Among the largest waterfalls in Europe, Switzerland’s Rheinfall attracts thousands of visitors each year who come to take in its natural beauty. Located directly above the falls inside a redeveloped industrial complex, the Rhyality Immersive Art Hall, seeks to share this experience year-round by offering an immersive showcase of the sights and sounds of the falls using latest 360° audio and video technology.
The project was conceived by conceptual artist and film producer Beat Toniolo and local tourism entrepreneur Hanspeter Weder, who brought architecture firm Dost Architektur GmbH into the project – who called on regular collaborators WSDG (Walters-Storyk Design Group) add acoustics and systems design expertise.
The basis of the Rhyality visitor experience is a 200-capacity main hall that hosts the immersive visual works – specifically its Rhine Falls in 4 Seasons installation, depicting a year in the life of the staged through a blended presentation of video, music, field recordings and narration. Designing an visitor experience that would fit inside the existing halls of the complex was the primary aim for the Dost team.
‘The existing space was something of a blank canvas that had to be prepared for a completely 360° visitor experience,’ says Dost Project Manager and Interior Designer, Julian Tschanen. ‘It required a very multidisciplinary approach to create the correct atmosphere that would also have an obvious flow for visitors coming in to experience it. Our perspective from the start was that this would be a highly collaborative project that would benefit from bringing together many different minds to bring it into reality.’
The room acoustics and electroacoustics engineering required for the immersive audio and video systems critical to the presentation saw Dost turn to long-time partner WSDG, who have crafted similar immersive environments at the National Museum of Qatar, the Shanghai State Grid Pavilion and The Aura Club Events Hall.
‘In the case of Rhyality, we had to tackle the challenge of what it means to do 360° sound,’ Tschanen explains. ‘We always keep acoustics and systems design in mind from the start in projects such as these, and we have often turned to WSDG to provide us with the expertise required. It was a critical part of the vision for this project, and our collaboration allowed us to develop it together.’
The acoustic design of Rhyality presented an interesting challenge initially – how to design a room with suitable acoustics without the projection screens on the walls causing reflections that would disrupt the experience. To solve this problem, the WSDG team recommended a theatrical fabric manufactured by Gerriets.
‘Proper use of materials in these projects can make a big difference in their functionality,’ says WSDG Director of Acoustics, Gabriel Hauser. ‘The advantage of this special fabric is that it is suitable for projection but also acoustically transparent, meaning we can use it for both purposes without the absorption treatment or loudspeakers being visible to visitors. Everything is hidden behind the screen which keeps the experience completely seamless.’
The loudspeaker layout at Rhyality was devised in partnership with French company Holophonix, and uses 98 loudspeakers in total for a fully immersive experience. Two height layers – one at 1.2m and a second at 3.2m – are hidden behind the walls, with ceiling loudspeakers adding a third level. All loudspeakers feature a coaxial design to allow an accurate and wide off-axis response.
Due to the Dante Backbone as well as the acoustically transparent projection screens, the addition of loudspeakers can be easily achieved when required. The Holophonix processor allows for up to 128 playback channels and is capable of all relevant immersive algorithms including Wave Field Synthesis (WFS) and Ambisonics, along with a multichannel algorithmic reverberation engine. The installation of the system was carried out by Bild+Ton.
‘This is our first project using Holophonix technology and it was extremely effective to produce the desired immersive experience.’ Hauser reports. ‘The Holophonix approach was cost efficient, especially considering the availability of 128 audio channels in the output section (Dante). Furthermore, Holophonix is part of Amadeus Audio and therefore able to deliver a tailor-made system from start to finish. Direct support was given by Holophonix, including many software updates, as well as local Swiss distributor of Amadeus Audio.’
Currently operated and curated by Art Director Devon Miles, Rhyality is already proving a popular destination and has expanded its offerings to include other immersive video presentations as well as serving as a flexible and unique events hall. This evolution of the Immersive Art Hall has grown organically out of the vision of the players who brought the project together.
‘The idea evolved from a temporary space to a permanent one with very wide possibilities of use because of the vision of the team we coordinated and brought together,’ Tschanen says. ‘It went from being a blank canvas as an idea to a blank canvas of an inspiring space that can be used for a wide array of interesting events programming and presentations.’
