Bavaria Film in Grünwald, just south of Munich, has reopened its legendary Studio A with a new Meyer Sound cinema loudspeaker system — the first in Europe to feature the company’s ASTRYA-140 screen channel loudspeaker. The installation revives a facility with nearly a century of history in German cinema, known for productions such as Das Boot, The NeverEnding Story and Downfall.

Built in 1929, Studio A has long been synonymous with innovation in film sound. It has hosted advancements from Dolby Stereo through Dolby Atmos and was once part of ARRI’s post-production division. When ARRI sold that business in 2021, Studio A fell silent until re-recording mixer Michael Hinreiner, co-founder of Haus7 • Studio, led efforts to bring it back to life. Working with Timo Andert of Panoptimo GmbH, strategic advisor Daniel Vogl and Mike Hofer of SMM GmbH, Hinreiner helped restore the space as a modern reference facility for sound and color grading.

“We couldn’t have that building be out of operation for another one or two or three years, because even a reputation of that scale will fade away someday,” Hinreiner said. “It was really a film sound professional’s dream coming true — the right people, at the right time, with the right ideas.”

The new system centers on Meyer Sound’s ASTRYA-140 LCRs, supported by 32 ULTRA-X20 and two ULTRA-X40 compact point source loudspeakers for surround coverage. Low frequencies are handled by two VLFC very low-frequency control elements, two X-1100C high-power cinema subwoofers, and four USW-112P compact subwoofers. The installation also features Galileo GALAXY 816 processors and Meyer Sound’s Spacemap Go spatial mixing platform, with Dolby Atmos as the primary mix format.

“If we had gone to acoustic companies and said, ‘build us a room especially for those big speakers with this extra-large sound,’ it would have been just like this room,” said Hofer. “We were really lucky.”

Following commissioning, the system was immediately put to work on Das Kanu des Manitu, the sequel to Der Schuh des Manitu, one of Germany’s highest-grossing films. “It’s not just being loud, it’s the very fast transition from the highest impacts to the lowest whispering,” Hinreiner said. “That energy dynamic is part of film storytelling.”

Hofer praised the system’s precision and the studio’s acoustic control. “If you hit Play, you have this massive sound coming off the walls. If you hit Stop, there is no resonance, no reverberation, nothing. Just controlled acoustics.”

With its reopening, Studio A connects the legacy of German film sound with the next generation of immersive post-production. The debut of the ASTRYA-140 system in Europe reflects Meyer Sound’s ongoing commitment to cinema technology and marks a new standard for studios worldwide.