The Band’s Visit opened premiered at the Barrymore Theatre on Broadway to tell the story of the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra’s arrival in Israel for the opening of an Arab Cultural Centre – only to find out that they have boarded the wrong bus to the wrong town. Part of the musical’s success is Kai Harada’s sound design and use of Astro Spatial Audio’s immersive, three dimensional audio.
‘I have known [Astro Spatial Audio Director] Bjorn van Munster for a number of years, and although I had heard about the system, it was only last year that I saw and heard a demo of the system in California,’ Harada recounts. ‘A few years ago, I had used a competitor’s system on a Broadway show that required precise localisation, and then last year I found myself designing The Band’s Visit, which would require the same precision, and I thought it would be a perfect chance to try the Astro Spatial Audio system.’
The heart of the Astro Spatial Audio (ASA) systems is the conversion of audio signals into audio objects. ASA’s Sara II Premium Rendering Engine uses metadata attached to each audio object, allowing that object’s position within virtual 3D space and its effect acoustic effect on the virtual space around it to be calculated.
‘In The Band’s Visit, several musicians play their instruments in a variety of locations on the stage, and it was incredibly important to me to preserve a transparent sound system design – in my opinion, the more we attracted attention to the sound system, the less the audience would connect with the actors and the story on stage, so natural-sounding reinforcement was the goal.’
Harada’s associate, Josh Millican, drafted all the speaker positions in CAD, and when it was time to commission the system in Sara II the measurements were verified and the values simply entered: ‘ASA allowed us to precisely place the instrument source as an audio object within a graphical interface, while it did all the calculations to make it sound correct. Changes to staging were easily accommodated. In addition, having used other acoustic enhancement systems on other shows, I was eager to try the ASA room enhancement to give the illusion that the theatre was a larger acoustic space for some key moments in the show.
‘Also, there were a number of very localised sound effects – coming from a prop radio, or a jukebox, or a baby – and although we had many wireless loudspeaker systems to play with, we used Sara II to reinforce the localisation through the main PA: the initial waveform comes from the practical loudspeaker, but Sara II ensures that the sound is localised correctly for all audience members.’
All the stage band and practical sound effects inputs were routed, post-fader, from a Studer Vista 5 console into Sara II, where they were represented as audio objects; the Studer fired Midid changes to QLab, which in turn fired OSC commands to Sara II to move between snapshots. Sara II’s outputs were routed back into the console and routed to the appropriate loudspeaker systems, which were then processed using Meyer Galileo units. The system had to function first as a traditional reinforcement system, and secondarily integrate all of Sara II’s power.
The production is configured with 162 mono inputs and 24 stereo inputs for the 15 performers and four musicians that play in a purpose-built room under the stage, the five additional stage musicians (who also play in the room when they are not on stage) – totalling 68 band inputs, 26 playback (QLab) inputs, 36 Sara II returns into the console, and a host of reverb returns and utility channels. The loudspeakers used are from Meyer Sound (M1D, LINA, UPJ-1P, UPJr, UPQ-1P, MM4, UPM-1P, UMS-1P, UPA-2P) with d&b audiotechnik E5s as surrounds.
‘The ASA system is not tied to any one loudspeaker brand,’ explains Van Munster. ‘We believe it is in the best interests of the market that Astro Spatial Audio remains brand independent. Users should benefit from object-based immersive audio regardless of which loudspeaker they invest in. Similarly, we support a range of protocols, including Madi and Dante, and we intend to continue working closely with our good friends in the industry to bring our technology to as many people as possible, and to create incredible experiences for audiences everywhere.’
While automation is a key feature of the ASA immersive solution, the system is equally focused on allowing the audio operator limitless creativity in a live environment.
‘The show is mixed manually,’ says Harada. ‘My operator, Liz Coleman, mixes every word, line by line, and helps augment the dynamics of both the stage musicians and the musicians in the trap room. The console’s automation helps out by grouping inputs in logical ways, but Liz is very much performing along with the musicians. Nothing is on time code on our end; sound effects are triggered manually by Liz, sometimes based on a visual cue, sometimes on a musical cue. All commands to the Sara II system are also triggered by Liz.
‘The goal was not merely an immersive audio experience,’ he adds, ‘the goal was a transparent audio experience, and I think we were very successful. Many people have commented about the quality of the audio on the show, and I am quite proud of it. I believe we have achieved our goal of creating an intimate, organic-sounding show, but still delivering dynamics when appropriate. The story is so human and conversational that we needed to preserve that feeling, but ensure that everyone in the audience had a very good aural experience.
‘The localisation algorithms helped create a very natural sounding reinforcement system also for the musicians onstage. I did appreciate the room acoustic enhancement feature as well, although I chose to use it sparingly and subtlely, and only when dramatically appropriate for the piece. Most theatres I get to work in already have an acoustic – some of them, like at the Barrymore Theatre, are quite nice, so it was never my intent to fight the acoustic, just to augment it.
‘It is quick to set up and commission the system, which is very important in an industry where time is very, very expensive. Having what are essentially two separate features: object-oriented audio and acoustic enhancement in one box is a great boon. Not having to manually calculate delay times to a given reference point was also a huge time-saver – just entering the x, y, z coordinates of the loudspeakers got us very close to having a functioning system in a short amount of time, and then we could spend the rest of the time listening and adjusting.
‘Without the functionality of the ASA system, the sound of the The Band’s Visit would have remained two-dimensional. I’m extremely pleased with the results. I am eager to find another show that would lend itself to using Astro Spatial Audio.’
He acknowledges the support received throughout the project from the Astro Spatial Audio team, led by van Munster, who says that 2018 is ‘proving to be a very significant year for ASA in the theatrical environment, and the success of The Band’s Visit is a very proud moment for us all. We only just begun to demonstrate the extraordinary potential of true object-based audio. There is much more to come.’
More: www.astroaudio.eu
