Tomorrowland gets hyperreal with L-ISA
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L-Acoustics has collaborated with the festival alongside Noizboyz, designers of Tomorrowland audio systems, since 2011. This year was no different, with over 600 L-Acoustics cabinets supplied by Phlippo Productions deployed on six stages, including the massive 115m wide Story of Planaxis Main Stage, across the vast festival site.
With the Atmosphere Stage, We Are One World set out to elevate the concert experience with a festival tent stage like no other. Recognising the impact of L-ISA in creating powerful shared connections between artists and audiences, Tomorrowland worked with L-Acoustics and Noizboyz to make it a reality.
“When discussions began about creating an L-ISA area at The festival,” says Noizboyz Pieter Doms, “we were instantly excited to explore this cutting-edge technology with them, to learn new techniques and new ways of experiencing music.”
Atmosphere was housed in a huge, 32m high tent suspended from a gigantic, custom-built crane. With an all-star line-up, a ceiling glittering with thousands of lights, a 2km long video net containing 120,000 LEDs stretched around its circumference, and a mammoth 20.1 L-ISA design, Tomorrowland was about to deliver a full-on, mind-blowing, 360-degree dance experience.
To accommodate the production team’s wish for the LED wall to be the visual focal point of the Atmosphere Stage, the L-ISA configuration comprised 18 arrays of four Kara each, stacked on a truss above the screen and filling 270 degrees of a carefully configured circle. An additional flown system of eight K1 per side, plus 24 KS28 subs completed the 360° panorama and provided the full on, low-end kick that is the hallmark of EDM.
This highly flexible and modular configuration allowed for delivery of both conventional stereo and immersive content. The K1 system provided left/right delivery with L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound adding extra detail, dynamics and effects to the mix. Multichannel content was specifically created for the L-ISA system by Jelle Neijs and Bart Revier of 3AM Media for Dutch company Q-Dance, who have hosted stages at Tomorrowland since 2005.
“This content took full advantage of the L-ISA 20.1 surround system,” explains Sherif El Barbari, director of L-ISA Labs. “Further effects were achieved in real time by Thomas van Hoepen from Noizboyz, using Q-LAB OSC capabilities to fire cues from the built-in L-ISA Snapshot engine for automated dynamic positioning and panning.”
"We create a lot of custom music for festivals to expand the experience of the visitors,” says Revier. “We felt like kids in an undiscovered world with endless possibilities when we created the custom-made audio for L-ISA at the Atmosphere Stage. The collaboration with L-ISA takes the Tomorrowland experience a step further; together with L-Acoustics we discovered new ways to give the visitors a sound experience they’ve never heard before."
(Jim Evans)
