UK - It is a year since Lightroom, a performance space in the heart of London’s King’s Cross, opened its doors. The Moonwalkers is the latest experience at the London venue, following the successful David Hockney show, Bigger and Closer (not smaller and further away).
In this experience, The Holoplot X1 Matrix Array helps to transport audiences ‘out of this world’, showcasing the impact of its powerful software toolset on the creative workflow and audio quality.
This new production is narrated and co-written by Tom Hanks and includes original NASA audio. The score is composed by Anne Nitkin and was recorded at Abbey Road Studios with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Tom Hanks said in a recent interview, “There’s 1,000s of speakers here, and when the music begins, it’s not coming from a particular source, it’s coming from everywhere around you. And that too, ends up being this one-of-a-kind physical experience that very quickly becomes an emotional experience.”
Sound designer Tom Hackley enthused about using Lightroom’s Holoplot X1 system, creating a truly immersive experience for the audience. X1 in Lightroom is permanently installed and completely invisible, blending into the existing infrastructure of the building. “If this were a point source system, you would physically have to move the speakers,” Hackley says.
“It would take much more time and you could be fighting for space to hang them. With the Holoplot systems, everything is done in the software, it’s instant and once rehearsals started, it was a huge help to brainstorm when Tom [Hanks] wanted to try out ideas in the space.
“When I first got involved with Lightroom I had thought, 'please don't make me use a system that I've never experienced’. I was also concerned that we wouldn't be able to deliver the same experience to every position in the room, that there would have to be compromises. But actually, you hear everything everywhere. It wasn’t long before I was thinking, ‘thank goodness we’ve got Holoplot, because I couldn’t have done it with anything else’.”
Hackley discovered benefits, not only in the dynamic capabilities of the system, but also the creative possibilities. “X1 is hugely impressive, both in terms of volume and definition,” he says. “We go from a rocket taking off, the loudest sound known to man, to a complete lack of sound in the silence of deep space. The frequencies X1 has to deal with are vast; there’s infrasound, not only when the rocket takes off, but when we have boots on the moon, and then you add the symphony of the orchestra playing at the same time; it’s gigantic and dynamic.”
The 3D Audio-Beamforming technology employed by Holoplot allows sound designers much more control over the sound and the freedom to experiment, as Hackley found. “I can move sound within the space, but also send sound back beyond it,” he explains. “You aren’t only putting the audience within the sound, you've got the facility to push sound beyond the audience, which feels kind of alien. I haven't experienced that dramatic effect in other systems, especially when it comes to audio image placement, and we would never have been able to do some of the spot effects with traditional line array or point source boxes.”
The Moonwalkers is destined for more venues. Lightroom’s creators, 59 Productions, has recently opened a new Lightroom in Seoul, South Korea, and there are plans for more. “We’ve already been out to prepare the show for Seoul,” Hackley says. “The interior of the venue is very similar to London, but it’s purpose built so we have more positions for speakers and there have been some additions.”
Read LSi’s coverage of The Moonwalkers in the April 2024 edition.
