Arcadia Earth presents an assortment of environments represented in the art installation’s 15 rooms in Manhattan’s NoHo district, ranging from the depths of the sea to the tops of glaciers, with audio riding on a networked backbone with components from Focusrite’s RedNet range of Dante-networked audio converters and interfaces.
The score and ambient sound was created by Dave Hodge of Finger Music, with specific music and sound design for each of the rooms, which in total covers 13,000 square feet over two floors. Audio is riding on a networked backbone with components from Focusrite’s RedNet range of Dante-networked audio converters and interfaces — specifically, four RedNet A16R 16-channel analog I/O interfaces.
“We couldn’t have accomplished this without RedNet,” says Hodge, who also serves as creative director and partner at Finger Music. “We have two channels of full-range audio per room, played through either two or four speakers per space. There’s another 32 channels of ambient sound that plays throughout the entire installation on tiny speakers embedded in the walls, holding it together with a kind of audio backdrop. All of that is being distributed from Ableton Live, using Dante Virtual Soundcard and a total of four A16Rs, which is performing flawlessly, and which sounds fantastic.”
Bond Applied Technology served as installation partner, assisting with the wiring and other technical aspects of the job. “The sound for each room is very specific, but we also knew that there would be some bleed between rooms, especially because of the subwoofers,” explains Hodge. “Our install partner Bond Applied Technology and I did the mix for it in stages, as we walked through the installation controlling the Ableton Live mix on an iPad, getting it just right for each room and in between.
“After that, the RedNet system brings it to each space and really connects it all together,” he concludes. “It’s a complicated installation in an unusual location and the sound has to be just right in each space. RedNet has the capacity and the quality that let us achieve that.”
