On a mission to devise ‘shows with the awe factor’, Singapore-based Ctrl Fre@k is the creative force behind a five-act multimedia extravaganza recently staged to commemorate Singapore’s 200-year milestone. Ctrl Fre@k’s Jeffrey Yue has put his considerable and extensive know-how to work alongside creative A/V technology including TiMax SoundHub spatial audio servers.
From Singapore to Singaporean: The Bicentennial Experience comprised a one-hour immersive, multi-sensory journey charting Singapore’s 500-year history prior to the British arrival in 1819 and onwards to the present day. As technical consultant and systems designer for audio, video, lighting and multimedia control aspects of the exhibit, Ctrl Fre@k’s remit was to integrate the work of numerous design agencies and creative consultants into a unified whole using the most sophisticated technologies, with TiMax SoundHub in the frame to facilitate a cohesive audio journey.
The temporary exhibit was installed at Fort Canning, using LED walls, revolving stages, rain shower rooms and actors on travellators, across five separate areas or ‘acts’ serviced by 80 channels of SMPTE time code-driven audio, served from two TiMax SoundHub frames (32 and 48 channels/tracks respectively) to individual amp racks via redundant primary and secondary Dante networks. ‘This venue wasn’t built for such an ambitious exhibit,’ Yue points out, ‘therefore, the acoustics are very poor and we could not apply any treatment in these rooms.’
The role of the TiMax SoundHub was two-fold – as well as rendering the multichannel show content stems onto the multi-speaker environment and applying the relevant delay, level and EQ profiles for each individual act, TiMax was also integral to the sensitive balancing of the distributed audio system to minimise audio pollution between rooms.
TiMax is also used as a vital element of the showcontrol system. The TimeLine displays events visually in sequences of cues, which could consist of an individual audio clip playback and spatialisation events or composites of multiple audio events. Overlapping multichannel playback, looping, object-based panning and mix automation can be independently time-slipped relative to other cue events, audio clips and show clocks. Pre-load events are used to ensure multitrack music content plays perfectly in sync with the other lighting, visual and multimedia events.
The nonlinear, multi-timeline playback environments of the two TiMax SoundHubs took Midi triggers from customised ETC Paradigm Inspire six-button control stations, linked to an architectural control processor in the control room. ‘If one act was running behind schedule, the others behind are delayed, so we created triggers to guide the audiences through and ensure that no one gets left behind,’ Yue explains.
‘We normally apply TiMax in theatrical applications where it allows us to manage sound effects, object-based spatial panning and system processing,’ says Yue. ‘The S-Version allows us to trigger events programmed against individual cue timelines.
‘Ultimately, this was more theatrical than theme park,’ he adds. ‘A strictly theme park control system would not have been right for this application.’
