The surround sound installation in this exhibition provided a great immersive sound experience for many audiences. From talking to the audience, I found that there was a high level of interest in the sound installation and how it should be set up, so I would like to explain the idea of the sound installation and how it was set up in the exhibition.
For the sound installation in the exhibition, I initially set two plans, and I think the best sound installation plan would be the one I mentioned in my previous blog, Plan A. Firstly, the digital mixer DiGiCo SD11 and DiGiCo UB MADI Audio Interface would reduce unnecessary cables for the connection between our audio equipment and the audio channels. Secondly, the digital mixer would provide us with the greatest convenience in solving the gain level of the live sound without worrying about overloading live sounds and other unnecessary problems; finally, the digital mixer could provide some internal digital effects for live sound adjustment or live presentation to provide more options for the sounds of our project. Therefore, we learned about the SD11 in the early planning stages. Of course, the use of digital mixer in a live setting without the addition of a spare digital mixer confirms that there may be a certain risk to live presentation. Unfortunately, I was unable to use the digital mixer on the day of our presentation for a variety of reasons, which I felt slightly upset.
In sound installation setup Plan B, we replaced the digital mixer with an analogue console, the MIDAS Venice F, and changed the sound interface from a MADI sound card to an RME FireFace UCX. To some extent, this would reduce the efficiency of the live sound installation setup. However, this plan may be more reliable than Plan A, and may be slightly less rich in internal features than Plan A. This would mean that other members of the sound team may need to do more post-production work when designing the sound to ensure that the live sound could be perfect for the audience. Ultimately, Plan B could not be realised for a variety of reasons.
Our final solution in the live setting is to have the computer demonstrating the sound directly connected to a sound interface with ten output signals for live sound reinforcement. In the live test phase, we mainly did the following settings in terms of speakers connected to the sound interface, the front left speaker connected to the first channel of the sound interface output, the front right speaker connected to the second channel of the sound interface output, the front centre speaker connected to the third channel of the sound interface output, the left speaker connected to the fourth channel of the sound interface output, the right speaker connected to the fifth channel of the sound interface output, the rear left speaker connected to the sound interface output sixth channel, the rear right channel speakers connected to the sound interface output seventh channel, the front subwoofer connected to the sound interface output eighth channel. The live sound control was primarily controlled by the computer demonstrating the sound. During the live test phase, we also set a standard setting on the level of all the speakers and tested all the channels to see if the sound went smoothly. This plan would require relatively more audio cables as far as Plan A was concerned.
For this exhibition, all the audio equipments we needed for the live presentation was booked a week in advance in the Music Store, but due to the large number of DMSP Groups that needed to exhibit at the same period, there were many problems in booking the equipment, such as not having enough 8030 speakers to replace the 1030A speakers or not having enough speaker stands etc. Fortunately, all the problems were eventually solved.
I worked more on setting up and assembling the sound installation, so at other times I recorded the work of the other team members, taking photos and videos, and produced two clips as a trailer and a summary of the project, which I have shared with the group for their use and reference.
DMSP Place Group Trailer
DMSP Place Group Exhibition
If you’re reading this in order, please proceed to the next post: ‘Usability in the Exhibition’.
