MIX Center gives students‘every tool imaginable for the digital economy’
By Mary Beth Faller
Arizona State University’s Media and Immersive eXperience (MIX) Center in downtown Mesa was celebrated as a shining example of the partnership between the university and the city during a grand opening celebration Oct. 28, 2022.
“Anything that can be thought about in digital creativity can be done in this building,” said ASU President Michael Crow.
The MIX Center, capable of producing anything from blockbuster superhero movies to virtual reality video games — and teaching students the skills they need to succeed in a digital economy — is the largest part of the ASU at Mesa City Center complex, which also includes an outdoor plaza space with a 100-foot movie screen and The Studios, a midcentury building that houses programming and services offered by the J. Orrin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute.
The city invested $63.5 million toward the project and managed the design and construction of the building while ASU contributed $33.5 million, which included interior work and high-end equipment. ASU also will pay all operations and maintenance costs for the MIX Center; costs will be shared with the city of Mesa for The Studios.
“We are here because the people of Mesa and the leadership of the city of Mesa believe in the future of new things, new technologies, new trajectories,” Crow said. “They believe in the future of young people.”
The MIX Center opened its doors to students at the beginning of the Fall 2022 semester. The cutting-edge facility hosts hundreds of students who are making films, designing virtual worlds and creating immersive media experiences.
It houses The Sidney Poitier New American Film School’s production and post-production programs, plus classes in digital media technology, worldbuilding, experience design and gaming from The Design School and the School of Arts, Media and Engineering (both, like the Poitier Film School, part of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts), as well as from the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering and the College of Global Futures.
“What it means for students is that they will have the foundation to get deeply involved in new industries, in manufacturing, in entertainment, in digital expression,” Crow said. “They’ll have every tool imaginable for the digital economy.”
A clip from the Apple documentary “Sidney” was shown at the grand opening ceremony. Cheryl Boone Isaacs, founding director of the Poitier Film School, noted that over his life, the iconic actor and director talked about the importance of giving everyone an opportunity to tell their stories in film.
“The MIX Center is going to allow our students to work with this new technology in a way that’s never been done before to bring their stories to life. We want our students to travel along the road that a story takes, from its inception all the way through to the audiences.”
High-tech sound stages: The building has three sound stages with a total of more than 8,000 square feet of Hollywood-level space. Two smaller stages are designed for teaching, and the largest one is built up to full, professional cinematic quality.
“If you came off a Marvel lot in Atlanta and you came here, you wouldn’t find anything missing – the rigging, the power distribution, the acoustic insulation — everything is up to top-of-the-line standards,” said Jake Pinholster, founding director of the MIX Center and executive dean in the Herberger Institute.
“It’s one of the best — if not the best — academic sound stages in the country.”
Two screening rooms: The two rooms, one with 261 seats and one with 76 seats, off the lobby have Dolby Atmos sound and will be used for lectures and post-production work on films as well as public screenings.
“Not only is it the best sound of any movie theater you’ve ever been in, it’s the level of sound where if you finish a movie in here, you get the Dolby Atmos stamp on it at the end,” Pinholster said.
Enhanced immersion studio: This three-story “black box” showcase space is for anything that is not entirely media-based, such as live performances and interactive installations. The studio hosted the MIX Center’s first public performance, “The Most Beautiful Home … Maybe,” an interactive theater experience.
The space can host installations, theatrical experiences, escape rooms, virtual reality experiences, 360-degree projections and sound installations.
“This room can do anything at the intersection of the digital and the physical,” Pinholster said.
Fabrication lab: A digital fabrication lab, one of the spaces open to the community, can create smaller-scale items with laser cutters, desktop millers and vinyl cutters, as well as several 3D printers.
Production shop: A production shop down the hall has a computer-controlled plasma cutter, plus a machine that uses a high-pressure jet of water mixed with grit that can precisely cut through metal that’s up to half an inch thick. That space can manufacture larger pieces for theater and film scenes, as well as large-scale public art pieces.
Recording suite: The recording suite has three control rooms, one of which is large enough for teaching 30 students.
The space is large enough for several musicians to record audio, and the studio is set up to teach surround and spatialized audio. It can dynamically switch between Dolby Atmos, for surround sound for cinematic release, and a third-order ambisonic space, which is fully immersive audio.
“We’re one of the only places in the country where that’s going to become a regular part of the undergraduate teaching curriculum,” Pinholster said.
Foley stage: This part of recording studio, one of the only Foley stages in Arizona, will be used for the process of replacing sound that can’t be captured on location.
The stage is a platform that will contain several different surfaces, including concrete, sand, wood and gravel, to record footsteps and other sounds that are then inserted into a film during post-production.
A Dreamscape Learn classroom: Dreamscape Learn is a multi-user virtual-reality educational platform. The Tempe campus includes two Dreamscape Learn pods plus desktop space. The MIX Center offers the most advanced Dreamscape Learn site, holding 32 learners. The space is used not only by students and researchers to develop content, but also for the public.
Flexible lobby: The entryway includes space for a café and a multi-purpose exhibition space, plus a community room, which is managed by the MIX Community Advisory Board, for local groups to use for classes, workshops, meetings, receptions and exhibitions.
A 32-foot screen in the lobby is responsive to visitors via sensors in the ceiling and will be used for interactive displays.
“The entire building will be a creative space for students,” Pinholster said.
Cheryl Boone Isaacs, founding director, The Sidney Poitier New American Film School
Much of the building is designed for optimal student access. There are 12 editing bays available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“It’s an inclusion issue. A lot of students can’t afford to have their own gear, so having this available 24/7 is really important,” Pinholster said.
Likewise, students can check out equipment in order to shoot on location.
“The Poitier School provides them with very high-end professional gear that’s available on a 12-hour-day basis,” he said. “We’re very conscious of giving our students access to everything we can that will give them an industry-standard education.”
Designing the MIX Center was a years-long process, Pinholster said. The team visited nine professional and academic production facilities around the world, including the University of Southern California, the YouTube studios and the Dolby headquarters.
“We tried to see how much of that we could get into this building and, in addition, tried to figure out how to future-proof it so that we have the ability to adapt to things we don’t expect.”
And how does the MIX Center compare to the facilities they visited?
“In the ‘best of’ category,” he said.
“There are places that have stand-out spaces, but in terms of functionality, we’re up there among the best, if not the best.”
Steven Tepper, dean of the Herberger Institute, said the space has the best of today’s technology and is designed to adapt to what’s next.
“You know how special it is just watching people’s faces when they walk in to the MIX — students, community members, faculty, industry professionals. People’s eyes get wide and their jaws drop,” he said.
“Many have told me they only wish they could go back to school and learn in this facility.”
The outdoor spaces at ASU at Mesa City Center are cool, too. A 100-foot-long screen hangs on the front of the MIX Center and will show movies to people who can sit in the adjacent park.
The grand opening continued the following day with an all-day “housewarming party” for the community, which featured demonstrations of the technology in the MIX Center, panel discussions, trick-or-treating, games, food trucks, musical performances and a screening of the Pixar movie “Coco” on that 100-foot-long outdoor screen.
The MIX Center is meant to be used by everyone in the Mesa community, according to Pinholster.
“We have built it to be a space for public discourse, entertainment and cultural amenity, and as a space for education and advancement,” he said at the grand opening. “It is my profound hope that all members of the Mesa community will see this as their space and that the students at the MIX Center will see themselves as core members of that community.”
Crow said that ASU’s presence will help downtown Mesa evolve and that ASU at Mesa City Center is a response to a rapidly changing economy.
“This facility, this design, this technology, these programs, these activities are the best of the best of the best that exist on the planet, sitting right here in downtown Mesa,” he said.
“We’re building a new economy — an economy that’s built on creativity.”
Mesa Mayor John Giles said the MIX Center is poised to become a premier destination for those looking to work in the industry.
“I can’t wait to be back here celebrating the first application of cutting-edge technology developed in this amazing MIX Center or the sure-to-happen first Academy Award winner that will get their start in the best film school on the planet.”
Photos by Matter Films and Charlie Leight.
This story is based on two stories that originally appeared in ASU News: ASU’s MIX Center in downtown Mesa opens doors to film students and ASU, Mesa celebrate new MIX Center as highlight of partnership.