, but they also needed their own studios, and building them close to their own homes was much better than commuting. Tim's studio, which was built in his garden, is almost as large as Fluid's old room in London. Nick's studio will be equally spacious, but due to a few building headaches beyond his control it has taken longer to complete, so he is currently working from a temporary base.
Our old studios were centered around great outboard gear, Tim explains. We both use some fabulous plugins as well, but we tend to get most of the vibe and general tone for a master from our collection of valve and analogue equipment. We've had to buy second units of all the bits we shared in London, including another Manley MP, Neve Portico II, and various Prism Sound converters, but from my own point of view setting up a new studio has allowed me to indulge my love for analogue gear and splash out on some new toys.
Tim's studio now boasts the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor along with a Cartec Tone Harmonics Compressor. In addition, he has invested in an SPL PQ and an SPL DMC Mastering Console and Hermes router for all the monitoring and routing. But pride of place still goes to the PMC BB5-XBD monitors that Tim and Nick were first introduced to at Townhouse Studios.
The BB5s have always been my main speakers and I've been using them for almost 25 years, Tim says. They are the best speakers in the world for mastering because if there are any areas of the mix that need enhancement, you will really hear. I'm still amazed at the detail one hears, and how a great mix and production can sound on them. They're very unforgiving, which is exactly what you want from a speaker in a mastering suite because it is the last chance to iron out any remaining issues with a track, so you want to hear what s wrong and make it right."
In addition to the BB5-XBD monitors, Fluid also has a pair of PMC twotwo6 monitors currently with Nick in Bristol - that are used as a second listening reference. They sound amazing, and are a really good contrast to the BB5s, Tim says. They give another perspective and allow us to confirm the decisions we've already taken.
Since moving to his new studio, Tim mastered a plethora of tracks, covering many different styles and genres. Among them are projects for Peter Murphy, Brix Smith, Shed Seven, Buzzcocks, The Specials, The Wandering Hearts, Micah McLaurin, Bad Fractals, Tiggi Hawke, GIRLI, Jade Moss, The Wanted Sisters, Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott, Chloe Flower, Sea Fever, Dean Blunt, Look Mum No Computer, Blossoms, Xpropoganda, Altered Images, The Teskey Brothers, Melt Yourself Down, The Shires, Red Moon, AURORA, FIZZ.
With Nick equally busy in Bristol, it is easy to see why splitting Fluid geographically and building two main studios instead of one was such a good idea!
For more information about Fluid Mastering, please visit: www.fluidmastering.com
North America Stories
10/06/2026
DAZN-owned digital-media company launches three fan-first series leaning into cr...
10/06/2026
Clear-Com has announced the appointment of Jason Dino as Southwest Regional Sales Manager USA, covering Southern California and the Southwest region. Dino joins...
10/06/2026
An 11% decrease in number of global broadcast deals reflects the organization...
10/06/2026
The Women Without Boundaries Awards recognize women whose work is advancing the future of media, broadcast, AV, workplace technology, digital experience, and re...
10/06/2026
Today is match day minus two for FIFA and HBS. On Thursday, there will be two ma...
10/06/2026
SES is supporting broadcast distribution of the world's biggest football tou...
10/06/2026
NDI has announced that BirdDog has become the first hardware manufacturer to achieve full NDI 6.3 compatibility across its complete lineup of cameras, encoders,...
10/06/2026
Vince Caputo and Scott Carter, winners of the 2026 Sports Emmy for Outstanding Post Produced Audio have been announced as presenters for the 2026 SVG Advanced A...
10/06/2026
FOX One today unveiled a slate of new product features and enhancements designed to elevate the viewing experience for fans on the official streaming platform o...
10/06/2026
Primary production partners Dome Productions and Raycom Sports once again played...
10/06/2026
The Women in Sports Filmmaking Experienceship is an immersive professional devel...
10/06/2026
The league has expanded its HSAN architecture for the NBA Finals to manage more ...
10/06/2026
The inaugural MoonPay X Games League (XGL) Winter Draft will take place Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at Cosm Los Angeles from 7-9 p.m. PT. The event will strea...
10/06/2026
The University of Oklahoma (OU) Athletics Department and Learfield have announce...
10/06/2026
The Video Services Forum (VSF) has released TR-06-4 Part 8, a new specification for RIST Satellite-Hybrid: Out-of-Band Method. The specification creates a mecha...
10/06/2026
Riedel Communications provided the communications infrastructure for the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Lisbon, supporting live medical proc...
10/06/2026
A still from The Doom Generation by Gregg Araki (Courtesy of Sundance Institute)
By Lucy Spicer
Have you checked out our Sundance Film Festival 101 list yet...
10/06/2026
Media buyers and sellers can now compare YouTube reach from computer, mobile, an...
10/06/2026
Accedo, Humans not Robots, and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) have announced the launch of Ecoflow X. Formerly an IBC Accelerator project, ...
10/06/2026
Frequency, the engine powering the world's leading streaming television channels, today announced that James Smith has joined the company as General Manager...
10/06/2026
At the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Lisbon, Riedel Communications provided the communications infrastructure for live medical procedures s...
10/06/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of broadcast, media, and entertainment managed services, today announced the launch of its Content Exchange platform powered by Or...
10/06/2026
Klvr will showcase how venues, integrators and production teams are rethinking disposable battery usage at InfoComm 2026 (Las Vegas, June 17-19, booth #N6311). ...
10/06/2026
The Video Services Forum (VSF) has further enhanced the Reliable Internet Streaming Transport (RIST) protocol by incorporating a new feature, RIST Satellite-Hyb...
10/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Showcases New Mobile Experience, Collections and Games Vision in APAC
Product
10 June 2026
GlobalSouth KoreaJapan
Link copied to c...
10/06/2026
Back to All News
Ready to Join? The Netflix Fan Club Arrives at Cannes Lions
Business
10 June 2026
Global
Link copied to clipboard
Download all assets
N...
10/06/2026
Chemists snap together complex 3D molecules from highly reactive radicals-without losing their shape Scripps Research team develops stereoretentive radical-radi...
09/06/2026
Kiswe announces an expanded long-term partnership with ONE Championship (ONE), t...
09/06/2026
SiriusXM will broadcast FOX Sports' English-language commentary for all 104 FIFA World Cup 2026 matches from June 11 through July 19, available to subscribe...
09/06/2026
EVS has announced it is changing its corporate name from EVS Broadcast Equipment to EVS, reflecting the company's expanded portfolio beyond broadcast equipm...
09/06/2026
Fox Corporation and the NFL have announced a multi-year agreement to bring NFL c...
09/06/2026
FOX Sports and ReachTV, an airport media network, have announced an agreement to...
09/06/2026
Cosm Atlanta, a 70,000-square-foot, three-level immersive entertainment venue located within Centennial Yards adjacent to State Farm Arena and Mercedes-Benz Sta...
09/06/2026
NESN captured five awards at the 2026 Boston/New England Emmy Awards, including four program honors and one individual award.
These awards reflect the passion...
09/06/2026
Ateme has announced that its support for Apple Immersive Video workflows was referenced by Apple during its 2026 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC26).
Atem...
09/06/2026
Bitmovin has announced that Axel Springer SE has deployed Player Web X, Bitmovin's web video player, to power audio readouts of news articles and an audio-o...
09/06/2026
Grass Valley and Lawo have announced a technology collaboration to validate orch...
09/06/2026
LiveU has announced a deployment with the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) t...
09/06/2026
Globecast has announced the launch of its Content Exchange platform, powered by ...
09/06/2026
NBC Sports will present live coverage of Overtime's OT7 football league Championship Weekend from Sullivan Field at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angel...
09/06/2026
We're in three different locations, three different production teams. Coveri...
09/06/2026
The intro video for Men's Basketball won Outstanding In-Venue Video in the C...
09/06/2026
Today is match day minus two for FIFA and HBS. On Thursday, there will be two ma...
09/06/2026
Since their debut, the clock-and-score graphic has drawn the affinity and ire of...
09/06/2026
Media buyers and sellers can now compare YouTube reach from computer, mobile, an...
09/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
09/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
09/06/2026
A project aimed at modernizing scheduling operations across Mediaset's channel portfolio
Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitab...
09/06/2026
tvONE, an ACT Entertainment brand, debuts its most powerful video processor ever built: the 4RU CALICO PRO (C7-PRO-4200), at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N6813). Engine...