L-ISA brings clarity to Singapore Festival concert
- Details
The Singapore Chinese Orchestra, together with the Tuyang Initiative, a Sarawak-based creative agency that focuses on the cultural heritage of indigenous Borneans, opened the festival with their performance of Mepaan. In the language of the Kayan peoples of Borneo, mepaan means ‘always’ and the performance was a sonic and visual voyage through the spiritual and cultural nuances of the Kayan. Backed by an orchestral score, the 75-minute performance was directed by SIFA Festival Director Natalie Hennedige and featured song and dance by lead performers Adrian Jo Milang and Mathew Ngau Jau from the Tuyang Initiative.
Staged in the decommissioned Pasir Panjang Power Station, a cavernous industrial space built in steel and concrete, the show brought together costume designers, photographers, filmmakers, set, lighting, and sound designers, as well as multimedia artists to transport audiences into the pristine rainforests of Southeast Asia.
SIFA appointed Jeffrey Yue of Ctrl Fre@k to design and manage the audio system. Ctrl Fre@k is no stranger to the festival, having designed sound for the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s performance at the Singapore Botanic Gardens and for Ryuichi Sakamoto’s intimate Fragments concert at the Esplanade Theatres.
“When designing the audio system, I knew that the space’s 30-metre high ceilings and floor-to-ceiling metallic pillars would generate heavy sound reflections throughout the cavernous power station,” says Yue. The experienced sound and system designer knew that achieving a high degree of intelligibility and faithful reinforcement of the orchestra would be an immense challenge. The absence of acoustical treatment in the space and the audible fan noise of an air conditioning system added to the challenge.
Yue had attended hands-on L-ISA sound workshops at Concept Systems Technologies L-ISA Auditorium in Singapore led by Chung Wah Khiew, L-Acoustics Application Project Engineer for APAC. Yue knew of the advantages of object-based mixing to achieve clear, natural sound, so he turned to Khiew for advice on deploying L-ISA technology for the Mepaan performance. “Khiew and I were sure that object-based mixing and localisation would enhance the lush orchestral sound in the venue,” continues Yue.
The duo landed on a design based on L-Acoustics A Series to achieve precise horizontal and vertical coverage that would bathe the audience in sound while avoiding the venue’s bare concrete and steel skeleton.
Five hangs of two A Series - one A15i Focus and one A15i Wide each - were hung at the height of 6m to ensure the precise coverage of the audience seating area only. Two SB28 subwoofers were deployed in cardioid mode to minimise low-frequency interference on the stage, where a total of 56 microphones were used to capture the various instruments of the Chinese orchestra. L-Acoustics X12 and X8 coaxial enclosures were used for onstage monitoring. The whole system was driven by LA8 and LA4X simplified controllers.
Their calculation proved effective for the application, with 94.7% of the seated audience falling inside the L-ISA zone of immersive coverage.
The performance was mixed using the L-ISA Controller natively integrated into a DigiCo SD5, backed by an L-ISA Processor, before output via L-Acoustics amplified controllers to the main scene system.
