Silent Disco King and Cineramageddon came together in silence for the debut screening of Ibiza, The Silent Movie at the 2019 Glastonbury Festival.
Cineramageddon is curated by film director Julien Temple and returned to Glastonbury this year for a second time after debuting in 2017. The area has the UK’s largest outdoor cinema screen and includes 60 vehicles including Mad Max style cars, classic cars, fairground bumper cars and convertibles dug into the ground that festival-goers can rent out to watch an array of cult classic movies.
Ibiza, The Silent Movie – directed by Julien Temple with music curated by Fatboy Slim – was recorded in 7.1 Surround. The film is an exploration of the hedonistic history of the Ibiza island and was introduced by Glastonbury co-creator Michael Eavis, Julien Temple and Fatboy Slim to 2,600 attendees who enjoyed the two-hour-long film on Silent Disco King headphones, followed by a live 45-minute DJ set from Fatboy Slim.
Cineramageddon was passionate about attendees experiencing the movie in its surround format, however,noise limitations on the cinema site meant that all audio had to be played via headphones rather than a conventional cinema sound system. As a result, the technical brief for the silent cinema was far more demanding than the first year. HD Pro Audio approached Silent Disco King with a mutual solution.
The Silent Disco King headphones were used in conjunction with aImmersive Audio Processor, Midas M32 mixing console, Shure wireless microphone systems, and Dante routing. These technologies allowed the film and DJ set to be delivered in 3D binaural audio, creating the effect of motion within the headphones.
Cineramageddon sound engineer Dan Morgan was responsible for the multi-disciplinary nature of the tech and realising the vision of the activation: ‘Considering the complexity, bandwidth and spatial dimension of the final product leaving the technical area, the Silent Disco King transmission not only worked faultlessly but actually translated the result highly effectively, providing a really enhanced listening experience,’ he says. ‘During and after the live set, I was able to continue to enhance the listening experience through spatial manipulation and the response from the crowd was fantastic. A great night was had by all with good critical acclaim for the film and Norman’s performance.’
In the run up to the festival, Silent Disco King worked with Glastonbury technical teams and attended the Silver Hayes Management meeting. They also had a team of experts on site including: Director Paul Gillies, Event Manager, Joe Garfath, Account Manager, Elliot Bedford and a team of 18 staff in the headphone deposit cabin to ensure the smooth running of the activities.
Due to the success of the first night of Cineramageddon, Dan Morgan left the immersive audio element in the set-up for the remainder of the festival, setting audio individually for each film.
‘The SDK kit continued to perform without fault for the whole festival and translated the immersive and spatial elements very well allowing crowds to benefit and enjoy an intense and memorable experience,’ Morgan says.
