Located in the south of Antwerp, Studio Zuid theatre has transformed its ability to entertain with TiMax SoundHub-S64 spatial processing. The venue’s amphitheatre-like auditorium hosts a wide variety of musical dining experiences, the first of which was an immersive production of The Bodyguard, made famous by the Whitney Houston film and its award-winning soundtrack.
Sound designer and venue audio director Erik Loots had a bold vision for the type of production the venue needed and the level of audio flexibility he wanted for shows: ‘I needed TiMax because of its capability to deal with both channel-based and object-based audio," he explains. ‘I have long been a fan of TiMax and its flexibility and, as this show was entirely mixed in immersive, TiMax was theperfect for the job.’
TiMax provides the core immersive engine for Studio Zuid’s diverse production programme and facilitates the spatial mixing of all multichannel playback and localisation of live vocals at the venue. Show content for The Bodyguard includes music tracks recorded in immersive format at Galaxy Studios by Wilfried Van Baelen, where the ‘phenomenal acoustics’ of the Galaxy Hall add to the different reverbs recorded in Auro3D format.
It was the versatility of TiMax with its adaptive spatial rendering that made it the right choice for the specific immersive challenges of the venue. The 550-capacity dining experience was laid out to closely follow the contours of the semi-circular stage, so the ability of TiMax to work effectively with a minimal speaker configuration of virtually any brand and type was key. With limited tech and rehearsal time available, the TiMax workflow was central to the achievement of rapid fine-tuning and seamless blending of all stage, surround and overhead elements in Loots’ desired immersive hybrid.
Accommodating the wide audience area are three identical arrays of eight Coda N-ray speakers. The left and right hangs also feature subbass support of three flown N-ray subs in a reverse cardioid configuration, splayed 45° out, and there are also six N-ray cabinets for out fill.
In fill is provided by four stacked Coda G712 left and right while hidden in the front of the stage were eight Coda HOPS8 front fill supported by a further three flown G712s also configured LCR.
Mixing the show at FOH was Thomas Coene handling an SD7 Quantum desk through which the live vocals were combined with music playback from a redundant 128-channel Cubase system. A 64-channel redundant Qlab system was also handling sound-effect playback using Midi commands to recall scenes and snapshots on TiMax and the mixing console. A Waves Multi-Rack plug-in system was used for reverb, EQ and compression.
The challenging audio set up was greatly simplified by the unique TiMax platform structure and workflow. As Loots explains: ‘Being able to manually change the level and delay matrix between inputs and outputs, which allowed me to manipulate set image definitions on the fly and to dial in custom settings for the channel-based aspect of the show was a lifesaver, especially because of the very limited production and rehearsal time we had.
Compared to a standard LCR mix, Loots reports that the ‘difference in experience with the immersive mix using TiMax was enormous’.
