Leonardo Da Vinci’s art and inventions are being presented at the Tsawwassen Mills Shopping mall, located just outside of Vancouver, British Columbia, in a 360-degree production that is enhanced with an immersive audio design by the Vancouver office of Sapphire Sound that utilizes d&b audiotechnik xS-Series loudspeakers.
The show, entitled “The Da Vinci Experience & his Incredible Machines,” transports visitors to Da Vinci’s workshop to present his art, music, 10-plus machines, and more. Originating in Florence and produced by Italy’s Crossmedia Group, the exhibition has been seen by over 3 million people worldwide and is presented exclusively in Canada by Sensea Immersive of Vancouver.
“This is a unique, small project,” explains Mick Kelly, VP of Sensea Immersive Canada. “With the exhibition being presented in the middle of a shopping mall and having 22-foot ceilings, the project had to maintain audio impact and quality without affecting the other tenants of the mall. We brought in BKL Consultants (Burnaby, BC) to do an acoustical review of our facility prior to installation of the sound equipment to give us guidance on techniques we could use to mitigate sound transference. I will say that the measures we took as well as the excellent work by Steve Klassen of Sapphire Sound and d&b’s great products have meant zero issues.”
Specifically, there are three rows of four d&b 5S loudspeakers suspended from the ceiling joists in the immersive room, routed in a left/right/.eft configuration that supplies sonic stereo imaging as guests walk through the experience. “The flexibility of the M8 mounting holes on the 5S speakers allowed our team to suspend them using Uni-strut and beam clamps to the open Wilson trusses,” notes Steve Klassen of Sapphire Sound. “The audio design allowed for excellent audio coverage throughout the room without needing to hang obtrusive pendant speakers further into the room. The goal was for us to have balanced audio coverage for the immersive room from a very small speaker. We used ArrayCalc to confirm design principals, coverage, and placement.
“We needed to keep the speakers as tight to the ceiling as possible to ensure that they would not be interfering with the 360-degree projected images,” Klassen continues. “The system configuration includes 12 5S loudspeakers and two Bi8-SUBs on a single 10D amplifier. The small footprint and sonic characteristics of the 5S made it the obvious choice for this project.”
The xS-Series is available variety of sizes, output power, dispersion patterns, custom colors and weather resistant options to better meet the exact demands of specific installations, while the complementary Bi8-SUB are designed to supply high sound pressure levels while maintaining a low profile and offering various mounting options.
“We work a lot with d&b so were familiar with what we were getting into,” says Klassen. “We were thankful that d&b was able to fulfill the project in short order. Currently most of the AV world seems to be on backorder due to global chip shortages and shipping delays. d&b worked alongside our team to make sure the product was available when we needed it.”
