Photo: Sphere Studios Control Room ( Click To Enlarge Photo )

Sphere Studios, located in Central London, two minutes from Battersea Bridge, offers three spacious control rooms dedicated to tracklaying, stereo mixing, and 5.1 surround mixing, plus six production rooms available for rent by artists, composers, and producers. All rooms are fully networked to the main studio via a central machine room, with extensive ISDN and broadband service. Other ammenities include a large communal lounge and bar, ample parking, and easy access to public transport and some of London's trendiest restaurants.

Sphere Studios offer a wide range of recording and mixing spaces equipped with two SSL G Series consoles and a Neve 88R. Both of the SSL consoles were installed at the start of 2007 in studios two and three. New monitoring has been installed and the vast range of outboard equipment has been expanded. The gear list is extensive, facilitating all recording needs, and includes Telefunken U47, ELA M 251E, C12, ELA M 260, and ELA M 270 mics.

Photo: Simon Bohannon (l) and Francesco
Cameli (r) with array of Telefunken mics
( Click To Enlarge Photo )

As their website states, "at Sphere our aim is to build a community of like-minded individuals who can work creatively without the hindrance of artificial barriers. Our approach is totally state of the art and totally flexible – a new future and a new way of working for the 21st century." Central to their mission is incorporating full cross-connectivity between all control rooms, production rooms, and live areas. Because this cross-connectivity was integral to their original design and construction, they have succeeded where many studios have failed due to physical constraints of their facilities.

The Sphere staff includes Francesco Cameli, Simon Bohannon, Garry Cairns, Ronan Phelan, and Sarah Bohannon. Simon joined legendary Olympic Studios after working as an electronic engineer at Pye TVT. He then moved to Whitehouse Studios where he worked with Duran Duran, Kiss, and John Miles and recorded albums for Justin Hayward and Mond Cowle, before moving on to many other engagements. Francesco studied bass at Berklee College of Music in Boston and as an engineer worked alongside Glynn Johns, Don Gilmore, Simon Rhodes and others. He recently recorded Nine Inch Nails live at the Brixton Academy.