Commissioned by Arjun Bahl of Most Technical India who were the specialist media suppliers for the event, sound design was by Out Board's Dave Haydon and involved multiple surround zones running parallel 3D surround and dynamic delay-panning effects simultaneously for the performance stage, audience seating plus lounge areas and then later for the dance floor.
A separate surround system ran a continuously looping ethereal soundscape generated by TiMax as an accompaniment to the candelabras, chandeliers, mirrors and dry ice that greeted guests as they passed through the custom-built venue's 25m long entrance tunnel.
Montreal-based Cirque Eloize, half-owned by Cirque Du Soleil, shipped in more than 30 performers and crew to stage a spectacular show of aerial acts, illusionists contortionists and acrobats. TiMax helped enhance the action by taking the artistes' music and effects playback content and swelling it into wide surround images to build tension and also performing subtle stereo spinning effects in time with the acrobatics.
Similar sonic moves were employed for the DJ sets but using separately programmed dynamic panning Cues which focused the audio animation onto the dance floor, with parallel effects also being played over the adjacent lounge areas. Dave Haydon worked closely with Immersive's Martin Harvey and Ralph Lambert to synchronise specific audio pan moves with their live-mixed video content and effects being projected on a huge 9mx3m cylindrical screen suspended over the dance floor.
A total of 32 EAW JFL 210 compact line array cabinets were deployed, three on each corner of the dance floor, two hangs of four as the main arena PA, plus pairs of cabinets doing the rear-stage lounge area and four separate surround clusters hidden in the walls. Eight JBL Vertec subs were distributed around the stage and dance floor, matrixed independently for the Cirque show and the DJ sets.
Eight small EAW fill-speakers and a pair of compact subs handled the tunnel soundscape. System engineer Samir Kripliani from Room Tone managed all playback and mic sources via a Digico SD8 which fed the distributed PA via a TiMax2 SoundHub-S16 programmed and operated on site by Dave Haydon. TiMax also provided system eq and zone level control for PA, foldback, dance floor, surrounds and tunnel systems.
(Jim Evans)
