A pavilion of cathedral like proportions; a vast ceiling of moving colour and imagery; the deep blues and greens of the deep ocean, so real you can almost feel them wash over you; the majestic progress of the noblest creatures of the sea swimming high above you. What's the missing element?
It has to be sound; the echoing, womb like sound of whale song enveloping the visitor, drawing their eyes up to absorb the vision high above them and so to complete the experience. And not just any sound; sound designers Charles de Meaux, content artist and Thierry Coduys, technical 3D sound implementation wanted to create a seamless 3D sonic feeling throughout the Expo Digital Gallery Pavilion at the 2012 World Expo located at Yeosu, South Korea.
Its theme of The Living Ocean and Coast was reflected both in its natural setting and its technically ambitious pavilions. Any audio installation here would have to be ambitious, creative and innovative to successfully compete with the dexterous technology on display here. They turned to Xavier Cousyn at d&b audiotechnik in France.
The Digital Gallery houses one of the biggest video screens in the world to present virtual and digital arts in large format. Running along the entire arched ceiling the images presents visitors with panoramic experiences from world famous beaches and other oceanic delights: floating icebergs; sea birds flying over and through the hallway; waves and whales moving rhythmically across the vista. Rather than simply aim for a 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound solution, de Meaux and Coduys wanted to create a 3D spherical sound field in the centre of the pavilion so Cousyn's design objective was centred on achieving a holophonic PA system using an ambisonics algorithm.
Tim Frhwirth, from Education and Application Support at the d&b audiotechnik headquarters in Backnang, Germany elaborates on the technicalities, "The big difference between a holophonic PA system when compared to a normal 5.1 surround system, where you have to place both the loudspeakers and the listeners in a given predefined setup, is the general independency of sources and loudspeakers; the accurate imaging for the listener would only be experienced at the central position or sweet-spot."
A system of E12-D loudspeakers, picked for their wide horizontal dispersion of 110 degrees that was most appropriate for an ambisonic or holophonic audio solution alongside supporting Qi-SUBS were painted up in the Special Colour (SC) option of light grey to blend into the background.
Together with the relevant D12 amplifiers, the loudspeakers were shipped to d&b South Korea in Seoul. Although the system was designed in France and shipped from Germany, it was Seong-Jong Choi and Sun-Jung Kim from d&b in South Korea who installed and tuned the system with support from Frhwirth, this was a truly international effort.
The International Exposition Yeosu Korea 2012 opened for visitors on 12 May and ran for ninety three days attracting between one to two hundred thousand visitors a day.
